This thread is titled "Yawn....... Israel attacked by Hamas".
This is hardly a "yawn" moment for Israel; this is their 9/11 equivalent. And their response will be vigorous.
We can endlessly debate the past decades of history in the Israel/Palestinian conflict which effectively will not really be enlightening but merely an effort to rehash the past and push blame.
What is of more interest is what will occur next over the upcoming weeks in this conflict. It does lead to many questions including:
- What are the next steps that Israel take for an incursion into Gaza? The current steps of using air power to target rocket launchers, ammo, and the headquarters/homes of Hamas leaders are obvious. The announced step of shutting off the borders and not allowing fuel, food, and electricity into Gaza -- effectively creating a siege is obvious. But what is next after this?
- At this point both Hamas and Hezbollah have announced that Iran provided the planning and support for this attack. What military force can Israel dedicate to Gaza operations and still have sufficient military force in the north to deal with a possible attack by Hezbollah?
- Netanyahu stated this would be a long war. Will Israel need to call up it's military reserves for this conflict?
- Israel generally has a policy of not negotiating for hostages. A good number of the hostages are citizens of other countries (many who do not hold Israeli dual citizenships). Under pressure from other countries will Israel open negotiations to get hostages back who are citizens of other nations plus possibly elderly and children? If not most of these hostages are as good as dead already.
- An armed excursion into Gaza will cause thousands of civilian casualties. What steps will Israel use to minimize these casualties besides telling Gaza residents to leave certain areas?
- Will Israel adopt a strategy at some point to shove all 2 million residents of Gaza over the border into Israel -- creating a huge refuge crisis?
- Iran is obviously behind the Hamas terrorist attack. Does Israel have plans to retaliate against Iran directly?
- What is Israel's desired end game over the next few weeks? Beyond retaliation and dead Hamas members.