The claim that Israel’s judicial battle led to the Hamas attacks
In the meantime, a different liberal talking point about Hamas terror has emerged. We re told that Hamas pulled off its unprecedented successful attack because of the Netanyahu government s attempt to limit the power of Israel s Supreme Court. This attempt, the story goes, caused protests which (1) distracted Israel, thus causing an intelligence failure and (2) led Hamas to think it could get away with attacking a badly divided nation.
David Ignatius pushes that line, with a few qualifying words thrown in, here. The Washington Post s editors eschew the qualifications. They state with certainty:
We now know that Israel s own internal divisions, sparked by the extreme right-wing parties in Mr. Netanyahu s governing coalition, and by his plan to overhaul the nation s judiciary along lines favored by those radical forces, created an opportunity for the country s enemies.
If this were a conservative talking point, the Post would call it unsubstantiated, or worse. The Post presents no evidence that the internal divisions sparked by the Israeli Supreme Court s assertion of power unknown in any democracy and the governing coalition s attempt to rein in that power had anything to do with Hamas attacks.