Israel has the world’s very best intel services, yet allegedly failed to foresee a massive invasion months in the making. Now media outlets are beginning to point a finger at Netanyahu—as is the IDF.
As always Seth, a timely and frightening account of a dictator’s sociopathic calculations. As soon as I saw the attack, I wondered if Netanyahu had advance knowledge of the assault and let it happen to cement his power. And now we know he did. The consequences unfortunately will be hundreds of thousands of mostly civilian deaths. We can only hope that the scale of retaliation will be contained such that World War III doesn’t happen
Thank you Seth, I hope this information is forwarded to the DOJ, right now the collusion of Trump/Russia/PM Israel signals a warning bc of the coup in the House unwilling to help our Country but using Democrats/Biden as their scapegoat but loyal to Trump. I read a lot. Trump doesn’t want to face his 91 felony counts & trials are next year. I’ll say no more but it’s dangerous in Congress I believe more so than before the oust of Speaker. Stay safe everyone reading this & God help us all.
This one sentence in the conclusion is the most important for everyone to read. Maybe it should be the Title of this Article "Just hours ago, Al Jazeera published a report with this headline and sub-headline: “Netanyahu is Drawing the United States Into War With Iran; the Israeli Prime Minister’s Persistent Obsession With the Islamic Republic May Finally Drag the United States into Another Disastrous Regional War.”
Thanks for this nuanced reporting. I find that using social media around this subject super anxiety inducing. So many people with hot takes and so many others accusing them of taking sides - or condemning them by taking sides - when a great many of these people barely understand our own American politics, let alone the complexities of this situation. Many terrible things can exist at once without us losing our capacity for empathy.
We’re at the point where enemies foreign and enemies domestic are supernumerous, powerful and forming symbiotic relations to debilitate and destroy the host.
As an American I am broken-hearted, sickened to my stomach as I have watched the deliberate slaughtering of Jews perpetrated by Hamas terrorists.
Because of Netanyahu, his right-wing party and his judiciary coup have together contributed to Israel’s becoming a divided country, leading Netanyahu to not taking seriously a grave warning from the Egyptian military.
These horrific events make me even more concerned about our own country. The U.S. has a crazy wanna be dictator running for president (again) and it seems to be the number 1 candidate of the GOP - as a MAGA candidate - one illiterate, narcissistic, sexual pervert, “stable genius” (not), a con-man whose deliberate actions are only meant to divide us. And now as Seth clearly explains we have one of our two GOV chambers in total disarray because the MAGA GOP can’t get their act together, placing us at peril and weaker by the day.
Our enemies are watching the circus. We have one Senator - Tubberville, a Republican, deliberately weakening our military by blocking military promotions.
On X, I see Musk accusing the ADL - The American Defamation League, of causing him to lose 4 billions dollars in income. In out streets, we hear “Jews won’t replace us”. In Florida we have Neo-Nazis and white nationalists roaming Florida streets promoting the hate of Jews and our governor says mostly nothing. These are micro-aggressions that alone we may ignore but combined they are ominous signs that anti-semitism is alive and well.
So, credible reporting says that Egypt warned Netanyahu “10 days before” and described it as “unusual…terrible.” Can someone better versed in intelligence gathering explain if 10 days warning is decent lead time, or did Egypt suddenly find out? It seems strange, especially coupled with a description that’s actually pretty vague sounding-ominous, yes—but no details.
Part of the problem here is our own feelings about how or why any human would 'do such a thing'. I think we tend to want to allow for most humans to have good intentions, and hate that sometimes we are very wrong & really bad evil is actually something some humans will do for their own benefit. Thing is politicians by their very nature have a history of doing what they do for reasons that benefit their career, and we should never assume they are acting like any ordinary human would in any circumstance ! What exactly benefits Netanyahu in this scenario ? Seth is giving a good position regarding that, which seems mind boggling to any ordinary human, but NOT in the context of politics & thereby control & influence & what they want their place in history to be ! I really have no idea what is in Netanyahu's mind & intentions, but his recent history & need to a find an out certainly makes his motivations suspect ! The ME does not need this trip into disaster land, may it get resolved without more bloodshed ! Unfortunately the religion of Islam is intent on an ambitious removal of all things & people non-Islam from everywhere - all of us are under the threat of what is in their heads !
Thanks for the reporting, Seth. Yesterday I asked myself: Who benefits from a "war" with Hamas? Answer: Netanyahu. It solves a number of political and legal problems that he faces, as you indicated in your article. But it sickens me to think that this could be true.
Great article Seth. Netanyahu is playing us. Israel isn't our friend or a ally of democracy. While we condemn terrorists attacks and stand with Israel against terrorism. It really seems like we're taking Putin's bait. Putin knows Netanyahu wanted an excuse to go in and brutalize Palestinians and retake Gaza, and when he does, Putin will get his wish. Make Biden look bad and prop up Trump as someone who can fix it all. He's going to say how is it ok for Israel to do it in Gaza but Russia can't do it with Ukraine? I also believe Putin coordinated with the GOP to make the house speaker-less in an effort to kill funding to Ukraine, and make the American system look weak and ineffective. The timing of Putin publicly blaming Biden, and Trump/GOP following suit shows how much they are in lock step.
Good. Question. I thought the answer would be here. Hubby and I were talking about what really happened -did he know and ignore cause he’s a SOB or did he not know and he’s still a SOB. Still remains Hamas should not have, taking the playbook watching the Russians bombing innocent civilians, taking children as hostages, in Ukraine-as it remains now-Putin, Netanyahu and thump-all SOB’s and must face Justice for their crimes. Gawd, I wish someone had hit the stop button on that damn escalator.
Great article, Seth. 7th paragraph: "seels" should be "seeks": "Indeed, like Trump, Netanyahu seels to end his nation’s democracy in part to evade a sprawling network of significant criminal investigations into his use of government power to enrich himself and advance his personal political ambitions."
Yesterday the NYT Israel reporter Rachel Corrie, modestly averred on "The Daily," that the deal Kushner orchestrated where Palestine was left out of the talks, resulting coalition realignment coupled with the Saudi's interest in obliterating Iran, may have played a role in Hamas attack. In response to the comment of conspiratorial thinking, just because the cadence of the piece is rapid and full of descriptors does not make the content conspiratorial. The fact that many people investigated and have rapidly sourced information of why Israel was caught off guard is unsurprising. From the inception, within the same breath of reporting the attack every member of the journalism community had asked "how did Israel intelligence which is one of the most sophisticated in the world, not see it coming?"
Thank you. It's about time the responsibility for the never-ending torment of the Palestinians to be laid at Netanyahu's feet. He has gone to great lengths to antagonize these people by supporting and building ever more illegal settlements, and even back when I was an activist (until 2010), incidents of senseless violence have kept Palestinian anger well fed. The only way to get rid of extremism is to treat people fairly by no longer making their lives a living hell. Netanyahu and his friends have goaded Hamas for decades, instead. Keeping Gaza under siege, stealing land in the West Bank, and then people blame the victims for the crimes of the occupier Israel.
As always Seth, a timely and frightening account of a dictator’s sociopathic calculations. As soon as I saw the attack, I wondered if Netanyahu had advance knowledge of the assault and let it happen to cement his power. And now we know he did. The consequences unfortunately will be hundreds of thousands of mostly civilian deaths. We can only hope that the scale of retaliation will be contained such that World War III doesn’t happen
Thank you Seth, I hope this information is forwarded to the DOJ, right now the collusion of Trump/Russia/PM Israel signals a warning bc of the coup in the House unwilling to help our Country but using Democrats/Biden as their scapegoat but loyal to Trump. I read a lot. Trump doesn’t want to face his 91 felony counts & trials are next year. I’ll say no more but it’s dangerous in Congress I believe more so than before the oust of Speaker. Stay safe everyone reading this & God help us all.
This one sentence in the conclusion is the most important for everyone to read. Maybe it should be the Title of this Article "Just hours ago, Al Jazeera published a report with this headline and sub-headline: “Netanyahu is Drawing the United States Into War With Iran; the Israeli Prime Minister’s Persistent Obsession With the Islamic Republic May Finally Drag the United States into Another Disastrous Regional War.”
Thanks for this nuanced reporting. I find that using social media around this subject super anxiety inducing. So many people with hot takes and so many others accusing them of taking sides - or condemning them by taking sides - when a great many of these people barely understand our own American politics, let alone the complexities of this situation. Many terrible things can exist at once without us losing our capacity for empathy.
We’re at the point where enemies foreign and enemies domestic are supernumerous, powerful and forming symbiotic relations to debilitate and destroy the host.
I used to believe we could handle this.
As an American I am broken-hearted, sickened to my stomach as I have watched the deliberate slaughtering of Jews perpetrated by Hamas terrorists.
Because of Netanyahu, his right-wing party and his judiciary coup have together contributed to Israel’s becoming a divided country, leading Netanyahu to not taking seriously a grave warning from the Egyptian military.
These horrific events make me even more concerned about our own country. The U.S. has a crazy wanna be dictator running for president (again) and it seems to be the number 1 candidate of the GOP - as a MAGA candidate - one illiterate, narcissistic, sexual pervert, “stable genius” (not), a con-man whose deliberate actions are only meant to divide us. And now as Seth clearly explains we have one of our two GOV chambers in total disarray because the MAGA GOP can’t get their act together, placing us at peril and weaker by the day.
Our enemies are watching the circus. We have one Senator - Tubberville, a Republican, deliberately weakening our military by blocking military promotions.
On X, I see Musk accusing the ADL - The American Defamation League, of causing him to lose 4 billions dollars in income. In out streets, we hear “Jews won’t replace us”. In Florida we have Neo-Nazis and white nationalists roaming Florida streets promoting the hate of Jews and our governor says mostly nothing. These are micro-aggressions that alone we may ignore but combined they are ominous signs that anti-semitism is alive and well.
So, credible reporting says that Egypt warned Netanyahu “10 days before” and described it as “unusual…terrible.” Can someone better versed in intelligence gathering explain if 10 days warning is decent lead time, or did Egypt suddenly find out? It seems strange, especially coupled with a description that’s actually pretty vague sounding-ominous, yes—but no details.
Part of the problem here is our own feelings about how or why any human would 'do such a thing'. I think we tend to want to allow for most humans to have good intentions, and hate that sometimes we are very wrong & really bad evil is actually something some humans will do for their own benefit. Thing is politicians by their very nature have a history of doing what they do for reasons that benefit their career, and we should never assume they are acting like any ordinary human would in any circumstance ! What exactly benefits Netanyahu in this scenario ? Seth is giving a good position regarding that, which seems mind boggling to any ordinary human, but NOT in the context of politics & thereby control & influence & what they want their place in history to be ! I really have no idea what is in Netanyahu's mind & intentions, but his recent history & need to a find an out certainly makes his motivations suspect ! The ME does not need this trip into disaster land, may it get resolved without more bloodshed ! Unfortunately the religion of Islam is intent on an ambitious removal of all things & people non-Islam from everywhere - all of us are under the threat of what is in their heads !
Thanks for the reporting, Seth. Yesterday I asked myself: Who benefits from a "war" with Hamas? Answer: Netanyahu. It solves a number of political and legal problems that he faces, as you indicated in your article. But it sickens me to think that this could be true.
Neo-cons have wanted to test out their bunker busting nukes on Iran for ages. All roads lead there.
Great article Seth. Netanyahu is playing us. Israel isn't our friend or a ally of democracy. While we condemn terrorists attacks and stand with Israel against terrorism. It really seems like we're taking Putin's bait. Putin knows Netanyahu wanted an excuse to go in and brutalize Palestinians and retake Gaza, and when he does, Putin will get his wish. Make Biden look bad and prop up Trump as someone who can fix it all. He's going to say how is it ok for Israel to do it in Gaza but Russia can't do it with Ukraine? I also believe Putin coordinated with the GOP to make the house speaker-less in an effort to kill funding to Ukraine, and make the American system look weak and ineffective. The timing of Putin publicly blaming Biden, and Trump/GOP following suit shows how much they are in lock step.
Good. Question. I thought the answer would be here. Hubby and I were talking about what really happened -did he know and ignore cause he’s a SOB or did he not know and he’s still a SOB. Still remains Hamas should not have, taking the playbook watching the Russians bombing innocent civilians, taking children as hostages, in Ukraine-as it remains now-Putin, Netanyahu and thump-all SOB’s and must face Justice for their crimes. Gawd, I wish someone had hit the stop button on that damn escalator.
Great article, Seth. 7th paragraph: "seels" should be "seeks": "Indeed, like Trump, Netanyahu seels to end his nation’s democracy in part to evade a sprawling network of significant criminal investigations into his use of government power to enrich himself and advance his personal political ambitions."
Yesterday the NYT Israel reporter Rachel Corrie, modestly averred on "The Daily," that the deal Kushner orchestrated where Palestine was left out of the talks, resulting coalition realignment coupled with the Saudi's interest in obliterating Iran, may have played a role in Hamas attack. In response to the comment of conspiratorial thinking, just because the cadence of the piece is rapid and full of descriptors does not make the content conspiratorial. The fact that many people investigated and have rapidly sourced information of why Israel was caught off guard is unsurprising. From the inception, within the same breath of reporting the attack every member of the journalism community had asked "how did Israel intelligence which is one of the most sophisticated in the world, not see it coming?"
Thank you. It's about time the responsibility for the never-ending torment of the Palestinians to be laid at Netanyahu's feet. He has gone to great lengths to antagonize these people by supporting and building ever more illegal settlements, and even back when I was an activist (until 2010), incidents of senseless violence have kept Palestinian anger well fed. The only way to get rid of extremism is to treat people fairly by no longer making their lives a living hell. Netanyahu and his friends have goaded Hamas for decades, instead. Keeping Gaza under siege, stealing land in the West Bank, and then people blame the victims for the crimes of the occupier Israel.
Indeed, like Trump, Netanyahu seels to : seeks