The Palestinian surprise attack was a well-orchestrated operation, and may well kick off a multi-front war on Israel. From Hasan Illaik at thecradle.co:
Whether this becomes a regional war or not depends entirely on Israel’s willingness to make unprecedented concessions.
West Asia may be headed toward a large-scale war that will extend well beyond the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, now mired in violent conflict.
“Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” carried out by Hamas at dawn on 7 October, has already led to the killing of hundreds of Israeli soldiers and settlers, the capture of about 200 of them, and the destruction of Israel’s lauded deterrence.
Whether the war will bleed into multiple borders and arenas now depends entirely on what Israel does or does not do in the days and weeks ahead. Predictably, Tel Aviv – with the US and EU standing firmly behind it – has begun by launching a military operation in the Gaza Strip to eliminate the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) resistance movements.
After a round of consultations held with a number of western heads of state – led by US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in statements that his western allies have granted Israel full freedom to eliminate the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
In a flurry of Instagram-worthy gimmicks, western capitals have already begun beating the drums of war – from lighting the Eiffel Tower in Paris with the colors of the Israeli flag to raising it at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels.
