Israel/Palestine

I read an analysis that made a rather striking claim: Whenever the Palestinians' economic wellbeing was on a sharply upward course, some militant group (usually Palestinian) would do something that would trigger a violent Palestinian response which would lead to a harsh Israeli response which would lead again to the immiseration of the Palestinian people.

With the relative peace in the years prior to 10/7, that was true of Gaza, with a fair amount of liberalization in allowing Gazans to get work visas in Israel in the month or two prior to 10/7. And Hamas figured that the Palestinian cause was lapsing in the world community's view, but there was also less Palestinian discontent (at least in Gaza re: Gaza, with the nonsense in the West Bank not providing a suitable trigger).