On Feb. 26, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding hosted Georgetown University professor at the Walsh School of Foreign Service Daniel Byman to discuss the war in Gaza. The event was called “Israel and Gaza: ‘Is There a Way Forward?’” and was moderated by government department Chair Benjamin Valentino.
Valentino began the discussion by stating that the College has a “genuine commitment” to respectful dialogue, even when disagreement exists. He added that while the issues surrounding Israel and Palestine will not be resolved at Dartmouth or any other American college campus, it is important to have these discussions with respect and civility.
Following that introduction, Valentino prompted Byman to describe Hamas’ origins.
Byman said that the Hamas group is a militant, nationalist and terrorist movement that grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Al Jazeera, the Muslim Brotherhood is a political Islamist group founded in 1928 to promote Islamic laws and morals. While Hamas runs Gaza on a day-to-day basis, Byman said they do not represent the position of all Palestinians because after Hamas’s initial election in 2006, there have been no subsequent elections.
Valentino then asked Byman what he thought Hamas was hoping to achieve by launching the Oct. 7 attacks.
Byman said that he did not anticipate the attacks on Oct. 7 because he thought that Hamas had “learned caution” and was prioritizing governing Gaza. He added that in hindsight, Hamas’s motivation likely came from wanting to free Palestinians held in Israel, which could be done by taking Israeli hostages as leverage for those prisoners. In the past, Byman said that Israel has released many Palestinian prisoners for a single hostage, so according to that logic, having many hostages would in turn free many prisoners. According to Byman, Hamas’s attack has increased the group’s popularity in the West Bank.
Byman served on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, to understand how the U.S. failed to detect and prevent the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Valentino then asked Byman to compare 9/11 to Oct. 7 and highlight parallels, connections or lessons.
Byman said that while the Oct. 7 attack itself was a shock for Israel, the idea that Hamas “hates them” was not a surprise. He contrasted this with 9/11 because many Americans did not know who Al-Qaeda was before the attack and had not previously considered them to be a “significant threat.” Because of this, Byman said that he views the Oct. 7 attacks as a “failure” for Israel because they “should have been prepared for this adversary,” especially because they had already seen smaller-scale attacks.
He added that there was a “double failure” for Israel because both intelligence and military could have been better prepared for the attack. Furthermore, Byman said that the Israeli public may have lost some confidence in security after this attack, prompting a more aggressive response by Israel.
Valentino then asked Byman what he thinks Israel’s immediate military goals are within Gaza.
Byman said that destroying Hamas is “not a realistic goal.” He added that replacing Hamas with a different governing body in Gaza to prevent them from taking over again is a “better” goal but still very “difficult” to accomplish.
Byman also said that Hamas likely wants to incite a larger regional conflict, which would be a “nightmare scenario.” He said that Hezbollah’s response so far has been to show solidarity but avoid a serious confrontation. However, Byman added that there is a “real possibility” of a preventative war by Israel that he puts at “one in four” odds.
Valentino’s last question was about what role the U.S. plays in the process toward a ceasefire and a long-term settlement.
Byman said that Israel is still concerned with bringing the 130 hostages being held in Gaza back to Israel, at least 30 of whom Byman said he believes are dead. He added that a ceasefire and the return of hostages is possible, especially because Israel has “diminishing returns” militarily.
Byman said that the U.S. could be doing more regarding humanitarian aid in Gaza. Byman added that the U.S. should be “pushing” for a ceasefire.
Valentino and Byman then opened up the floor to questions from the audience.
Dartmouth Chabad Rabbi Moshe Gray said that he thought Byman did a “good job” of explaining the facts of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“I thought [Byman] did a really good job basing those speculative answers on a really good, solid knowledge base and expertise,” Gray said. “I would say my biggest takeaway was, here we are five months later, and as clear as certain things are, the long-term solution is going to be far more complicated than we could have anticipated.”
Madeleine Shaw ’25 shared similar thoughts.
“I thought Byman did a really great job of elucidating the current war in Gaza and different strands of public opinion and U.S. foreign policy on relationships with Israel,” Shaw said. “I think Byman really tried to unpack what those events were inspired by, what their goals might have been, the actual facts on the ground, and then also how people think about them now.”
However, Shaw said that she wishes more undergraduate students attended the event. Approximately one third of the 40 person audience were undergraduate students.
“I think if students want to be active engagers and participants in these civic spheres, it’s important to go to these talks, engage with what the College has been offering, which I think has been really great opportunities to learn and to debate and to foster dialogue,” she said.
Jonah Bard ’27 also discussed the positive impact of events such as this one, as well as his disappointment that more students were not in attendance.
“Being able to interact with the person in person and ask questions tells you so much more about how they actually feel about things and can really provide an unfiltered take on what their opinion is,” Bard said. “I think it is really important for Dartmouth to have these kinds of events, and I really think there should honestly be more engagement.”
