(The article in NYT is unbelievable. Israel knew about Hamas plans of attack one year in advance, but ignored it. It is possible Israel may have even lured Hamas to attack Israel so that it can be an excuse to flatten Gaza, occupy it and have access to Gaza shoreline gas reserves. Perhaps Israel did not expect that Hamas could do so much damage. f.sheikh)
Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.
The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.
The translated document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters.
Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.
My comment is about the possible explanation as to WHY Israel ignored the warning. That’s a stretch of the imagination. Sounds like the rumor that the CIA caused 9/11 so the US can demolish Afghanistan. Can you imagine the uproar if it ever came out that the Israeli govt. allowed 1200 of its residents murdered to get access to gas exploration? Every govt.official would be guilty of multiple murders.
Yes, it may be stretch of imagination, Can we imagine that Israeli militay has detailed information about Hamas attack but did not do any thing, and some investors in Israel knew about Hamas’s plan of attack on October 7, and sold their stocks and short some just before October 7, and made millions. I think the surprise here may be that Israel did not expect that Hamas could do so much damage. Links below for NYT and WP reports. NYT usually does not approve any comments which are conspiratorial, or stretched of imagination, but NYT published my similar comment as below.
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The article in NYT describes Israel knew about Hamas plans of attack one year in advance, but ignored it. Is it possible Israel may have even lured Hamas to attack Israel so that it can be an excuse to flatten Gaza, occupy it and have access to Gaza shoreline gas reserves? Perhaps Israel did not expect that Hamas could do so much damage. Are we plying into Israel’s hands or are we partner in this dirty scheme?”
Links; https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/05/traders-earned-millions-anticipating-oct-7-hamas-attack-study-says/
It is not hard to believe it. Israel has been doing it for a long time. They provoke or find an excuse to kill and destroy Palestinian lives. But this time Israelis have broken all previous records.
On October 7, Israelis were the victim, but not anymore. There is no proportionality, there is no justification for Israel’s barbarous and brutal response.
According to a UN report, “Since 7 October, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, 67 per cent of the more than 14,000 people killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children. That is two mothers killed every hour and seven women every two hours.” (UN Report SC/15503, dated 22 November 2023). It further added that 40% of deaths in Gaza have been children. As of end of November 2023, more than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7. Israel even bombed Hospitals, refugee camps and mosques, and reduced more than half of Gaza to rubble.
This is more than a war crime. This is Genocide.
War, as the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed, is a god and its worship demands human sacrifice. They would urge young men to go to war, making the slaughter they are asked to carry out as a ritual. Later on religions and in modern age “patriotism” sanctified and immortalized this ritual as “martyrdom.” Young men in every corner of the world are schooled in the notion that war is an ultimate definition of manhood. They are instigated to believe, their chivalry and bravery will be tested and proven in the heat of a war.
In every page of our history, nothing reveals man the way war does, and in the same way nothing reveals peace the way war does by justifying that war is for the sake of permanent peace. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) mentions in his autobiography:”War should be treated as murder is treated. It should be regarded with equal horror and with equal aversion.” But by the use of naked force, the prospect of war is portrayed as a sacred and exciting venture creating a heroic myth out of murder. We speak of those we fight with only in the abstract and thus strip them off their human qualities. In war, we demonize the enemy to the extent that the opponent is no longer human, while those fighting against their enemy are portrayed as embodiments of noble souls.
Our history from the earliest time to present age is almost a chronicle of conflicts and wars. War, a predatory phenomenon reveals that, since ancient time, men have been continuously waging war somewhere on this planet. According to the American historian William James Durant (1885-1981) there have been only 29 years in all of mankind’s history during which war was not underway somewhere. Another survey revealed that United States of America since 1776 when the country became free, has been at war 223 years out of past 246 years of its history. In the Ramparts Magazine (Vol. II, Part II) Bertrand Russell’s America: The Entire American People Are On Trial, Russell has very boldly proclaimed:
“Violence is not new to America. White men of European stock seized the lands of indigenous Indians with a ferocity which endured until our own times. The institution of slavery shaped the character of the nation and leaves its mark everywhere. Countless “local” wars were mounted throughout the twentieth century to protect commercial interests abroad. Finally, United States emerged at Hiroshima as arbiter of world affairs and self-appointed policeman of globe.”
Every time American public opinion is misled by propagating, “We must fight against evil in all its form to promote democracy and preserve the Western way of life.” In a nutshell, the U.S. military is destroying the lives of its own young men ignoring words of Greek historian Herodotus, “In peace sons bury their father, but in war fathers bury their sons.” But, according Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), “What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder another in cold blood,” which means war is a license to kill and murder only to satisfy man’s aggressive urge.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1838) was not surprised as he knew that war has always been there. In 1915 he published an article Thought for the Times on War and Death arguing that war, though very dangerous, is an irresistible and dangerous temptation hidden in the unconscious of human beings. He was of the view that humans need war when the burden of civilization becomes intolerable. In his opinion the alternative to war is neurosis, both for an individual and a group, which by itself can become intolerably destructive. People cannot go on indefinitely acting as if they are civilized; they must be allowed an outlet for their unconscious murderous deeper desires to kill. This means killing is not an instinctive and conscious urge, rather it is unconsciously desired by the humans.
The classic Just-War Theory has its origins in Christian theology. Saint Augustine is usually identified as the first individual to offer a theory on war and justice. The Saint referred to the Bible and regarded some wars as necessary to amend an evil. Saint Thomas Aquinas revised Augustine’s version, creating three criteria for a just war: the war needed to be waged by a legitimate authority, have a just cause, and have the right intentions. The moral justifications for a war are expressed in jus ad bellum (right to go to war); whereas, the moral conduct of the war is expressed in jus in bello (right conduct in war). The Just-War Theory is a set of rules for military combat based on the idea that war, though always wrong, is sometimes necessary.
Gen Carl Von Clausewitz (1780-1831) whose world was the “world of men under arms” after Aristotle’s saying, “Man is a political animal” presented his own explanation, “Man is a waring animal.” Thus, he in his book On War presented his famous insight, “war is a continuation of politics by other means.” But four centuries before Clausewitz, the Arab philosopher ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) in the Prolegomena (Introduction) to his Universal History, had remarked, “Conflict may stop if every person is clearly aware, by the light of his reason, that he has no right to oppress his neighbor. … Oppression and strife might therefore cease, if men undertook to restrain themselves,” which means that war embraces much more than politics. MIRZA I. ASHRAF