Subject: Re: Hamas launches mass attacks on Israel
yet the world survived

Yes, but there aren't any Phoenicians or Mesopotamians around.

There are millions of Palestinians. There is no country of Palestine. This creates enormous difficulties, both for the Palestinians and the countries where they live - about 3 million outside of Israel (mostly in Jordan), and a little more than 2 million within Gaza and the West Bank. More than five million, total.

That's a very large number of people, and it presents difficulties that the absence of Carthage does not.