Netanyahu Is Paying in Others' Blood to Buy Himself More Time

The crisis sparked by Israel's jihadi enemies - each more contemptible than the other - has created one of the messiest situations in geopolitics since WWII

Exactly 10 months after the Oct. 7 massacre which sparked a devastating war in Gaza, the Middle East is teetering on the edge of an even wider conflict as Israel braces for a threatened attack from Iran and its terrorist proxies. It could easily arrive in coming hours.

There are two seemingly contradictory ways to look at this tragedy, and understanding how both are true is the key to untangling one of the messiest situations in geopolitics since World War II.

In the first narrative, the Hamas terrorist group, which seized control of Gaza in 2006, last Oct. 7 invaded a surprisingly unguarded Israel unprovoked, barbarously massacred some 1,200 people, overwhelmingly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 into Gaza. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas did this because it’s dedicated to destroying Israel and, in its demonic extremism, doesn’t care about consequences to their own people. Hamas hoped to spark a multi-front war, and partly succeeded.