More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the month since Hamas’ terrorist attacks inside southern Israel, the group’s health ministry in Gaza says.
But Hamas officials say the mounting death toll, believed to include thousands of children, has not caused the group to regret its actions in southern Israel, which Israeli officials said killed 1,400 people.
In fact, Hamas leaders say that their goal was to trigger this very response and that they’re still hoping for a bigger war. It’s all part of a strategy, they say, to derail talks over Israel normalizing relations with regional powers — namely, Saudi Arabia — and draw the world’s attention to the Palestinian cause.
Hamas, these officials say, is more interested in the destruction of Israel than what it sees as the temporary hardships faced by Palestinians under Israeli bombardment.
“What could change the equation was a great act, and without a doubt, it was known that the reaction to this great act would be big,” Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the group’s governing politburo, told The New York Times in an interview.
No way would SA sacrifice their sweetheart deal with the US to do this. They are dependent on the US for security. This is about proxy sectarian politics between moral enemies Saudi Arabia (Sunni, ally of the US who is Israel’s pal,) and Iran (Shia, backers of Hamas and Hezbollah.)
Not to mention, SA probably isn’t stupid enough to attack with intent to destroy (relevant because a state being under credible threat to survival is the kind of scenario usually given for that state actually using weapons of mass destruction) an almost certainly nuclear armed state, especially one that is close enough by to have no time for warnings or interception, and especially when they have no equivalent weapons of their own as deterrent.
SA has already shelved normalization plans with Israel that took years for the US to broker.
They called the white house in the last few days and said normalization was a go to continue.
The stuff they say publically to win PR points with the common folk is not what the monarchy actually thinks is the best idea.
Oh, I hadn’t heard that. Do you happen to have a link handy? If not no worries, I’m sure I can find it later when I’m off work.
It was in the littany of things coming out of the white house the last few weeks.
https://www.axios.com/2023/10/31/saudi-megadeal-normalization-israel-biden
Here’s one report. Overall seems like SA is somewhat pissed too because the Yemeni rebels it’s been bombing the shit outta started launching missiles and UAVs over their territory, and attacking Sunni hospitals in Egypt.
The state Media has been noticeably critical of Hamas, including during interviews with their spokesman.
Thanks for the in depth response! I really appreciate it.
So it sounds like while normalization is still on the agenda, it is not really possible to proceed until things change regarding the Israel/Palestine situation. But that’s more than I had last heard, where they were saying they were scuttling the whole deal.
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