The devastating attack of Hamas on Israel and the counter Israeli attack has opened a new front of war. The element of shock and surprise in this attack on Israel is simply astonishing. It has busted the myth of invincibility woven around Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The world was already facing the heat of the Russia Ukraine conflict and lo and behold , this new catastrophic war reared its head from nowhere. The hostility between Israel and Hamas is very old, but nobody expected it to break out at this point of time.
There are many players involved in the Israel Palestine relationship which has been a hotbed of conflict and bloodbath since the formation of Israel in 1948. The most important are America led NATO, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Turkey, Russia, China and militant outfits like Hamas and Hizbollah and their cover organisation Palestine Liberation Organisation. On the one hand is a tiny Jewish state Israel for whom it is a promised land. On the other are the Arabs fighting for their holyland. Jerusalem is a holy place for the Jews, Christians and Muslims. Jews have the support of powerful Christian states and the Islamic world largely supports the Arabs.
There was a delicate and fragile balance between the two rivals. America wanted to strengthen the position of Israel by bringing it closer to Saudi Arabia. Of late, China has started poking its nose in the whole issue and it was trying to broker a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In these ventures, Russia is on the same page with China. It is a common knowledge that Hamas is supported by Iran in every possible way. America and Iran have been at loggerheads for the last few years and Hamas has emerged as a strategic nuisance for America. The immediate cause that triggered the whole situation is the defiling of the holy Al Aqsa mosque by Israeli forces in the month of April this year.
In the given conditions, it would be premature to jump to any conclusion. However, the intelligence failure on the part of Israel appears to be doubtful. Hamas fired about five thousand rockets on Israel within a span of twenty minutes. The stockpiling of rockets must have taken a very long time and firing them in a short time with such precision speaks of deft planning. It is hard to believe that Mossad and other western intelligence agencies would fail so miserably that they could not sniff such a blitzkrieg. Then, why did it happen or why was it allowed to happen? It might be that they did not expect such an intense attack and allowed it to happen as they needed some solid provocation to thoroughly change the equation on the ground in the region.
Netanyahu declared that Israel was at war and it would inflict a crushing defeat on Hamas and realise an unprecedented cost from them. The Israeli response to any such attack has always been very intense and disproportionate and this time it would be astonishing. It appears that the war against Hamas would change the geography of Israel and Palestine. It would have far reaching consequences for the whole world. It would be a daunting political and diplomatic responsibility of the leaders of the world to keep the war localised.
Netanyahu is a strong leader and is capable of leading Israel at this critical juncture of its history when it is fighting for its existence.
