The timing of this for Hamas is sooooooo stupid. Israelis have been uniting against Neytanyahu this past year as he has tried to subvert Israeli freedoms and pervert the courts. Israel was in the midst of turning inward against the hawks like him, and allowing that to occur has been in Hamas' interest. The last thing they should do while that is occurring is something like this, which gives BiBi the excuse he needs to justify anything and everything he has ever trespassed against Israeli citizens and rule of law, and also give him a free hand to distract citizens from their political differences and unite them in struggle against a common foe. Now, as he gives the green light to wipe out Hamas once and for all, he seeks to not only perform that task, but in so doing, do it in large and grand enough scale to secure his legend forever dissolve the domestic alliance against him that was soon to see him in prison for crimes against the state.
A suspicious and conspiratorially-oriented person very jaded by the realities of the world just might question who most benefits from all this. There are some comparing this to how WW2 pulled FDR's butt out of the fire he was soon to be roasting in as a result of all the resistance to his institutionalizing of socialism in America. Washington was finally getting their schit together against him,...then Pearl Harbor happened.
An intriguing explanation being put forth (which actually seems possible) is that this is all being engineered by Iran, Hamas' benefactor, in order to derail what was the soon expected peace and security treaty between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In recent years, as the U.S. has withdrawn from being the cop on the block in the region, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been each competing to position themselves as the regional dominating power. As a result, tensions and military preparedness between them have been quickly escalating since Biden abandoned Afghanistan. The treaty was always controversial in the Saudi kingdom, and required a calm citizenry to let it go forward. Now the common Arab populace is stirred like a bee hive, making further progress towards the treaty with Israel impossible, and the Saudis, playing politics, now must make noises of condemnation of Israel, in order to keep domestic unrest in check. Thus, regardless of how badly mauled Hamas gets as a result of this offensive, Iran has already achieved their desired goal of denying the treaty from occurring.
The only real risk here of the whole affair getting out of hand is if Neytanyahu goes exceedingly too far in the retribution that is certainly coming. Everyone knows Hamas and the Palestinians are about to get seriously goat-phucked. Everyone is expecting it. It will shock no one, not even the Arabs. But if the decision is made that Gaza's continued existence is simply no longer allowable, for instance, and BiBi makes a general push to completely expel the population and clear them out;...THAT would obviously bring about a whole new anti-Israel alliance from surrounding nations and perhaps bring about a new larger war. But I doubt Neytanyahu is that silly.
