John Mearsheimer

I think as long as the occupation persists, the Palestinians are going to resist.

As you well know, this is not the first time there has been a Palestinian uprising.

There was the First Intifada, there was the Second Intifada, now there's October 7th, and there are uprisings besides those three.

So this is not terribly surprising.

A lot of people hypothesized that this attack was due to the fact that the Israelis, the Saudis, and the Americans were working together to foster another Abraham Accord and that the Palestinians would in effect be sold down the river.

I think given the fact that this was in the planning stages for probably about two years and the Abraham Accords with regard to Saudi Arabia are relatively new phenomenon, I don't think that's new.

the main driving force here.

I think the main driving force is that the Palestinians feel oppressed, as they should, and that this was a resistance move.

They were resisting the Israeli occupation.

I mean, you had Operation Cast Lead in 2008, 2009.

It started, I think, right after Christmas 2008, and it ended right before President Obama took office in January 2009.

And

The Israelis periodically do what they call mowing the lawn, where they go into Gaza and they pound the Palestinians to remind them that they're not supposed to rise up and cause any problem.

So there's no question in my mind that the –

The Hamas forces understood full well that the Israelis would retaliate, and they would retaliate in force, as they have done.

Uh, uh, I mean, the only way you're going to get peace here, uh, is if you have a two state solution.

Um,

where the Palestinians have a sovereign state of their own and there is a sovereign Jewish state.

And these two states live side by side.

American presidents since Jimmy Carter have understood this full well.