# War on the Rocks
## Metadata
- Author:: [[Jacob Ware]]
- Full Title:: War on the Rocks
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://warontherocks.com/2023/10/israels-9-11-how-hamas-terrorist-attacks-will-change-the-middle-east/?__s=xp05977nxem40kqcu9uq
## Highlights
> Terrorists are always studying their enemies and probing for opportunities to strike precisely when their opponents are distracted or preoccupied with other matters. It was thus the perfect storm in Israel for Hamas, given the current government’s fractious coalition, its unpopularity with many Israelis, the prime minister’s ongoing legal travails, and the recent clashes both on the Temple Mount, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews, and in the West Bank. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hcszgze6qksj44d7qygs431v))
> Terrorism is, at its very core, [strategic violence](https://www.start.umd.edu/publication/strategic-logic-terrorism), selected by actors who no longer seek political solutions. It is unclear what specific strategic result Hamas is seeking ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hcszm37q3pmn3hdxpj8rzw0p))
> Terrorism’s power to upend peace processes, trigger dangerous escalations, and set countries on the path to far more destructive, lethal, and consequential wars has so often been dismissed. But it was an assassin’s bullet in Sarajevo that resulted in World War I and produced 40 million casualties, and it was the 3,000 persons killed on Sept. 11 that launched the U.S.-led global war on terror in which an [estimated 3.6 to 3.8 million](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/) have since perished. Saturday’s attacks will profoundly change the Middle East, as the 1948, 1967, and 1973 wars and Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon did before them. Preventing the profound repercussions of Sarajevo in 1914 and the response to 9/11 that launched a two-decade-long struggle that many would argue did not end with the United States leaving Afghanistan two years ago, should be of paramount importance in ending this war and containing its spread before the entire region erupts in violence. A task, sadly, far easier said than done. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hcsznrx8j4k26csj0b129d34))