EDITORIAL - Was this Hamas’ plan after all?

Those who are watching developments in the Middle East have cause to be concerned; Iran just directly attacked Israel, giving rise to the real possibility that the entire region will be dragged into war.

According to reports, more than 300 Iranian missiles and suicide drones were launched against Israel from Iranian territory the other day. We can only conclude that this was done in retaliation for the airstrike on Iran’s embassy in Syria which they blamed on Israel.

And while Israel and its allies claimed that 99% of the missiles and suicide drones were shot down by their missile defense systems, this doesn’t minimize the fact that Iran has openly attacked Israel. After the attack Iran said it will no longer escalate the situation, but will not hesitate to strike back if Israel still takes action against them.

Now the world is waiting with bated breath what Israel will do next.

With these developments --and the ones we dread-- we cannot help but wonder if this was really the objective of Hamas’ full-scale attack last October after all; to ultimately goad Israel into a war with Iran or any other hostile nation, something that will likely draw lines and set the scene for even more division and conflict in the Middle East.

Was all this part of a long-term plan? Hamas struck when Israel was just about to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, they had to have had this in consideration. They would have foreseen Israel hitting back at them and then Saudi Arabia pulling back from the negotiating table after they did.

The suffering of their own men, women, and children during Israeli’s retaliation may have also been something they foresaw, or didn’t see to what extent, or perhaps didn’t care for at all as long as Israel came to be seen as the villain and aggressor, or as long as Israel created more enemies out of rage.

Hamas wants to see Israel eradicated from the map. Knowing they cannot do this themselves, is it possible that they did things with the end goal of drawing Israel into a conflict with another or nations that have the ability to do so?

Israel should take care with its next move, or else they may just be playing into the hands of Hamas.