Where’s Rachel Maddow when she’s badly needed. As host of her own MSNBC TV show on Mondays at 9:00 pm et, she is famous for providing historical context to any news story like the current 2023 Israel-Palestine conflict where Israel seeks redress for the October 7th surprise brutal massacre of over 1200 Israeli citizens and the seizing of 240 hostages by Hamas, a terrorist group that has governed Palestinians in Gaza since 2007.
What’s omitted in recent news stories is that this 2023 Israel-Hamas war is a repeat of what happened in 2021 when Israel had attacked HAMAS after it had been the recipient of numerous attacks by HAMAS in Gaza over several years and how Israel had been pushed in 2021 by the international community to agree to a cease fire, just like in 2014 and 2009, etc.
Add to this history, my personal assessment of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a smarter, more devious clone of the GOP MAGA US ex-president. Like his buddy, Donald Trump, Mr. Netanyahu is a man who’s obsessed with staying in power at all costs, in part, to avoid the consequences of having to face multiple trials for criminal wrongdoing. In November 2022 he managed to regain power with a surprise comeback after he’d been removed from the premiership in June 2021. He did this by aligning himself with extreme right coalition members who’ve been opposed for decades to a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. Soon after, he set out to morph the 75-year-old democracy into an autocracy by proposing an extreme overhaul of Israel’s judiciary system which prompted huge numbers of Israelis to regularly take to the streets to protest Netanyahu’s self-serving attempts to weaken its democracy. These laws are under review by Israel’s supreme court.
My Question: If the US MAGA GOP power hungry ex-President Donald Trump could do the unbelievable of inciting the US January 6, 2021 insurrection against the US Capitol, why can’t some skeptics ask the question, if it’s possible that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his extreme right coalition members deliberately ignored multiple timely intelligence reports regarding Hamas war plans in order to have a defensible pretext to finally carry out a full-scale attack against Hamas as they continue to ignore calls by the international community for cease fires, for adjusting military tactics to minimize civilian casualties, etc.?
Rember the question “who benefits?” After overseeing the worst security failure in 56 years, the PM Netanyahu hopes to remain in power despite recent horrible polls by conducting a successful war – and preferably a long one. This explains why he has been deliberately, even proudly, rejecting urgings to end tactics that will prospectively cause huge additional casualties in southern Gaza.
Could the intense, Israeli military’s indiscriminate bombing in Gaza with the use of 10,000- 15,000 dumb bombs since Oct 7th, reveal Israel’s true motive of wanting to force the Palestinians in Gaza to relocate elsewhere like they’ve been doing in the West Bank? This explains why the neighboring countries have shut down borders.
Consider this question of how the epic failure of Israel’s duty to protect its peoples from the surprise attack by Hamas could’ve occurred based on the context as depicted by an October 9, 2023 AP report, What went wrong? Questions emerge over Israel’s intelligence prowess after Hamas attack by Tia Goldenberg:
“For Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s eyes are never very far away. Surveillance drones buzz constantly from the skies. The highly-secured border is awash with security cameras and soldiers on guard. Intelligence agencies work sources and cyber capabilities to draw out a bevy of information.”
“Israel’s intelligence agencies have gained an aura of invincibility over the decades because of a string of achievements. Israel has foiled plots seeded in the West Bank, allegedly hunted down Hamas operatives in Dubai and has been accused of killing Iranian nuclear scientists in the heart of Iran. Even when their efforts have stumbled, agencies like the Mossad, Shin Bet and military intelligence have maintained their mystique.”
Now consider the following additional questions:
How is it that so specific a 40-page report detailing HAMAS plan of attack had been in the possession of Israeli intelligence for over a year prior to the OCT 7 massacre, but Israeli leaders hadn’t been sufficiently alarmed, enough to raise multiple red flags in real time?
How is it Hamas had in its possession detailed data on how to attack over 60 targets within Israel, when much of this information isn’t public knowledge?
How is it that Israeli soldiers had been collecting and sharing intel within weeks of the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel which described war-like military maneuvers and training in full view along the Gaza border by HAMAS that were ignored by the Israeli decision makers?
With Israel being the size of Delaware, how is that the highly rated Israeli Military (IDF) took anywhere from 7 to over 20 hours to respond to an ongoing slaughter of Israeli civilians?
Why did the Israeli PM Netanyahu take steps to prop up HAMAS for years?
See: How Israel Secretly Propped Up Hamas – The New York Times
For more of my questions, see my previous blog, “Was PM Netanyahu’s epic failure over the Oct 7 massacre, inadvertent or even deliberate?
The following report details how in past, Israel had to back down from fully confronting Hamas:
On July 24, 2021, The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published Timeline: The 2021 Gaza War Followed a Long Record of Hamas Initiated Attacks (from 2014-2021) by Taylor Froomin, and Lenny Ben-David…
Here’re some excerpts:
“The May 10-21, 2021, Hamas-Israel hostilities did not erupt out of nowhere. They followed a long record of Hamas-initiated attacks, clashes, developments in internal Palestinian politics, rearmament, and Iranian incitement since the 2014 ceasefire. Hamas and its defenders claim the massive Hamas rocket barrages came as an answer to relatively minor events on the ground in Jerusalem.”
“The following illustrated timeline identifies seminal events related to Gaza since the 2014 ceasefire.”
May 6, 2021 – Palestinians protested in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem
“Palestinians rioted in Sheikh Jarrah, responding to a property dispute that dates back to 1948. Israeli courts have ruled that the tenants on this plot must pay rent to the rightful owners, but they have refused. The court decision was scheduled for May 10, but it was postponed due to rising tensions. This dispute went viral on social media and became a major news story plagued by misinformation. In response, Hamas issued rocket warnings.”
“Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli police during the final Friday of Ramadan. The rocks were stockpiled prior to the rioting and piled in the al-Aqsa Mosque.”
August 26, 2014 – Israel-Hamas ceasefire
“The 2014 Gaza War began in July 2014 and lasted until August 26, 2014. In that time, 4,564 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel from Gaza. The final ceasefire came after 50 days of warfare and after 4 broken ceasefires.”
May 10, 2021- Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem from Gaza
“Hamas fired rockets from Gaza at cities in southern Israel and Jerusalem. Over the course of the next 11 days, some 15 percent of the rockets, or 680 projectiles, misfired and landed in Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians.”
May 11, 2021 – Israeli airstrikes leveled tower in Gaza containing Hamas office
“The 13-story Hanadi Tower that contained an office of Hamas leadership was hit by an Israeli airstrike and then collapsed. Those living in the tower and nearby received IDF warnings 1 hour before the strike.”
May 12, 2021 – Israeli airstrikes targeted 16 Hamas leaders
“Israeli airstrikes killed a Hamas senior battalion commander and weapon developer, Bassem Issa, during an attack on a command post.”
“Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory,” Biden said at the White House.”
May 14, 2021 – IDF attacked Hamas’ tunnels under Gaza City
“The IDF attempted to lure Hamas into their underground tunnels by suggesting that troops would begin a ground assault on Gaza. However, the troops were only poised at the fence while the air force bombed the tunnels. Hamas suspected that the announcement was a ruse, so only a few dozen Hamas operatives were in the tunnels at the time of the strikes.”
May 15, 2021 – A high-rise building housing Hamas and media offices in Gaza destroyed by airstrikes
“Israeli airstrikes destroyed the al-Jalaa building in Gaza, which housed residential and commercial offices, including al-Jazeera and the Associated Press. The IDF issued evacuation warnings to residents an hour prior to the strikes. Later, Israel announced that Hamas technology officers were using the building to develop a way to jam the Iron Dome electronically.”
“The IDF stopped a Hamas underwater attack using an unmanned, underwater vehicle. The Hamas commando base was also destroyed, and several Hamas fighters were killed.”
May 17, 2021 – Senior Islamic Jihad commander killed
“Senior Islamic Jihad commander Hussam Abu Harbeed was killed by an airstrike. He led the northern Gaza division of Islamic Jihad for 15 years and was also responsible for the anti-tank missile that wounded an Israeli citizen during the 2021 Gaza fighting.”
May 21, 2021 – Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire
“A ceasefire deal arranged by Egypt, Qatar, Israel, Hamas, and the UN went into effect at 0200 on May 21. There was a minor altercation at al-Aqsa mosque on May 21, but other than that, the ceasefire was not broken that day. Gazans continued to launch explosive and incendiary balloons toward Israel, which met an IDF air force response.”
May 28, 2021 – The NY Times published a front-page photo collage showing images of Gaza children allegedly killed by Israeli weapons.
The May 28, 2021 – Hizbullah, IRGC, Hamas established command center for military operations in Gaza during 2021 Gaza War
“The editor-in-chief of the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Ibrahim Al-Amin, said during an interview that Hizbullah, IRGC, and Hamas established a military operations center in Beirut during the Gaza war. Weapons were transported to Gaza by Hizbullah, and Palestinian officers were removed from Gaza during the fighting. The Islamic Resistance used drones to provide information about the locations of the IDF.”
June 24, 2021 – The NY Times published a multimedia video on the May 16 Israeli attack on the Hamas tunnels.
“The video suggested that Israel had violated international law. At the same time, the New York Times made no mention of 680 Hamas rockets that fell on Gazans. The Times cited Gazan police officials even though Hamas controls the police. The paper also showed only one video of Gazan tunnels, photographed in 2014.”
Gronda Morin 