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There have been rumors and arguments that Netanyahu intentionally allowed Hamas to commit their atrocities so he could have an excuse to root Hamas out. While I am not a fan of Netanyahu, this is a ridiculous conspiracy theory. Here are the reasons why:
1) Israel is a very small country with a tightly related population. This isn't New York, where people come from around the country and may know somebody from back in Omaha -- the Jewish people are highly connected to one another and even more so in Israel. Israelis fight like family because they are. There is no way you would sacrifice so many members of your family just to go after Hamas. There is no tradition in Judaism or Israel of sacrificing people. Quite the contrary.
2) Hamas is not the real threat anyway, so getting rid of Hamas does not address the underlying problem (Iran). Why start a war with the proxy while the real source of the problem remains untouched?
3) Iran has long been the enemy Netanyahu is fixated on, and the Hamas attack has not prompted Israel to do anything concrete about Iran. If anything, it is a distraction. So if you wanted to attack Iran, getting Hamas to kill 1,400 people is not the way to get there.
4) Netanyahu is a massive loser from the whole affair -- and it was totally predictable that he would be. Calls for his resignation have spread far beyond the leftists who didn't like him before. According to one poll, "Only 20.5% of Jewish Israelis and 7.5% of Arab Israelis polled say they have trust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, when polled in the aftermath of Hamas’s brutal October 7 terror attack." According to another: "48% of respondents thought Gantz would make a better prime minister, compared with only 28% for Netanyahu." Unlike the US, where nobody lost their jobs over the attacks and President Bush's approval rating soared above 80%, the opposite happens in Israel.
Everybody in the senior political and military chain of command will lose their jobs over this. Israel is not about process, but people -- and the people who were responsible for stopping this sort of thing failed. The reaction is entirely predictable. Netanyahu, even if he were to win the war tomorrow with no further bloodshed, will always be defined by this one enormous failure, one that changes his entire legacy.
As soon as the war is over, everyone will resign. Just as they should.
5) If you were Egypt and wanted to mess with Israel without being openly antagonistic, what would be more effective than saying you warned the Israeli Prime Minister? Egypt gets to look good, and make Israeli leadership look stupid: a win-win!
People in the West have to learn to take what Arab and Iranian leaders say with more than a grain of salt.
6) The Shin Bet apparently thought something was up. They sent a special team down to investigate, but had no idea of the scale of the coming assault. They lost 10 men from a special team. You don't send your best guys down just to be speedbumps in a massive assault.
7) Israel lost senior officers, including three Colonels and four Lieutenant Colonels. Israel has 10 brigades. One of their commanders was killed, specifically the commander of the Nahal brigade, which is in charge of the South. In order for a "let them attack" plot to work, he would have had to be inside the conspiracy. But he clearly was not, as he was killed while rushing to the scene.
8) Finally, Netanyahu has no history of pulling the trigger on anything. The country would have backed an invasion of Gaza in 2014; he didn't do it. The country would have backed an attack on Iran any time in the last 15 years. He didn't do it. Bibi never makes the hard calls, so he wouldn't have made this one. Heck, he seems reluctant to order an invasion even now. Hardly the actions of a man looking for an excuse.
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Discussion (21)
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You cannot reason a person out of views that reason played no part in. Of course you are right, and the explanation is wasted on those who need to hear it.
I'll quibble about Bibi's fate, but time will tell.
It is absurd on its face. It looks like projection. That everyone is as evil as they are.
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I've been flummoxed by Israeli politics ever since it seemed that the opposition was going after Bibi for ... bottle deposits? I greatly admire and respect the nation of Israel, but a proper political scandal needs hot tubs full of hookers and/or duffle bags full of blow.
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