Region reacts as Hamas attack on Israel spirals
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00:00 what can be done internationally to rein this in, this conflict now between Israel and Hamas?
00:06 Well, in the Arab world, many people feel that the West has been complicit, that the West has turned
00:18 a blind eye to Palestinian suffering for the past several decades. And many people view
00:25 Western support for Ukraine as another symptom or another symbol of hypocrisy, because the
00:33 Palestinians have been also occupied, and they think that the West is simply ignoring their
00:41 suffering and offering unconditional support for Israel, even though Israel is currently being run
00:47 by an extremist government that openly holds Palestinians in contempt.
00:55 There is talk now of a possible land operation by Israel. How would Israel be able to organise that?
01:03 Well, judging from history of the past decades, we can only assume that the Israeli response
01:13 will be absolutely devastating, and that this is the beginning of a horrible war that would lead
01:21 to hundreds, if not thousands, of victims. Israel cynically uses the expression "mowing the lawn".
01:28 Very frequently, they proceed to operations in Gaza or in South Lebanon. And I think this one
01:36 will be particularly devastating, and I see no way of preventing the current Israeli government
01:45 from doing this. And I'm afraid this will only further radicalise the Palestinians.
01:50 Radicalise the Palestinians, but we're also seeing domestic Israeli politics here playing out,
01:56 because the justice reform has been a terrible situation for this ultra-nationalist far-right
02:02 government in power. How is that going to be planning out the reaction from Israelis themselves
02:09 to this massive conflict now beginning? Yes, this is a fundamental point. Kissinger
02:16 often said that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics. And when it comes to
02:21 domestic politics, Israel has been undergoing the worst existential crisis of its history.
02:28 So today we are going to see probably a rally around the flag phenomenon. All Israelis
02:36 want to take revenge on Hamas, but they will also probably criticise the massive intelligence
02:42 failure. So there are still two unknowns today. What will be the position of Hezbollah? Will
02:50 Hezbollah join this fight and open a second front in Lebanon? And what will be the position of Saudi
02:55 Arabia, which was on the verge of normalising its relations with Israel? But again, this will help
03:03 Benjamin Netanyahu get out of the domestic crisis, and it will definitely put an end to the massive
03:09 protest movement of Israeli liberals and democrats who were criticising Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts
03:15 to muzzle the judiciary system in Israel. Thank you to you, Karim Emile Bitar. You're
03:21 a professor of Middle East Studies at the ENS, the École Normale Supérieure in Geneva.