Hamas 'rejects Israel's existence', committed to ending 'world's-longest occupation' of 'Palestine'

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00:00 Well, currently dozens of distraught Israeli families are scrambling for information of missing loved ones taken hostage

00:06 The senior Hamas official says the militant group is holding more than 100 people captive

00:11 And that figure is in addition to more than 30 people said to be held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group

00:17 During their rampage militants dragged back into Gaza dozens of captives among them women and children as well as the elderly

00:27 Or for more let's turn to a Stephen Cook

00:30 He's a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

00:34 Stephen thanks for joining us

00:37 all of these

00:39 Hostages and this latest situation. It's it's unprecedented. How will this likely change the Israeli response in the days to come?

00:47 Well, I don't think it's going to change the Israeli response very significantly the

00:55 government has declared war on Hamas with the strategic goal of which is the destruction of the organization and the

01:00 Killing or capture of its leadership? I expect there to be a very significant military operation including ground forces

01:08 Despite the large number of hostages that have been taken

01:12 The Israeli public is demanding this kind of response as your lead-in story

01:18 indicated the numbers of dead and wounded are absolutely

01:24 unprecedented in Israeli history

01:26 this is a shock to the society and

01:29 Nothing less than a full-scale

01:32 Invasion of the Gaza Strip is going to be tolerated by the Israeli public

01:36 Well, that would be a quite a response

01:38 But let's just talk about the security situation and how this all came about

01:45 Many critics of Israel would say that this could have been foreseen that the response obviously

01:52 It's a militant group like Hamas, but it was a long time coming and then obviously you've got the response from the Israeli security

01:59 cluster

02:01 What what does it say about the current situation with Israel in terms of security?

02:06 Well, it certainly represents a very significant intelligence failure on the part of the Israelis a combination of complacency

02:13 political turbulence within Israel and

02:17 A focus on violence in the West Bank and the belief that the Gaza Strip was it was generally

02:23 relatively stable in comparison, I think

02:28 Critics of Israel are have a point that the the occupation the 56-year occupation the blockade of the Gaza Strip now

02:35 the dehumanization and dispossession of Palestinians absolutely contributes to a desire for

02:42 redress and often redress through violence

02:44 But it's also important to recognize that when Mohammed deep and and the leadership of Hamas talks about ending the world's longest occupation

02:52 They're not talking about ending the occupation of the West Bank or lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip

02:57 They are talking about the occupation of Palestine meaning that they reject

03:02 Israel's existence and that this operation was aimed at weakening

03:08 weakening Israel and ultimately trying to

03:12 destroy it as

03:14 Amazing as that that sounds and amazing not in a good way

03:17 And well, that's that's taking it in terms of not recognizing Israel. That's a very hard line stance now

03:24 Obviously, you've got countries external like Saudi Arabia like Turkey possibly Egypt that can get involved and will then recognize

03:33 Israel's legitimate claim to sovereignty

03:36 What kind of response can we expect from those countries, especially at such a delicate time diplomatically?

03:43 well, all of those countries have

03:45 been quite critical of Israel and its occupation even since these

03:49 These spectacular events began on Saturday and have called for a de-escalation

03:55 It does provide an opportunity

03:56 however for countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to demonstrate their regional leadership in

04:01 In working towards some sort of de-escalation, but I would warn

04:06 Any Egyptian or Saudi official who believes that they can do this that the Israelis in particular are in no mood for diplomacy

04:12 and they have been given and will take a

04:17 significant amount of leeway in order to

04:21 conduct military operations

04:23 in the Gaza Strip

04:25 Stephen thank you so much for your insight that Stephen Cook a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

04:32 relations.

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