The October 7 attack was inevitable


 Why was October 7 inevitable? One word: Extortion


By James Terminiello 

 

It’s difficult now but if you run a web search to find images of the Gaza Strip before the current war, you would encounter a place of wrenching poverty; decay; and, until recently, quiet despair.  

 

As an economic entity Gaza could not and did not operate without funds injected from many sources including the U.S., some Arab nations, and, yes, Israel. Naturally, as with all aid from afar, too much of it finds its way into the wrong pockets most of the time. As a place to live Gaza practically stewed in depression which easily and naturally turns into envy and fury - particularly when you see other nations prospering on your mobile device.  

 

Israel’s forlorn hope was that if you lined the pockets of Hamas and other minor semi-political, semi-military, semi-religious organizations with extortion money they would slurp up the cream and use the meager rest to keep the populace quiet and in control. It was a policy stamped with likely failure from the start. 

 

A Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis states: “Indeed, part of what Hamas wanted involved revenge for what it saw as past Israeli attacks

and the constant Israeli occupation of the West Bank, arrest of Hamas leaders, isolation, and bombing of Gaza.”   

 

That is only partly true. The miscalculation by Israel was that if you pay extortion money, the extortionist will perform, in part at least, the way you want them. But at root, what do extortionist terrorists ALWAYS want?: 

 

  1. More money 
    More concessions 
    More power 


And when the extortionists think it’s time for a raise or they feel that they are not getting as much as they think they should, they strike. (Think of the standard M.O. of old Yasser Arafat) And so, October 7 ran blood red. Hamas naturally assumed that Israel would strike back. They’d get the usual bloody nose (Actually the people of Gaza would get the bloody nose and some Hamas functionaries would pay the terminal toll as the price of doing business. Sorry guys.) And then Israel, the U.S., and a few Arab countries would once again own up and fork over the loot. In effect: Rinse and repeat. It is a time honored pattern that works all too well.

 

But Benjamin Netanyahu decided to no longer play the extortion game and had another vision. Rather than pay again and again and again he would use the October 7 attack as justification for an all-out war with the goal of eradicating Hamas.  This is a policy that has produced more backfires than a 1978 Ford Pinto.

insipid U.N. proclamations ... clearly outside-funded student protests ... calculated Democrat political posturings ... on and on.

 

And here we are. Miscalculations on both sides. Innocent blood soaking up the middle. Hostages rotting away in storage. And no rational solution in sight.  

 

James Terminiello, author of the new social satire The Conscience of the C.O.D. (available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com) writes from Mount Laurel, New Jersey  









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