Ancient Chinese wisdom has it that whereas a state should have an army, its main function is deterrence. This means that when a state is attacked, its army (and hence, its government) has failed. Military forces should be so strong and awesome that no enemy even thinks about launching an attack.

For quite some time, Israel has ranked consistently among the world’s principal military powers. Apart from the Sultanate of Qatar, no nation in the world boasts a higher per capita military expenditure, namely 4.5% of GDP, twice the world average. Regarding military “man”power (women also do compulsory military service), Israel is number 18 in the world. These data are even more impressive when one realizes that the Israeli military only drafts among the seven million-strong Jewish population of Israel. Although Israel receives lavish funds from both public and private sources in the US, as well as loads of military equipment, the price that Israeli Jews need to pay to maintain the Jewish state is a hefty one indeed.

According to traditional Chinese military principles, the Israeli military failed when Hamas fighters invaded the country on October 7. Israel’s armed forces also failed in 1973 and 2006, when the country was attacked by its neighbors. Nor should a powerful state pick a fight with a clearly inferior opponent, as Israel did in 1982 and in 2008, when it invaded Lebanon and the Gaza strip, respectively. Even in 1956 and 1967, when Israel invaded its Arab neighbors with peer military forces, one could say that the Israeli military failed, since armies only do their job properly when they don’t need to fight at all.

If the official Israeli reports are true, that the IDF was taken by surprise by the Hamas invasion of October 7, it may be concluded that Israeli intelligence has also failed miserably. Many find it hard to believe that what was probably the world’s most closely monitored border could be crossed so easily and by so many. Suspicions about some kind of collusion or set-up therefore seem amply justified.

It is plainly obvious how this would benefit the Netanyahu government, which for many months has had to deal with massive protest demonstrations against its policies. Its reforms of the judiciary and its handling of the Covid “pandemic” with its mandatory vaccinations have angered a broad section of the citizenry. Israel is among the nations with the highest percentage of vaccination deaths and injuries. Seen from this perspective, the Netanyahu government can hardly be suspected of being concerned about the well-being and physical safety of its citizens, such as it is claiming under the current Hamas attacks. Actually, the Hamas incursions enable the government to change the political agenda, to divert attention from the nefarious consequences of its policies and to continue in power.

All things considered, the Hamas attack, with all its abhorrent, revolting details of excessive and inhumane cruelty, seems most welcome as a justification for the Netanyahu government to annihilate as much of Gaza as it can. Moreover, as Michel Chossudovsky has remarked, the latest Hamas incursion may enable Israel to permanently occupy Gaza, to annex it, and in the process to seize the rich undersea natural gas deposits right off the Gaza coast.

As for Hamas itself, its ties, both hidden and public, to both Israel and Iran merit some closer scrutiny. Contrary to what is being suggested in some reports, Hamas can hardly be considered a faithful Iranian ally. Quite the contrary, there are solid indications that it is a covert ally of Israel, more particularly of Netanyahu and his Likud Party, with the ties going back some two decades at least. There are indications that Hamas was created upon (covert) Israeli instigation as an instrument to exploit the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Against this background, the reports that the Israeli government ignored warnings from Egypt of an imminent Hamas operation become quite significant. It is actually hard to believe that Israeli intelligence would have been taken by surprise. This is near to impossible, really. In the unlikely event that the reports are true, then Israeli intelligence is far from being as good and professional as its reputation says it is.

The cui bono principle can also be applied in a broader geopolitical context. In view of the events currently unfolding in the Ukraine. As we speak, what seems to be the Ukrainian forces’ last stronghold, Avdeyevka, is encircled by the Russian army and is on the verge of getting destroyed. The Ukrainian forces in that cauldron now will have the choice of fighting to the death or surrendering. After that, the final collapse of the Ukraine, governed as a US satrapy since 2014, seriously depopulated, with its economy destroyed, with half a million dead soldiers and at least one million wounded and maimed men, will be only a matter of time. The US has already been giving signs that it wants to get rid of Zelensky, but not to worry, the man has been lavishly lining his pockets, and not only by saving on expensive suits, shirts and neckties.

Needless to say, the US more than welcomes the Hamas attack on Israel, if only because it is diverting public attention from the disaster that is unfolding in the Ukraine. The US vassals in the EU and the rest of the Empire must also have welcomed the diversionary event in the Near East.

With some thirty million Muslims in the EU (on a total population of about 450 million), and with many thousands arriving each day as “refugees” and “asylum-seekers” from North Africa and the Near East, the Hamas attack may also suit the EU and its member states. The police state rule imposed during the “pandemic” has left deep scars on the native European population, and many are if not against the pushing of the “green agenda”, at least increasingly critical of it. Moreover, the steep inflation since 2020, brought about by the banking system, is causing ever more social and economic havoc. However, with civil discontent seething and mounting in Germany, France, Italy, and elsewhere, there is suddenly more room for imposing yet more police state measures. Many native Europeans living in the big cities (where all the Muslims are concentrated) will no doubt welcome a new round of repression when they feel it will protect them from the kind of young Muslims that are among the main perpetrators of street crime.

In the US, the neocons and the Deep State also welcome the Hamas attack, because it seems to provide a fresh window of opportunity to strike Iran. In Israel as well, belligerent fanatics have been nurturing similar dreams for decades. What if something could be done to hurt Iran and preferably to destroy it? It would certainly help to wash off the humiliation of the US Iranian embassy occupation by young Iranian zealots in 1979! A chance like the present one presents itself only rarely. The road to get at Iran passes through Syria and indirectly through Lebanon as well, because the Hezbollah would need to be neutralized in order to get a safe passage. Both Syria and Lebanon have been targets for IDF operations for some two decades. Here as well, access to natural resources may also have been a factor. This is especially true for Israel’s ally, the US, which has occupied the Syrian oil fields.

Now that a new chapter has opened in the perennial war between Israel and its neighbors, it seems only a matter of time before full-scale war breaks out in the North as well. The US and Israel appear to have been preparing for this event: early in 2023, they “completed Juniper Oak 23.2, the largest United States-Israel bilateral exercise in history.” Just a few months ago, the US sent a Marine expeditionary unit aboard an amphibious assault ship to the Persian Gulf. In the meantime, the world’s biggest warship, the USS Gerald Ford, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with over seventy aircraft on board, has been sent toward the Levantine coast.

Does this all mean that the very existence of Israel is in danger? Certainly not. Despite all modern technology, it is still impossible to just wipe a country of the map. Not even Gaza, although many Israeli hawks and their foreign admirers would very much like to do that. Nor does Israel need active US military assistance to subdue Hamas.

If it is true that Netanyahu intends to attack Hezbollah and ultimately strike Iran, and he will certainly not be the only one in Israel and the US to entertain such designs, this might be a better explanation for the increased US military and naval presence in the area.

Now that Iran has joined BRICS, it has become even more of a danger to US interests than if it would just have constructed its own nuclear bomb. With the US Empire seemingly on the verge of implosion, it is becoming almost imperative for the US to strike at its enemy. That enemy is not called Hamas, nor is it Hezbollah, nor Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, or even Iran. The enemy is BRICS, especially its two major pillars, China and Russia. In this respect it is worth noting that on 22 September, China and Syria have concluded a Strategic Partnership, with China committing itself to the reconstruction of Syria once peace has been restored there. All of this is clearly part and parcel of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. If anything could set off alarms on the boards of the Hudson and the Potomac, it would be the construction of a solid, profitable communication and trade corridor from China through Iran to Syria.

The Chinese project is so threatening to US interests that the Biden regime forced Italy, which had joined the project in 2019, to leave it. It is also useful to bear in mind that the US will go to any length to protect its perceived interests. Only recently, the US destroyed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was providing affordable energy to its cherished ally Germany. In 1914, the English engineered a world war because they wanted to halt German expansion into the Near East (the Berlin-Bagdad railway). Today the US seems willing to set the world on fire because they want to halt the growing power of China and Russia.

The current installment of the perennial Israeli-Arab war is really a sideshow next to the major theater of great power rivalry, but like the Balkans in the years leading up to 1914, it may be the powder keg that sets things off.

Meanwhile, as always, it is the average citizens in Israel and Palestine, including of course Gaza, who are paying the price for decisions taken unbeknownst to them and certainly without their consent and against their true interest.