Today the world witnessed another setback in world peace. Hamas in an unprecedented, surprising, and coordinated attack through land, sea, and air levied heavy damages on Israel’s civilian and military targets! This a setback in world peace, since it was just announced earlier in the week that renewed talks in establishing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, were advancing positively with the optimism of peace in the Middle East as a result. That has been placed on hold because of this apparent aggression conducted by Hamas forces and is still to be decided Israeli response. The assault has the fingerprints of the Iranians because of the synchronized coordination, the lightning-fast pace of the attack launched, the drone technology used, and more precise missile targeting successes. The Iranians support many of the militias in the Middle East against the country of Israel and anyone attempting to side with democratic values and the United States.
The attack has been partially successful since the reported Israeli civilian and military killed number in the several hundred. The fatalities do not include hostages’ women, children, the elderly, babies, or military soldiers who have been captured and taken back into Gaza or held up in areas within Israeli borders. Broadcasts show Israeli civilians and military being dragged away by Hamas or their followers to undisclosed locations. Hamas started a steadfast bombardment of Israeli targets in the morning hours of a Jewish holiday on Saturday morning October 7, 2023. The Israeli Iron Dome is a missile defensive system designed to intercept and shoot down short-range missiles under most weather conditions was quickly deployed but with the barrage of rockets coming in from the Gaza Strip and Hamas-held areas, Israeli targets were being damaged. The Iron Dome system was devised by the Israelis with the support of the U.S. as a defense partner with a keen interest in Israel’s survival and contributed billions to its development since 2011. And has been a viable defense system for the Israelis several times when confronted with rocket attacks coming from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
What contributed to the surprise attack that has caught Israel totally off foot? Over the last few months, the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been fending off thousands of citizen protesters throughout the country. The military reservists had vowed not to show up for duty should Netanyahu fulfill his promise of taking over the Israeli Supreme Court. It is rumored since he is under indictment for bribery and other criminal acts he wants to change the legal disposition of the court system so that he can challenge it and have a way out! Sound familiar? What you see here is Israel taking their eye off the ball for the interest of one man! Not so much a saying anymore but a fact. Israeli intelligence is one of the best in the world. They have thwarted many plans of aggression in the past even before they were in place to be implemented. It is just astonishing they were not able to see this coming! There is no doubt that Israel will retaliate severely but those that will pay will be the civilians that get caught in the hate of one’s vanity.
- I truly am amazed that Israeli intelligence forces like the Mossad were not able to detect such a large and coordinated attack. Was there dragging of feet somewhere in higher echelons of the Israeli government – it’s a sensible question to ask. One other lesson to learn from this is that while we as Americans are troubled and in chaos because of one man (Donald Trump) and partisan politics (Republicans) maybe we too are taking our eye off the ball (The Russians, Chinese, Koreans). It is worth paying attention to this major attack on Israel and our status of political affairs that affect our military readiness. An example is the holding up of some 300 military senior leadership appointments by one State Senator (Tuberville, R-AL).