I understand that but we are responsible for Iranian lives first. From a game theoretic point of view, if Iran doesn't respond to a violation of its sovereignty, we can expect more attacks like this to follow. The taboo of Israel attacking Iran directly has been broken and if it goes unpunished, it will hugely hurt Iran's deterrence not only against Israel but also against US-backed regimes in the region.
This is pretty much like the situation with Soleimani's assassination. The regime decided to deescalate and it only led to further aggression by the West. In particular, now that Trump is back, a signal of weakness will only lead to further aggression by them.
Yes, Hezbollah is indeed important for Iran. Hamas played dirty in Syria but I would say that Hamas was also an important piece of puzzle against Israel. But Hamas committed suicide with October 7th and it dragged Iran into an unwanted situation without informing us. I still doubt that some factions inside Hamas did it intentionally. I don't trust Ikhwan Al-Muslimin. Both Qatar and Turkey have strategic ties with the US and NATO and it's hard to trust them.
I wouldn't address the other stuff right now, but Israel is greatly exaggerating October 7 tactical strike. It is not on such a large scale they made it out to be. There were no 'massacres' of any kind. The Israeli army is just not prepared for that kind of scenario.
Hamas sent assigned groups, but each group had a designated mission and were not aware of each others missions until it came down to execution phase, well into it. So each group may have completed a mission rather easily, and they were not aware of any results regarding casualties and prisoners captured. So these groups needed to make sure something was achieved in terms of results and did more than what asked. By the time the thing was over, the results were bigger than imagined.
This is the first time Hamas would execute a mission like that and they planned and executed well. Probably because they didn't want to fail. And failure was no a option. Most of Hamas wasn't aware of their this plan. And the assigned groups each had a exclusive mission but didn't know the rest of squads that would all join as one force. Saleh Al Arouri didn't know. Israel thought Hamas was focused on West Bank. Hamas in Gaza did not inform anyone of the plan because it was to be executed at random, and the full scope was only known by fewer people.
Israel however and Western media went hard to work to claim this is a massive 'terror' attack and massacres and all kinds of lies. When there was no such drama. Tactical strikes only lasted several hours. Each strike that was successful led to elimination of 20 or so soldiers. It added up at the end but when it comes proportionality, it was mostly smaller numbers of soldiers/security forces eliminated in many different areas. Not one giant massacre here or there. There was no such thing.
Israel, however, has been trying since 10 years to eliminate the Palestinian cause. And they tried having Sisi move Palestinains into Egypt. They tried Abraham accords, etc... this is something they're trying to execute for long time. So their motive was already there. They weren't reacting. They just believe let's see how far we can get away with things. And the more they see, the more they try. They've always been inherently violent. Don't mistaken any of what's happening as a reaction. It's not. They're trying to make strategic moves through terrorism/ethnic cleansing which is not strange to them. And something they comfortably employ and have done since decades.
Hamas's move was reactionary, proportional, and justified. And Hamas wanted to break status quo in the region and encourage region to make strategic moves. Putting people in a prison and besieging it for 20 years will cause a prison break, or reaction like that.
The Western Jews basically flipped everything upside with the Western media campaign which apparently Arabs and Muslims didn't bother to counter and allowing them to go ahead and level Gaza made world think they're boiling and reaction, they achieved the emotional manipulation that was, when really they were calm and collected but wanted to carry out such ethnic cleansing for a long time. And they made it so narrative is it was a given that Gaza would be carpet bombed and levelled.
When that is not the case. That was not going to happen to Gaza if Arabs and Muslims even remotely exercised their influence. Instead they got intimidated by the dirty media campaign propaganda and gave in immediately. When you accept their narrative and refuse to advance Hamas's narrative , then they gave Israel everything they wanted and made it appear credible.
Hamas didn't want to startle its allies or put them in a vulnerable situation but it also has interests of its people at forefront and was in a difficult situation. Hamas was making lots of rhetoric about regional war for Jerusalem beforehand. And Hamas was serious about the region and it's people taking a risk to achieve strategic gains. Obviously Hamas overestimated willingness of people of region and it's nations to do that. And underestimated how dead and defeated they were.
www.theguardian.com
