Israel is at war again and disturbing questions arise, more than we have answers for.
To begin with, why now?
The attacks took place a day after Biden released a bunch of money to Iran. Biden supporters rightfully point out the planning for the attacks took a lot longer than a day and suggest it’s because of Putin’s birthday or something.
Nonetheless it is not unreasonable to suppose the one had something to do with the other. Hamas doesn’t make a move without Iran’s say-so. Perhaps Iran was holding back till now lest it delay the release?
It’s worth noting the attacks came 50 years almost to the day after the October 6, 1973 surprise attacks that began the Yom Kippur War. Dates are important to the jihadists.
What’s the connection with Russia? Did Russia support this as a distraction from Ukraine? Do they hope for a strategic diversion? Is this the opening of another front in a wider war?
And how did Israeli intelligence not see this coming?
Is it possible preparations were made somewhere out of the theater of operations beyond Mossad’s area of activity? If so, under whose sponsorship?
The attackers came across the border on motorbikes, pickup trucks, and motorized parasails. That last has a dramatic effect beyond the merely practical. Is there a message there?
And why attacks of this kind with conspicuous atrocities?
They killed women and children hiding in their homes. They kidnapped civilians and took them back to Gaza. They paraded the naked body of a young woman around and made sure it was videoed. They showed a terrified mother with two redhead boys humiliated by their captors. They showed a terrified young woman tourist captured at a concert dragged by her hair into a vehicle to be taken to Gaza.
It’s not just that they committed recognized war crimes, it’s that they made sure we saw them.
Preliminary photo collages of the missing show a preponderance of young women. What do they intend to do with them? Use them as human shields? Sell them back?
And what are they doing to them now? God help them, rape might be the best they could hope for.
We are dealing with people whose thought processes and world view are alien to us and too often we try to fit their actions into what makes sense to us, rather than try to figure out why it makes sense to them.
We could start by realizing that though these are military actions they do not have specifically military objectives.
They gain no territory nor do they significantly impact Israel’s ability to wage war.
They may hope to provoke a response so violent it would bend world opinion in their direction, but those lines pro and contra Israel are already firmly drawn and not likely to change. And why would they make sure the world sees those horrific atrocities if that’s their goal?
After 9/11 the German composer Karl Stockhausen had an insight that repelled a great many people. He called it, “The greatest work of art of all time.”
I suggest if we can get past the shock, there is a point here.
What the jihadists are doing, is theater. The audience is both the West and their own people.
To Israel it’s a taunt, “You can’t protect your women!”
To their own a boast, “Look what the warriors of Allah can do with pure hearts and intentions!”
However this turns out I think it’s a new turn in the Long War, and it’s not just Israel in danger.