The fallout from Hamas s attack on Israel raises the spectre of a regional war and further undermines western influence, When Jordan s King Abdullah II judged the Middle East was on the brink of falling into the abyss in the days after Harakat al Muqawama al Islamiya s (Hamas) unprecedented attacks on Israel on 7 October and the Israel Defense Force s (IDF) bombardment of Gaza, few in the region were ready to contradict him.