Less than two weeks ago, Hamas surprised Israel with its terror attack. Since then, a conflagration has been threatening the entire region. The rocket fire from Gaza continues, Israel responds with bombings. It is the harbinger of a ground offensive with which the Israeli army will advance into the Gaza Strip and will probably not retreat for a long time.
While Israel is in shock, mourning its victims and fearing for the lives of nearly 200 hostages, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing – but so far there is no safe place: they cannot go to Israel, and Egypt is also keeping its border closed. This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Israel, as did US President Joe Biden. Both left no doubt about their solidarity with the attacked country and its right to defend itself against terrorism. At the same time, Biden called for a measured approach and warned that Israel should not be "consumed" by its "anger" at the large-scale attack by radical Islamists.
The fact that Hamas sent out its hit squads on October 7 is no coincidence, as SPIEGEL contributor Richard C. Schneider writes about the renewed "national trauma." It happened almost exactly 50 years to the day after the Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria had taken Israel by surprise at the time, with tanks and helicopters, with fighter jets and missiles: on October 6, 1973, on Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish holiday, the Feast of Atonement. After a few days, Israel's forces struck back with all their might and finally prevailed against the Arab troops.
However, cracks had begun to crack in the aura of invincibility that Israel's military had procured, especially with the Six-Day War of 1967. And that is now one of Hamas' goals: to show the Palestinians, the surrounding Arab states and the world that Israel is vulnerable. To this end, the terrorist organization murders Israeli civilians and accepts further bloodshed in Gaza.
The Middle East conflict, complicated and harrowing
The background to today's war goes back a long way. And they are difficult to keep track of. Surely you also have to sort out your thoughts from time to time: Why do two peoples claim the region of Israel/Palestine, what makes the land around Jerusalem so religiously important? How did Hamas come into being, what is the connection between Fatah and the PLO? What is the role of Hezbollah, its financing and arming from Iran? And how did it escalate again?
In several articles, colleagues explain in an easy-to-understand way what has happened in recent decades. Dominik Peters classifies what the Gaza Strip, today the Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean Sea, means to Israel. History editor Frank Patalong answers the most important questions about the Middle East conflict together with SPIEGEL documentarians. Christoph Gunkel describes the past of the Jewish state, for which the state of war began the day after its founding in 1948 and whose existence has been permanently threatened ever since. Part of his overview of the prehistory of terror is the intifadas of the Palestinians and the conflicts over Jerusalem with central religious symbols such as the Western Wall, the Temple Mount and the Aqsa Mosque.
Christoph spoke with Israel's former Justice Minister Jossi Beilin, who was one of the architects of the Oslo Peace Agreement with the Palestinians and continues to advocate the two-state solution. "If we don't divide up the land, there will be no Jewish democracy," says Beilin. "We should negotiate with the PLO instead of boycotting it." He traces the hopes and disappointments since the 1993 agreement, the interview can be found here. Beilin believes that a solution is "not impossible – but only with a different Israeli government" than the one under Netanyahu that strongly rejects a two-state solution.
Is there still a way out after all the wars, in all the hatred? At the end of its current cover story about the "wounded country," SPIEGEL develops a positive perspective on a historical basis: Six years after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israel made peace with the aggressor Egypt, and later also with Jordan. And Golda Meir was forced to resign in 1974 – the prime minister had completely misjudged the danger of a large-scale attack on Israel, much like Benjamin Netanyahu in recent months, who has divided the country so deeply with his ultra-right coalition.
Despite the devastating news of the war in the Middle East, we wish you a good start to the autumn in peaceful Western Europe. If you have any criticism or suggestions on historical topics, please feel free to write to us at spiegelgeschichte@spiegel.de .
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