Nearly six months after Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October and Israel started bombing Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office made a sudden announcement about the prime minister’s health. On 31 March, the 74-year-old would be undergoing surgery for a hernia. With the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) still pounding Gaza, and during the largest anti-government protests in the country since the war began, Israel’s leader would be placed under full sedation.
The operation to treat the hernia was a success, and came at a time when the Middle East crisis is deemed to be escalating gravely. On 1 April, Iran vowed revenge after it accused Israel of killing a commander from its Revolutionary Guards (a branch of the Iranian armed forces) in a missile strike in Syria. Soon after 7 October, the terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman told me that if Israel ended up fighting a war on multiple fronts – in Gaza, on the northern border with Hezbollah and perhaps even in the West Bank – then Israel would “likely target Iran, the puppetmaster”. He predicted this would “have dire repercussions and, much like the 9/11 attacks changed national, regional and international security, this will have a similarly seismic impact”. The strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus looks like Israel is trying to take advantage of the conflict in Gaza to attack enemies elsewhere.
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