NIALL FERGUSON
Will there be a World War Three? Israel-Hamas war risks escalation
It wasn’t just Israel taken by surprise when Hamas terrorists struck — the atrocity also stunned Washington. The US now faces threats on an unprecedented four fronts and global peace has never looked a more distant prospect, writes Niall Ferguson
ILLUSTRATION BY TONY BELL
The Sunday Times
This article was first published Sunday, October 15
If history at its worst is “one damned thing after another”, then the news can sometimes feel like the same damned thing, every hour on the hour. We have all now seen at least some of the hideous images of the worst attack on Israel since 1973. Most of us understand that, in its reaction to the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad against Israeli civilians — including children and even babies — Israel risks being sucked into Gaza and then hit from the north by Hezbollah.
The more thoughtful analysts see that the Israel Defence Forces’ nightmare of a “unification of the arenas” — including also the West Bank — could stretch the
