[asgonio]

We know that the Bush administration faked evidence of WMDs in Iraq, starting a war that ultimately killed thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. It is not on its face preposterous that Netanyahu would have his own people slaughtered as part of some game.

Netanyahu has long supported Hamas, both politically and financially. At a Likud meeting in 2019, he said "Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy." He was entirely willing to support those who killed Israelis if he thought it was useful to him.

(The story was originally from Haaretz, but that's paywalled.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/world/middleeast/peace-ac...

But if he welcomed this attack, it backfired dramatically and predictably. I can't see that anyone could think it would help Netanyahu politically. If the goal were to brutalize the people of Gaza, perhaps, but Israel hasn't generally needed much pretext to brutalize the people of Gaza.

He could just be desperate. He is looking at prison time for corruption, after all.