A month before the Gaza war, things were going well for Israel, under a new American administration keen to increase its role in supporting human rights, and it seemed that the "Abrahamic Peace" agreements were moving strongly, heralding a new era in the Middle East, as if there was nothing left but Preventing Iran and its proxies from trying to destabilize the region, after a successful anti-Corona vaccination campaign, which Israel envies.
With this introduction, the Israeli newspaper "The Jerusalem Post" began an article by Seth Frantzman, in which he said that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had received great popular support after the recent war on Gaza, where the Mufti of the Palestinian Authority was expelled from Al-Aqsa for not supporting the movement. While protests - in many countries - targeted Jews, and articles critical of Israel were published all over the world.
The writer adds;
China also led efforts at the United Nations to condemn Israel. Even members of the extreme left of the Democratic Party in the United States accused Israel of practicing "apartheid" and called for a halt to arms sales to it.
Support for Israel declined
And as the writer says, support for Israel has declined even among its main supporters in the United States, such as American evangelicals, and Hamas has become more popular than it has ever been, and it has not been condemned for firing 4,000 rockets at Israeli civilians, and there is talk now of a shift in changing some countries. How it deals with Hamas after it gained more legitimacy in the previous weeks has not met the same in decades.
Meanwhile, the power of Hezbollah and Iran increased, and the chief Pakistani diplomat appeared "anti-Semitic" on CNN. Turkey, along with Iran, led a campaign to punish and isolate Israel, and the Palestinians in the West Bank celebrated Hamas’s victory.
Moreover, groups hostile to Israel - such as Human Rights Watch - and others began to talk about apartheid in Israel and demand a one-state solution, and anti-Israel activists felt that the tide had turned, and that Israel could be eliminated as a settler colonial state, so how did the matter come about? To this? ", Asks the author.
The writer believes that Israel had strongly isolated Hamas in Gaza since the 2014 war, and Egypt cut off many supplies from it, leaving only a few friends, although it tried to expand the dwindling support abroad in 2019 and 2020 with visits to Turkey, Malaysia and Iran. Israel's new relations in the Gulf make it acceptable in the region and that its new alliance with Greece and Cyprus promises new energy deals, especially since Turkey - which is worried about the presidency of Joe Biden - was talking about reconciliation throughout the region.
Drumming
And the writer goes on to say that when the Biden administration took power, Israel was in close cooperation with the US Central Command and had good relations with Washington to ensure that its interests were protected, and it was able to work against the Iranian concentration in Syria, and there was no great pressure for peace.
Suddenly, however, the drums began to beat in preparation for the incoming Biden administration, so the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem issued a report on the Israeli apartheid regime, and Human Rights Watch followed suit, and at the same time Israel remained divided after the fourth elections in March in two years.
Meanwhile - as the writer says - tensions were increasing in Jerusalem, and with the start of the month of Ramadan, clashes erupted with the Israeli police at the Damascus Gate, and the dispute began in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem receiving some international and Palestinian attention, and Hamas pledged to defend Al-Aqsa.
The writer said that the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, described Israel as a terrorist state, and the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, expected it to be defeated in tactical or besieged at sea. Hezbollah also made similar statements, and Hamas warned that it would respond to the clashes in Jerusalem, and indeed on May 10 / This May - coinciding with the Israeli Jerusalem Day marches - Hamas fired rockets at the city (occupied Jerusalem).
And things went for the worse after the riots - in all parts of Israel in Arab and mixed towns - created a crisis, as a result of which the border guards rushed to Lod, and Golani forces and the Seventh Armored Soldiers were sent to the Gaza border, and the army rushed to support the West Bank, where shooting attacks and clashes escalated. According to the author.
Israel is in a trap
When Israel responded on May 10, Hamas drew up a plan to use thousands of missiles to bomb Ashkelon, Ashdod, Tel Aviv, Israeli airports and population centers, used drones and planned to use submarines without a captain, and sent anti-tank guided missile teams to the border to strike Israeli vehicles. - As the writer sees - a sophisticated and planned operation, according to which up to 140 missiles are launched simultaneously.
It seems, according to the writer, that Hamas has mastered this matter, and has offered new long-range missiles with a range of up to 250 kilometers that can target Eilat and perhaps Dimona as well, and the movement of resistance and Fatah activists around Al-Aqsa has not stopped, and Hamas says its war has damaged the Abraham agreements.
The writer concluded that Iran and Hezbollah wanted to test Israel's defenses, and that Israel had fallen into a trap in Gaza, due to the absence of a new government and the confinement of the strategic planning center in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without checks and balances and a broader discussion of the security cabinet.