Israeli officials are facing backlash after years of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu quietly allowing Hamas to remain in power.

But reporting in the New York Times has revealed that Netanyahu’s government was more hands-on about helping Hamas: they helped a Qatari diplomat bring suitcases of cash into Gaza, indirectly boosting the militant organization, according to the report.

The calculus — the Times reported on Sunday, citing Israeli officials, Netanyahu’s critics, and the man’s own reported statements — was to keep Hamas strong enough to counteract the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, allowing Netanyahu to avoid a two-state peace solution and keep both sides weak.

Israeli security officials got it wrong; they didn’t think Hamas was capable, or even interested, in launching a large attack against the Jewish state.

  • blitzkrieg@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Israel was built for European immigrants. They’re not Semitic. Arabs are.

    • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      There’s jews that lived ther, jews that migrated from Europe, and jews that came from the Ottoman states and the Middle East to escape discrimiation under islamic regimes. Descendants of the latter group being the largest today iirc

    • TserriednichThe4th@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Dna sequencing shows that the Y chromosome from israelis is much closer to other middle easterners and jews that never left the middle east than any europeans.

      This is an anti semitic lie that you peddle. The jews in israel rn have always been middle eastern.