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I'm Zach Weissmiller.

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Hamas stunned the world last weekend by launching a brutal

terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and posting their crimes on social media. Israel's government

has responded with a sustained bombing campaign and total blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Why would Hamas provoke what was certain to be a devastating response from the powerful

Israeli military?

And what is likely to happen next in an Israel-Hamas war that threatens to spill far beyond

the region?

And what, if anything, should be America's involvement? To explore these questions,

reasons Liz Wolfe and I spoke with Max Abrams, a political science professor at Northeastern

University and author of Rules for Rebels, the science of victory in militant history. It's a lengthy

study of terrorism and insurgency.

The first thing smart militants do is recognize that civilian attacks are a recipe for

political failure, writes Abrams. You might say that the first rule for rebels is not to use

terrorism at all. While he's called Hamas' attack a major strategic

mistake for the Palestinian cause, he told reasoned that their objective might not be to secure

autonomy for Palestine at all in the near term, but rather an attempt to position itself as a leader

...