Arab world gave Israel a green light to hit Hamas, analysts say
Horrified international reactions to Hamas’s terror attacks may have given Israel a green light to deliver an especially harsh blow to the Gaza terror groups, experts told the Tazpit Press Service on Sunday.
Israeli army reservists muster on Oct. 8, 2023. Photo by TPS
“There is more understanding for Israel. Even in the Arab world, they’re silent — no major response from the Arabs,” Professor Eyal Zisser, vice rector of Tel Aviv University and chair in Contemporary History of the Middle East, told TPS.
“I think they don’t like Hamas, but they can’t say it publicly.”
He added, “So if you have a green light, what do you do with this green light?”
Elaborating on that point, Daniel Diker, president of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs told TPS, “Israel at this moment has the unconditional express support of its major ally in Washington, the United States. But as Israel has seen in past operations, even though this is a full-fledged war, this is not an operation, Israel’s international legitimacy and support wears down very quickly.”
Diker predicted that Israel would enjoy “an enormous amount of international legitimacy in the West, as well as among its Abraham Accord partners in Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, and to a far lesser extent in Sudan, as well as Saudi Arabia,” though this would wear out as media broadcasts images of Gaza destruction.
“This is a war of perception, a war of influence, a war of images, a psychological war of unprecedented proportions, because the major weapon that is being used is called the cell phone and the social networks. Those have become far more powerful than F-35 jets or any kind of bunker-busting bombs,” Diker stressed.
‘You Ask Why Now?’
However, the two diverge on understanding the timing.
“You ask why now? I don’t think there is a reason why today and not a week ago. It was a question of they felt they were ready, so they did it. It’s something tactical,” Zisser said.
“You can ask, theoretically, why did they choose this way? And strategically, I think they thought they are in a dead end, and thought trying to change the equation and break the rules of the game was an option taking into consideration the weakness Israel projected.”
The dead end, Zisser explained, was Gaza’s spiraling economy, the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Strip, and being unable to provide any diplomatic solutions.
Diker differed, saying the timing was not surprising.
“It happened just a day after the 50th anniversary of the strategic surprise attack of 1973,” Diker said, referring to the Yom Kippur War.
“Both attacks were actually based on a false conception. And in this, in 2023, the conception, the false conception is that Israel would not be attacked by Hamas because Hamas was more interested in gaining international legitimacy and in feeding its own, in feeding and developing its own public,” Diker explained.
According to Diker, Hamas motivated in part to disrupt budding Israeli-Saudi efforts.
“Clearly they were interested, they’ve been interested at the behest of their Iranian patrons to derail the Saudi-Israeli diplomatic path. And it’s clear that beyond that, they’re looking to wound Israel as in any way possible over the long term in order to achieve their goal of an Islamic waqf across the Middle East,” he said.
But according to Zisser, the scale of Hamas’s terror attack of this scale is too risky for the sake of simply derailing Saudi-Israeli ties.
“You don’t sacrifice yourself in an effort to, with all due respect, hundreds or thousands of Palestinians killed. Why? I don’t think that this is immediate response because Hamas usually follow its own interests. Of course, it’s not in their interests to allow the Saudis and the Israelis, but it’s too risky.”
The death toll stands at 600 is climbing, while 2,156 have been injured, according Health Ministry figures. On Sunday evening the Israeli confirmed for the first time that at least 100 hostages are now being held captive in Gaza. And according to Zisser, that’s a scale that may boomerang on Hamas.
“There is a point where you want to deter your enemy, cause damage and casualties. That’s okay. But there’s a limit and once you cross the limit, that’s what Hamas did. It united Israel, it pushed the Israeli government to retaliate in a harsh way,” he said.
