[October 8, 2023] John Hinderaker from PowerLineBlog makes an excellent point: this is not Israel’s 9/11 but their Pearl Harbor. The distinction is well-argued and vital. Getting the analogy right early in this war helps us set our perspective properly. This attack is no mere act of Hamas terrorism but is an act of war carried out by the quasi-state of Gaza. Read his article here.
I think some thoughts also help us get our perspective right and ensure our words are precise.
- Yesterday, I reported that the State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs made an ignorant comment on X/Twitter about the Hamas attack. That has since been removed and replaced by a bumbling statement by President Biden promising America’s full support to Israel.
- Hezbollah is tentatively entering the fight by firing mortars into Israel. Israel will be stretched to fight another antagonist, but they can do so. It is not in the interest of Hezbollah to take action at this time. Something else will happen that indicates this war will soon be much wider than just Hamas terrorists.
- The Saudi-Israeli normalization effort is a difficult diplomatic path to take, but the deal brokered by the U.S. has been dealt a severe blow. This may have been one of the primary goals of Hamas.
- The Israeli intelligence and defense administrations failed. The repercussions of this complete failure are similar to the one that preceded the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago.
- The Hamas attack is a well-planned effort, using new tactics (sea and air), equipment, and rocket attacks rather than simple border clashes or small teams attacking cities.
- Last night, Israel’s PM Netanyahu declared that the IDF would destroy Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities. This goes further than past strategies that have failed. Will the destruction of Hamas work? Can it be achieved? Only time will tell.
- Hamas taking many hostages and locating them in Gaza, possibly 100 soldiers and civilians, will constrain the IDF’s freedom of action. “There is no way around the fact that Hamas has new assets and that future negotiations over the captured Israelis will be excruciating.
- The intelligence and readiness failures underlying the Yom Kippur War brought down the government of Prime Minister Golda Meir. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces the same after a commission of inquiry does its work.
- Iran is a major player in this war and is already a beneficiary. Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said on BBC that Iran supported the Palestinian terror group to launch its multi-front attack.
- President Biden’s sycophant National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wrote last week, “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.” And let’s not forget that Biden restored aid to Palestinians shortly after becoming president, reversing the Trump policy.
- This is a TOTAL failure in American leadership. The number of dead and suffering tally will undoubtedly grow in Israel.
- This war is likely to spill outside the Middle East.
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Great article and summary. Please keep us up to date on your thoughts.
Yes, I agree. Today, Gen. Satterfield gives us a look into how he sees the US State department. They are not stupid but misguided by their rigid ideology of leftistism and Marxism.
Oh, yes, Israel needs more GUNS in the hands of private citizens.
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COOL ………….
Good evening my friend. Pray all is well with you and Nancy.
time to destroy Hamas for good
There is also little doubt that the Biden Administration is largely responsible for this, having just sent $6 billion. Of course giving Iran $6 billion allows them to buy more weapons. You don’t need to understand Iran’s budget to know that. You only need to understand that money is fungible. If you give them $6B, they have $6B more and that they can spend on weapons.
Hi ZB22, don’t try to use logic here to convince the ilk in the White House, or his ignorant followers, they will never understand something like that. In three days, Biden and his crack foreign policy team (the same team that fanned the flames in Syria, Libya, and Ukraine and gave us the total F-up in Afghanistan) will be calling for restraint and for proportional response by Israel. Liel Liebovitz’s essay at Tablet Magazine is a must-read. His observations are great, regarding the vile Democrat Party’s shameful culpability in this atrocity (along with their equally vile European Leftist, counterparts) via their decades-long enabling, funding and coddling of Iran, Fatah and Hamas, and, their despicable parroting of, and, deference shown, to manifestly contrived and fallacious propaganda mythologies of alleged Arab Muslim “Palestinian” victimhood and grievance.
Well said, Max, once again. Pray for Israel that they crush the terrorists so badly there is not one DNA crumb left.
Even before the shooting stops, it’s already clear the domestic implications for Israel are enormous. Its vaunted intelligence state, which features world-class technology and human spies and informers throughout the Muslim world, was caught completely off guard, both by the attack and the massive buildup of arms and equipment in Gaza. How in the world did that happen? The assault also comes while Israeli society is deeply polarized over the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Guess where many of the weapons used by Hamas came from? Those left in Afghanistan. And Biden called his retreat a great success.
Ack! Biden is such a gross failure, it sickens me. Israeli blood is on his hands and he doesn’t even know where he is today. Shameful. Pray for Israeli lives lost. 🙏
Israel has my full, unequitable support. That Said, I’m sure now that I’m on the FBI target list. They are always after patriots. The FBI is sickening. They target real Americans and let Antifa and BLM terrorism go unpunished. That is why we are becoming more of a tyrannical state under Biden Admin. Trump 2024.
The Internet and Western websites are very slow today. I wonder if there is a cyber attack ongoing. Of course, our intell agencies are more focused on tracking grandma at her local Catholic Church and following moms who are worried about their kid’s education, than actually doing their job protecting the homeland.
Hamas is celebrating now. They have achieve a tactical and operational surprise. Sadly, this is typical in the history of mankind. But Israel will recover, just like they did in the Yom Kippur War, from 50 years ago.
Good for them, time to crush Hamas and their supporters. Pray for those Israeli lives lost. And to hell with Hamas terrorists and all those who support them regardless of age. 🙏
I agree 100%. Time is way past for a thorough cleansing.
God Bless the Israelis.
Excellent, Gen. S. Please continue to give us an analysis update. Don’t worry so much about the facts, they will be scrambled anyway and we can read the Times of Israel anyway ourselves.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
JT, right. I agree. And, of course, war changes everything. And this war has the potential to be one of the most consequential events in the modern Mideast. The similarities of the Hamas attack to the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Israel, led by Egypt and Syria, are significant, including that both were surprise assaults launched during major Jewish holidays.
Yes, a better analogy. Thank you, Gen. Satterfield and I appreciate these articles. I know that they are a departure from your typical blog posts, but that is okay with us. If you have more analysis of what’s happening, please share it with us.
Good comment, Frankie Boy. This is why I come to this website FIRST before going elsewhere. Here is where you can find the heart of the issue and not a bunch of baloney.
Israel’s Pearl Harbor. Right!!!!!!!!
Frankie, thank you. And I too love this website and have been one of Gen. Satterfield’s longest fan. And, like so many of my Texan friends, we stand with Israel and against Hamas terrorism. And, a recommendation to the news media, stop calling them “militants.” They are terrorists. There is a difference, so get with it. 👀
If you want to see some of the behind the scenes effort in war, then read Gen. Satterfield’s first book “Our Longest Year in Iraq” (2021). You will find it contains a wonderful story on every page. And you can always leave a review on Amazon.
Thank you, nancy and welcome to my blog and for “hawking” my book! 😎