The best response to Hamas would be to keep the Saudi deal alive

Hamas’s brutal and inhuman attack on Israel last week took the world by surprise. Most importantly and tragically, it took the Israeli government by surprise, which meant a delayed response to the slaughter of its civilians. But this was no “black swan” event. Instead, as scholar Amy Zegart notes, it was a white swan — something utterly predictable. 

This is the fifth war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza over the last 15 years. Israel controls air, land and sea access to the strip. Israeli intelligence is supposed to have an extensive network of informants in Gaza. So what happened? We will need time to reach a full assessment, but it does appear the Netanyahu government was so focused on judicial overhaul at home and a Saudi deal abroad that it ignored the possibility of an upheaval in Gaza — despite allegedly receiving a warning from Egypt. 

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