A conflict between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank has been growing for months and finally reached its boiling point on October 7. Groups of Hamas militants forced their way through the Gaza-Israel barrier in a multi-pronged attack resulting in hostages held by Hamas and over a thousand deaths.
The world has been at a standstill, waiting on news for a shred of positive news from the war but that looks unlikely at present. Taking some time to express his thoughts on the matter, UFC veteran Tim Kennedy made an appearance on Fox News.
Ken Pishna, MMA Weekly
The retired mixed martial artist is an army vet who worked as a sniper and sniper instructor. Tim also heroically went to Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal during the mayhem to rescue as many American citizens and U.S. allies on his own accord. He has a history in the special forces and holds numerous Bronze Star Medal Awards. In response to the unfortunate war and devastating amount of casualties, Kennedy shared his views.
“The most horrific kind of fighting is door-door fighting. And the type of fighting that we’re gonna have to do there is against an enemy that respects life in no way, shape, or form. They’re going to use humans, civilians, as sandbags. They’re going to do fighting out of civilian positions.” Stated Kennedy.
“CQB, this door-to-door type of fighting is truly the worst type of fighting that you can do. And doing it with neighbors that you’ve lived peacefully with for a very long time but now are being used as leverage. Every time a civilian dies, it’s more propaganda for Hamas. It’s a win-win for them to have to fight this kind of fight. Israel has been trying so hard to not be in this fight for this exact reason. And this is the fight that Hamas wants.”
Kennedy then explained why this time seems different and how Israel will now be forced to retaliate to the Hamas attack that’s caused far too many fatalities.
“This attack was an entirely different level of complexity. Clearly, it was strategic, it was rehearsed, and they executed it at a very high level. This was funded, I believe, by even though it was executed by non-state actors. There were state actors who were funding and supporting an operation like this, where you’d see thousands of rockets in coordination with a ground assault.”
“They’re specifically capturing and making hostages of political opponents. Now, Israel has no choice. They didn’t want to have a fight like this, but Hamas pushed it to a limit now where there’s no other response but to go door by door.”
“Having fought insurgencies for the past 20 years, Americans know first-hand in Iraq, in Fallujah, and Ramadi, and Sadr City. In Afghanistan throughout the whole entire country. Fighting insurgencies is the last type of fight you want, but now we have to do it door-to-door if Israel’s gonna stand a chance here.”
Related: Tim Kennedy slams Khamzat Chimaev for training with “Terrorist”
Unsurprised by Hamas’ tactics, Tim Kennedy believes Israel must now treat it as a war as more is likely to come from the opposition.
“No, it’s not surprising that they’re using the worst type of tactics that we’ve seen from all of our enemies to include ISIS and the Taliban. The Taliban today asked if they could have permission to cross through a few sovereign nations so they could join the fight. So if we see Hezbollah, if we see the Taliban, if we see Hamas, I do not believe that this is the end of the attack. This is rather the beginning.”
“Similarly, I don’t think Israel’s initial response is anything besides stopping the bleed. They have to respond decisively. Netanyahu said it, ‘This is not a little fight. This is not an operation. This is a war.’ This was an act of war against them. And they have to treat it accordingly. And they have to do the worst kind of fighting, which is door-to-door fighting, against people that are going to be using civilians against them.”
https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/ufc-veteran-weighs-in-on-israel-hamas-war-israel-has-no-choice
