{"id":1461,"date":"2023-12-28T17:35:43","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T15:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/?p=1461"},"modified":"2023-12-28T17:35:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T15:35:44","slug":"the-wisdom-of-hamas-the-free-press-dec-28-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/2023\/12\/28\/the-wisdom-of-hamas-the-free-press-dec-28-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wisdom of Hamas (The Free Press, Dec. 28, 2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>They understand the war they\u2019re fighting. Many in the West still don\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JERUSALEM \u2014 In the days after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, triggering the current war in Gaza, many believed that Hamas had erred. The word \u201cmiscalculation\u201d recurred in news analysis and in statements from Israeli leaders. People here in Israel were galvanized into action by the massacre. Western governments responded with shock and revulsion. The civilians of Gaza were staring at a looming catastrophe. Hamas was in for it now! What were they thinking?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as I write nearly three months later, with several acquaintances dead in battle and one still held hostage in Gaza, it\u2019s easier to understand what Hamas leaders were thinking. Indeed, it\u2019s increasingly worth considering the possibility that they weren\u2019t wrong.\u00a0&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Read the rest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefp.com\/p\/matti-friedman-the-wisdom-of-hamas?utm_source=tfptwitter\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They understand the war they\u2019re fighting. Many in the West still don\u2019t. JERUSALEM \u2014 In the days after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, triggering the current war in Gaza, many believed that Hamas had erred. The word \u201cmiscalculation\u201d recurred in news analysis and in statements from Israeli leaders. People here in Israel were galvanized into action by the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1462,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattifriedman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}