By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

Back in October of 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during the holiest of holidays. The early October sneak attack by the group Hamas on Israel may seem like yet another religious attack on the Jewish people. But each of these seemingly religious wars is actually about something else. The attacks from Gaza were designed to disrupt a game-changing American foreign policy initiative, where Israel’s former enemies are set to recognize the Jewish nation’s right to exist.

Hamas has now launched an all-out attack on a number of Israeli positions along the border with Gaza, where terrorists crossed the border, shot people indiscriminately, and took hostages, allegedly kidnapping soldiers and civilians to use as human shields against any Israeli retaliation. They also launched rocket attacks on Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. Hundreds of Israelis were killed. Some may well have been celebrating Sukkot.

The question everyone is asking is why.

Many times, when countries, or entities with different religions come into conflict, the assumption is that religion is the source of the fighting. And sometimes spokespeople for those sides make religious claims, perhaps hoping to get sympathy, even recruits to their cause. But in reality, most of the time, it’s about money, real estate, or some more secular reason.

Representatives from Gaza blamed increased Jewish visits to the Al-Asqa site, also known as the Temple Mount. It sounded a lot more like an excuse than a good reason for an all-out war. There’s a much more realistic reason, which makes a lot more sense. And it’s about peace in the region. For a terrorist, nothing will bankrupt you more than the absence of conflict, even good will.

Thanks to the Abraham Accords advanced by the Trump Administration, and behind-the-scenes work by the Biden Administration, Saudi Arabia is poised to break years of opposition to Israel, and formally establish diplomatic relations with each other. Other economic ties are sure to follow. Other Middle Eastern countries are set to follow in the path the Saudis are planning. It will likely make Israel’s existence unstoppable.

Israel also seems poised to work a deal with Lebanon to develop natural gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean, helping with the energy needs of both sides, and enabling more regional cooperation. And that doesn’t fit into Hamas’ long range plans.

There are some allegations that Iran encouraged Hamas to launch those attacks. Instead of facing Israel and Saudi Arabia when they were opposed to each other, Iran now faces a united front. And with more Arabic countries agreeing with Israel’s right to exist, that would allow many of these nations to turn their attention on Iran, the nuclear program, their support of Israel and interference in Syia. That’ not what Iran wants.

Israel clearly will want to retaliate strongly, with airstrikes and bombing. And that’s exactly what Hamas wants, hoping the retaliation will get Saudi Arabia and others to back away from Israel. We will have to work with our Israeli ally to limit the attacks to those most responsible, instead of indiscriminate bombings. And we need a full diplomatic press to keep that peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel going, the kind of peace that Hamas wants to disrupt.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His Twitter account is JohnTures2.