Tue May 18, 2021
Political maneuvering rather than security considerations has occupied the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in recent years, certainly as it applies to Gaza. The Israeli government worked on arrangements of a long term quiet with Hamas in exchange for Israel easing up on the Gaza blockade and other concessions, including allowing Qatari money to reach Hamas. Israel’s attention was focused on four rounds of elections, with attempts to form coalition governments, a task not yet accomplished. Hamas sensed the chaos in Israel’s governance, and considered it an opportune time to strike and exact more concessions from Israel, while at the same time strengthening its standing among Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel, on its part, was wedded to the conception that Hamas “doesn’t want to escalate things,” and was thus caught by surprise. Since 2014 (Operation Protective Edge), there has been relative quiet on the Gaza border with sporadic rocket attacks that were stopped within days, with little damage to life and property. This time the quantity and quality of the Hamas rockets in terms of accuracy, increased dramatically.