Marc Lynch

The remarkable thing about this, and particularly when we're thinking about, you know, an Iran war, a country of 93 million and huge geographically, how Israel had such a small, tiny place that it had been controlling, really dominating Israel.

for decades with only a few thousand fighters underground and couldn't really, despite the fact of leveling the place, that they still even in existence is really should send a message.

And they obviously weakened, dramatically weakened, and they weakened economically.

They can control internally and they're asserting themselves internally because there's no alternative right now

to them internally, but their capacity to wage war across borders is obviously very, very limited.

I do think that the mindset, though, of now we have them and we now can prevent them is just so flawed because Hamas, of course, we know what it is, and yes, the Israelis want it controlled, but you look at the history of this conflict or any conflict,

If it's not Hamas, it's going to be something else.

You've created so many tens of thousands of orphans.

You created so much devastation and ruin.

And so what's happening to the next generation?

Where are they going to go if you're not going to solve it politically and give them freedom?

And if it's not Hamas, it's going to be something else.

And we forget that how was Hamas born originally?

I mean...

Israel thought the PLO was the problem.

It was secular, but it was the biggest Palestinian movement.

They started helping the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and allowing it to compete with the PLO.

And the Muslim Brotherhood gave birth to Hamas during the first intifada in 1987.

So we see this book everywhere, right?

So, you know, we get the jihadists to help in Afghanistan, and then they become...