It seems that the Israeli Intelligence and military establishment were taken by surprise by Hamas’s attack at the weekend. However, it was only the result of a serious escalation of violent suppression of the Palestinians promoted by Netanyahu.
Lee Camp has put forward the theory that, as this is the most surveilled population in the world, they knew what was coming and allowed it anyway. The reason being to allow them the opportunity to go after Hamas and not be condemned by the international community for unleashing brutality on the Palestinian population.
This view is supported by Phil Giraldi, a former intelligence officer, who said;
[They] Chose to let it happen so they can wipe Gaza off the map in retaliation and, possibly relying on the US pledge to have Israel's "back," then implicating Iran and attacking that country...I find it impossible to believe that Israel did not have multiple informants inside Gaza as well as electronic listening devices all along the border wall which would have picked up movements of groups and vehicles. In other words, the whole thing might be a tissue of lies as is often the case. And as is also ALWAYS the case Joe Biden is preparing to send some billions of dollars to poor little Israel to pay for “defending” itself.
Even the BBC commented that it is “frankly astounding that nobody saw this attack” coming.
Netanyahu is leading the most right-wing reactionary government in Israel’s history.
Thousands of missiles were launched by Hamas, with dozens breaking through Israelis ‘Iron Dome’. At the same time hundreds of Hamas fighters forced their way through the most heavily guarded border fence in the world to assail border towns and military bases on Israeli soil. This has resulted in very heavy casualties. The scale of the attack has been unprecedented.
In the first 24 hours 22 targets were taken over by Palestinians commanders. Dozens of both Israeli soldiers and civilians have been taken as hostages to Gaza. This has allegedly included Nimrod Aloni, a major-general of the IDF. Hamas fighters have destroyed tanks and other military equipment, and seized military vehicles.
The city of Ashkelon, north of Gaza, has been set on fire after Hamas warned the civilian population to leave.
Being apparently caught napping like this has infuriated the Israelis. It soon became apparent that the response was going to be “biblical”. A “State of War” has been declared by Netanyahu. Immediately bombings killed 300 Palestinians and injured over 1,500.
The war plan is to cut electricity, fuel, water, food and humanitarian supplies to the Gaza strip. This will undermine the already frail infrastructure. Commentators have argued that this approach is tantamount to genocide with a desired outcome to eliminate the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The strip of land that they are allowed to eek out a living in.
The Western press and leaders are apoplectic over the attack. Yet it is always worth bearing in mind that one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.
It is impossible to view this attack without the context in which this takes place. Tensions have been rising throughout the year. The encroachment on land occupied by the Palestinian people has been going on for decades.
Under Netanyahu’s watch violence by far-right Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem against Palestinian neighbourhoods have escalated exponentially, encouraged by guaranteed impunity and the open or covert complicity of the Israeli security forces.
Efforts by Palestinian youth to resist the occupation have been met with disproportionate and systematic deadly violence by the IDF, with an endless string of attacks and targeted assassinations, culminating in the brutal onslaught against the Jenin refugee camp in July.
How many thousands of Palestinian youth, many of them children, have been arrested and are languishing in prison without a trial. Over 200 Palestinians had been killed this year alone.
Internally politically Israel has been increasingly divided this year. This has led Netanyahu, in order to shore up his position, lending support to the Jewish supremacist, extreme right wing of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, to come out of the woodwork and rise to positions of power within the Israeli state.
It is worth driving home the point that their political position is to provoke a “new Nakba” (emulating the massive ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population that led to the proclamation of Israel in 1948), by annexing the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza and driving out the whole of the Palestinian population.
This policy is being inflicted against a beleaguered population. You cannot continue to deny a whole people its basic democratic rights, squeeze and oppress them, take more and more of their land and houses, shoot at them, arrest them, torture them, render them poorer and poorer, without sooner or later provoking an almighty backlash.
In 2018 the Palestinian people attempted peaceful protests called the “March of Great Return”. They were met with great violence by the Israelis, who opened fire, targeting medical personnel, journalists and people with disabilities.
In 2008-09, under Operation Cast Lead, Israel killed 1,391 Palestinians, including 318 minors, destroying more than 3,500 homes, leaving tens of thousands without shelter, and wreaked havoc upon other structures and key infrastructure facilities in Gaza.
In 2014, under Operation Protective Edge, Israel killed 2,203 Palestinians, 1,372 of whom did not participate in the hostilities, including 528 minors, and destroyed or severely damaged more than 18,000 homes, leaving more than 100,000 Palestinians homeless
The storming of the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem last week by a mob of hundreds of Jewish supremacists, whose declared aim is to raze the mosque and replace it with a Jewish Temple, was a conscious provocation. The Al-Aqsa mosque is considered the third-holiest religious site in Islam, and therefore to have extreme supremacist Zionists taking it over is an open affront.
These are not two equal forces.
On one side is a powerful imperialist state with the complete backing of the Western powers. On the other is a tremendously poor, downtrodden people who are living under conditions of occupation. Gaza has been described as the largest concentration camp ever to exist. For most of the population this is all they have ever known.
Israel’s defenders seek to defend it’s oppressive actions under the guise of “self-defence”. They quote the Bible: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life.” But it is never a question of a life for a life. The Israelis respond to the death of one of their citizens by the slaughter of hundreds of Palestinians.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are amassing tens of thousands of troops around the Gaza border as they prepare to invade. The Israeli defence minister, in a call for genocide, has said;
We’ve taken control of the situation and are moving onto a full scale offensive. I've given instructions to lift all restrictions in the fight against Hamas...Those who came to behead, kill women, kill those who survived the Holocaust; we will destroy them all. We will destroy them with all our might and without pity. We will make sure that was in Gaza no longer exists.
The Israeli Energy Minister has said;
Before these days, we supplied the Gaza Strip with 54,000 cubic metres of water and 2,700 megawatts of electricity per day. Now this is not the case. They will have enough fuel for generators for a few more days, and in a week without electricity the sewage system will completely stop working.
The Israeli Minister of Defence Representative;
There will be no buildings in the new Gaza, only tents.
Israeli Defence Minister;
We have abolished all the rules of war. Our soldiers will not be held responsible for anything.
The West are giving Israel blanket support for it’s actions.
The Israeli’s are also looking to the border of Lebanon and the possible actions of Hezbollah. After killing four members of Hezbollah, they retaliated by killing two Israeli soldiers on the border and destroyed a tank. There are reports of Israeli air force flying over Beirut. They’ve also launched incendiary bombs into Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah have fired missiles at the Kfar Aza kibbutz. However, reportedly, Hezbollah possess long range missiles that can fire into Tel Aviv itself.
Then there is Iran.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis CREDIT: Ronen Tivony/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
There is a very real danger that this could spill into a wider conflict in the Middle East.
History has shown how in Israel’s disastrous invasion of Gaza in 2014 it proved the impossibility of suppressing and subduing more than two million people for long with purely military means.
