The October Seventh Massacre made more hostages than the 228 prisoners captured by Hamas and dragged into Gaza. In a very real sense, 10/7/2023's bloodletting was designed to turn most of the millions of the people already in Gaza on 10/6 into hostages. Everyone who lived in the Strip was already under threat from Hamas. Hamas is what they call themselves. They are a group of Iranian influenced militia/governing body who pretend to be Sunni and rule the outdoor prison know as the Gaza Strip. Being fanatics, there are those among them willing to be suicidal. Being evil, their leaders are willing to indulge in mass murder and kidnapping just to make their enemies weaker by causing the IDF to also commit mass murder of innocents. In this way, Hamas made the entire nation of Israel as well as the Gaza inmates into hostages. The politics of Hamas are not moral. They are sick, demented and evil. But they are not altogether stupid. Hamas was losing ground with the youth of the prison state they ruled. Gaza is a coastal community on the Mediterranean Sea with no work, an on going blockade and over two and quarter million humans with nothing to do - except sex. They have tons of babies, literally. The population triples every 70 years (for the past 75). The people who came of age in the Encampment of Concentration ('refugee camps') saw no future. So why obey Hamas? They only had force to recommend them. There was several Israeli invasions of Gaza, all in retaliation for crimes committed (usually by Hamas) against Israel. Hamas came up short each time, except for recruitment. You see; every time the IDF went after Hamas, they'd kill the Human Shields. 2008, 2012 + 2014 each time they killed hundreds of tender age children. Nothing makes for blow-back more then killing innocent family members. Thousands of unarmed civilians killed and dozens of Hamas leaders were killed in each invasion. (Also hundreds of Hamas grunts and dozens of Isrealis died.) Boys whose Mothers were killed or fathers whose children were taken from them were preyed upon by some extremely evil men. The Hamas party line was: 'stick with us. We will avenge your loved ones, no one else will kill the Jews, but we will. Ignore the Palestinian Authority or Fatah. Only Hamas will fight - to the death if need be.' It worked. It worked some in 2021, but the pitch was growing tired and stale. So the forces of evil tried something new. ISIL or al Qaeda without ANY limits, that is who Hamas is. If Hamas can goad Benji Netanyahu into an over reaction, they can yet triumph. They are counting on Antisemitism (a card that lost it's edge from over use), support from Arabs that don't even like Palestinians, the other Palis (West bank, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan + Syria), perhaps Russia and a world weary of the constant fighting in the Middle East. Will it happen? I hope not. With American support and better leadership, Israel can and will surmount this trial. To do so will require a long range view, patience and tolerance. Urban warfare is always ugly and brutal. This will be no exception.
The October Seventh Massacre made more hostages than the 228 prisoners captured by Hamas and dragged into Gaza. In a very real sense, 10/7/2023's bloodletting was designed to turn most of the millions of the people already in Gaza on 10/6 into hostages.
Everyone who lived in the Strip was already under threat from Hamas. Hamas is what they call themselves. They are a group of Iranian influenced militia/governing body who pretend to be Sunni and rule the outdoor prison know as the Gaza Strip. Being fanatics, there are those among them willing to be suicidal. Being evil, their leaders are willing to indulge in mass murder and kidnapping just to make their enemies weaker by causing the IDF to also commit mass murder of innocents.
In this way, Hamas made the entire nation of Israel as well as the Gaza inmates into hostages.
The politics of Hamas are not moral. They are sick, demented and evil. But they are not altogether stupid.
Hamas was losing ground with the youth of the prison state they ruled. Gaza is a coastal community on the Mediterranean Sea with no work, an on going blockade and over two and quarter million humans with nothing to do - except sex. They have tons of babies, literally. The population triples every 70 years (for the past 75).
The people who came of age in the Encampment of Concentration ('refugee camps') saw no future. So why obey Hamas? They only had force to recommend them. There was several Israeli invasions of Gaza, all in retaliation for crimes committed (usually by Hamas) against Israel. Hamas came up short each time, except for recruitment. You see; every time the IDF went after Hamas, they'd kill the Human Shields. 2008, 2012 + 2014 each time they killed hundreds of tender age children. Nothing makes for blow-back more then killing innocent family members. Thousands of unarmed civilians killed and dozens of Hamas leaders were killed in each invasion. (Also hundreds of Hamas grunts and dozens of Isrealis died.)
Boys whose Mothers were killed or fathers whose children were taken from them were preyed upon by some extremely evil men. The Hamas party line was: 'stick with us. We will avenge your loved ones, no one else will kill the Jews, but we will. Ignore the Palestinian Authority or Fatah. Only Hamas will fight - to the death if need be.' It worked. It worked some in 2021, but the pitch was growing tired and stale.
So the forces of evil tried something new. ISIL or al Qaeda without ANY limits, that is who Hamas is.
If Hamas can goad Benji Netanyahu into an over reaction, they can yet triumph. They are counting on Antisemitism (a card that lost it's edge from over use), support from Arabs that don't even like Palestinians, the other Palis (West bank, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan + Syria), perhaps Russia and a world weary of the constant fighting in the Middle East. Will it happen? I hope not.
With American support and better leadership, Israel can and will surmount this trial. To do so will require a long range view, patience and tolerance. Urban warfare is always ugly and brutal. This will be no exception.