Why 10/7 Was Successful for Hamas
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It hardly needs to be said that Hamas is the biggest bunch of assholes in the world, except perhaps for Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party. But there’s no question that the attacks on 10/7 were hugely successful for Hamas. Their leadership doesn’t care if Gazans die or if their cadres in Gaza die. They can always recruit more because Israel will always act the bully and just prove Hamas’ point for the leadership, which is that Israel will never treat Palestinians like humans, the PLO is worthless and corrupt, and thus we are the only mode of resistance. Moreover, the attacks had major international aims, which was to stop the normalization of relations between Muslim countries and Israel. Since Netanyahu can’t resist killing brown people in huge numbers at the slightest provocation, it was obvious this was going to work, like it was obvious in 1963 that taking the civil rights movement to Birmingham would get great TV headlines because Bull Connor just couldn’t resist violence.
Turkey said late Thursday that it had halted all trade with Israel until “uninterrupted and adequate humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza,” signaling further deterioration in relations between the two countries.
Turkey’s Trade Ministry said in a statement that exports and imports “for all products” would pause. On Friday, the trade minister, Omer Bolat, said that the suspension would remain in place until Israel’s bombardment of Gaza stops.
“Until a permanent cease-fire is established and uninterrupted humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza, suspension of trade with Israel will be implemented for all imports and exports,” Mr. Bolat said at a news conference to announce monthly trade figures.
The move, which was initially reported by Bloomberg, prompted the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, to lash out at Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” Mr. Katz said in a post on social media. Mr. Katz added that he had instructed the Foreign Ministry to create alternatives to trading with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries.
Turkey reported $5.4 billion in exports to Israel in 2023 and $1.64 billion in imports, according to United Nations figures.
Mr. Erdogan did not comment publicly on any changes in Turkey’s trade ties with Israel. But the Turkish leader has strongly criticized Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which began after Hamas led an Oct. 7 attack into Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led to the abduction of about 240 others. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed amid Israel’s bombardment of the territory, according to health officials in the territory.
Then there is Colombia, demonstrating that this had worked even outside the Islamic world.
Colombia is set to break diplomatic relations with Israel over its actions in Gaza.
Speaking to a crowd in the capital Bogotá on Wednesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that the country “will break diplomatic relations with the state of Israel” on Thursday, calling its government “genocidal.”
“If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die,” he said.
Israel has strongly denied committing genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Colombia is one of the U.S.’s closest partners in Latin America, and it has previously been a close partner of Israel.
Among other things, I don’t see how this war in Gaza is good for Israel. It seems utterly disastrous for Israel’s future. It makes the people of Israel less safe, not more. I get that the war is popular in Israel and thus good for Netanyahu. But this is short-term thinking. All Israel is doing is hurting itself internationally and creating new generations of younger people in the Islamic world and otherwise who hate it. In this, Hamas is hugely victorious.