Israel-Hamas Conflict: Putting things in Perspective

As tensions loom large with unabated rocket firing and retaliatory air strikes, apprehensions of a full-blown war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza have surged. Moved by the plight of innocent civilians, UNSC has thus far, held three sessions calling for immediate ceasefire. US, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan have tried to broker a ceasefire, but to no avail. Unlike the past conflicts, the current escalation has been different.

First, the hesitation of the Biden administration towards the escalation has been intriguing. Reluctant to getting drawn into Middle East morass, four months into power, Biden hasn’t crafted a Middle East Policy nor appointed Israeli ambassador. By contrast, Trump announced Israeli ambassador one month ahead of his inauguration while President Obama picked up a Middle East Envoy on the second day of his Presidency¹. The trepidation in reflected in the lack of coherence in US strategy towards Israel. Biden reversed Trump’s Pro-Israel stance and restored aid to Palestine. This kind of delicate balancing without directionality and focus is evident in US administration’s initial hesitation to back Israel.

Though US has blocked all the resolutions against Israel at UNSC, the pressure within the party is mounting since White House statement of May 12^th, which read- “President Biden spoke today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He conveyed his unwavering support for Israel’s security and for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself and its people, while protecting civilians”. The new crop of the Progressives within the party- Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Mark Pocan criticised Biden for failing to condemn the killing of Palestinian children. Facing the rift within the party, Biden has issued a statement at the time of writing, expressing support for a ceasefire.

This significant shift in US position reflective of the changing demographics of the electorate is going to be a diplomatic setback for Israel. Biden administration’s trepidation has an underlying message to Israel.

Second, aside from the rocket firing and counter strikes, the new phenomenon that took Israel by surprise now is the eruption of mob violence of young Arabs on streets in Israeli cities- Lod, Haifa, Acre, Ramla in the Heart of Israel. Arab youth marauding on the streets is setting fire to cars, torching synagogues, throwing Molotov cocktails into Jewish houses and ransacking stores stoking the fears of a civil war.

Israelis know how to navigate through bomb attacks, rocket firing but aren’t used to mob violence and attacks on synagogues and lynching their fellow citizens. Arab comprise 23% of the Israeli population. Israelis are truly terrified of this internal strife which has the potential to unravel the Jewish country by sowing seeds of ethnic suspicion.

Though reports suggest that incensed by Israel’s disproportionate retaliatory attacks a faction of Arab and Jewish fundamentalists are resorting to these kinds of violent incidents, Palestinian attempt to ram soldiers with a car in Southern West Bank, reminiscent of the terrorist attacks in the West is causing fresh concerns. In the city of Bet Yam, an Arab man was apparently lynched by Israeli Jews. Yair Lapid condemned the rioters as, “bunch of pathetic racists who don’t represent Israeli Jews”². President Rivulin castigated the Arab Israeli leadership for their shameful silence on the pogrom.

Third, for the first time since 2014 capital Jerusalem is under attack, Hamas is firing rockets and using Anti-Tank missiles on Tel Aviv and surrounding cities in Central Israel. Millions of people are running for cover. With Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense System effectively intercepting and neutralising the rockets and people taking refuge in bomb shelters in response to the warning alarms, the casualties on the Israeli side are minimised.

Hamas have thus far fired 3300 rockets at Israel, some of them misfired and exploded in Gaza killing the civilians living in the vicinity. Gaza is one of the most densely populated regions and Hamas operate from the Civilian areas and use women and children as shields to escape the targeted attacks of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).

Additionally, when IDF issued a warning to evacuate, Hamas and the Jihadi elements encourage civilians to stay instead. As a result, civilian casualties are disproportionately high in Gaza. Hamas has been using gruesome images of dead children as propaganda tools to evoke emotional sympathy internationally. A case in point of IDF's mode of operation has been IDF’s warning alert to the media agencies operating in Gaza whose towers are brought down for doubling up as an operational centre of Hamas.

Israel has been severely censured by the international media for this act, but the incident was casualty-free.

Fourth, the mode of operation of the IDF and Hamas are quite contrasting. The answer to this lies in the charter of Hamas, an Islamic Resistance Movement evolved from the Islamic Brotherhood which says, “there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad”³. For decades, Israel has successfully repelled attacks of several nation-states. But the current conflict is with a non-state actor which is a designated international terror organisation.

By extension, Israel which is a sovereign state has every right to retaliate and defend itself from these attacks.

Fifth, by deliberately undermining the jihadi motto of Hamas, Israeli critics aside condemning its disproportionate retaliatory strikes gave a free pass to the terror advocacy of Hamas. Also, unlike the 2014 Gazan war, rockets are being fired towards Israel’s Northern territories from Lebanon’s City of Tyre.

Sixth, overwhelmed by the growing causalities and relentless attacks, nations are rightly calling for an immediate halt in hostilities accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide of Palestinians. But in reality, Israel’s conflict is a war against terrorism, a terror organisation that won the Parliamentary legislative election in 2006.

Seeking to graduate to the next stage of being the representative of Palestinians, Hamas is seeking to upstage the Palestine Authority. The elections scheduled to be held later this month were cancelled by Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas stating that Israel objected to the opening of ballots in East Jerusalem, which indeed is false. With a shrinking popularity, Abbas who assumed charge in 2005 for a period of four years hasn’t conducted elections till now. Hamas is upset with the cancelation of election. Ongoing violence is part of Hamas larger plan to advance its agenda. A series of events are smartly manipulated to unleash violence.

The district court was to issue a ruling on the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood evictions. It comes at a time, when the overstaying squatters and the people who are without any tenancy rights appealed against the Supreme Court which ruled in favour of the Jews who possessed the title ownership documents duly validated and recognised by the Israeli court.

Tenancy rights have been successfully transferred since Ottoman times and they weren’t disputed through British rule except for the 19 years period of Jordanian forcible occupation of East Jerusalem. Jordan denied the Jews the ability to exercise their ownership of annexed lands and it declined to give Palestinian Arabs the title to the land seized. After the 1967 war, Israel refused to continue the discriminatory practices of Jordan. Contrary to the media claims of the Israeli government evicting the squatters, the private individuals presented their appeals to the court. After rightfully establishing their ownership are now expecting the Israeli police to evict the overstaying Palestine Arabs. As alleged, this is not, “illegal settlement activity”.

To this end, Prof Avi Bell, clarified that even International Law wouldn’t strip the property rights of private Jews which are characteristically referred to as “Occupied Palestine Territories”⁴. Indeed, for all the charges of massive evictions, the decision pertained to only six families. An Israeli court has offered a compromise of minimal rent for residence in perpetuity, while some agreed, others rejected. Those who refused are facing the threat of eviction.

Sheikh Jarrah which holds a Jewish neighbourhood by name “Shimon HaTZadik” which holds the tomb of a rabbinic sage has been home to the largest ethnic population of Yemenite Jews⁵. Anticipating a flareup of tensions, the court ruling has been postponed.

In the run to the court ruling, Jerusalem has been witnessing series of riots. Reports of Arab worshippers’ stockpiling rocks, fireworks in the Al-Qasa Mosque the third holiest site for Muslims and known as Temple Mount for Jews emerged⁶. Validating these findings Arabs, pelted stones and bottles at Police during the clashes at the Mosque Friday. Police used stun grenades and water cannons to dispel the crowds. Subsequently, Hamas fired four rockets towards Ashkelon city Sunday night.

The following Monday, Nationalist Jews were getting ready for the annual parade to Old City on the eve of Jerusalem Day when the Israeli administration called off the event at the eleventh hour given its potential to ignite tensions during the Ramzan month. Israeli authorities for the reasons best known to them allowed the tensions to simmer. Having lost the chance to form a government, critics argued that Prime Minister Netanhayu might have allowed the situation to escalate to be at the helm once again with retaliatory attacks on Hamas. But the rapprochement between Israel and Arabs through the Abraham accords is the real trigger.

Israel-Arab alliance is perceived as a threat to the budding Turkey-Iran axis. Hamas the handmaiden of Iran is working at the behest of Tehran to throw a spanner into the formation of first-ever Israeli-Arab coalition government.

Ending the political deadlock of four rounds of electoral exercises in the past two years, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid were on the verge of forming a government with Mansour Abbas of Islamist Ra’am Party. This turmoil has hampered the process.

Seventh, Hamas provocative escalation has led to killing of 217 Palestinians which including 63 children and 12 deaths in Israel including two children. This unspeakable tragedy which claimed innocent children is now alluded to as bemoaning spectacle of self-determination. Portraying Israel, as an oppressive colonial force squatting on a foreign land Western media besides denying indigenous Jews of its history is projecting them as villains.

But indeed, the present conflict isn’t an Israel-Palestine conflict, though it stems from the Palestinian cause. It is a sovereign state’s fight with a non-state actor, a terror organisation.

Rightly so, India, which has lost its citizens to Hamas rocket firing in its statement at UNSC expressed concerns over violence in Jerusalem. Calling for “immediate de-escalation” as the “need of the hour, so as to arrest any further slide towards the brink”, urged both sides to show “extreme restraint and desist from actions that exacerbate tensions”.

India’s ambassador to the UN T.S. Tirumurti condemned the “indiscriminate rocket firing from Gaza targeting the civilian population in Israel” that has “caused immense suffering and resulted in deaths”. He reiterated India’s commitment to the Palestinian cause supporting a two-state solution, and underscoring the need for dialogue between Israel and Palestinian authorities. As a victim of cross-border terrorism, India has deftly supported Israel’s strikes “retaliatory” in nature and refused to call it an act of aggression as other countries termed it⁶.

Though nations are shy of calling the current conflict for what it stands for an act of terrorism, IDF is now leaving no stone unturned to eliminate all sources of terror- rocket launch sites and destroying the Kornet anti-tank missiles of Hamas, neutralisation of top Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in Gaza and terror tunnels.

Named “Operation Guardians of the Walls” the main objective of IDF is now set to destroy the network of tunnels criss-crossing the Israeli border built by Hamas after the 2014 Gazan war. Referred to as “The Metro”, tunnels are Hamas's first line of defense comprising anti-tank missile teams and mortar squads to attack the Israeli ground forces and escape the aerial strikes.

The raging conflict between Israel and Hamas is part of episodic and periodic attacks on Israel from Gaza against the existence of Jewish Majority State. Israel's stiff response is an act of reaffirming its deterrence. The current episode is no different. For the past seven years, Israel has been under constant attack from Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria.

@ Copyrights reserved.