There is no more masking the face of Hamas, as evidenced by the gruesome videos they took on Saturday. The world now sees what Israel sees.
The State of Israel is at war!
The horrible attack by the terrorist organization Hamas, in which hundreds of Israelis – soldiers and innocent civilians alike – were murdered, while dozens were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, is 9/11 for the Jewish state.
For years, Israel avoided overwhelming Hamas because the strategic logic was to maintain Hamas as an effective civilian government in the Gaza Strip while weakening it militarily. Thus, the strategic purpose of the military operations against Hamas, from Cast Lead in 2008 to the Guardian of the Walls in 2021, was to severely damage the military capabilities of Hamas and preserve it as the address responsible for managing the lives of the population in the Strip. Another Israeli goal was to create two rival Palestinian entities, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a split that would weaken the Palestinian system.
From a historical point of view, the attack by Hamas precisely now is not surprising. The normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia constitutes for the Palestinians – who for years asserted and managed to convince many in Israel and the Western world that without a solution to their problem, normalization between Israel and the Arab world would not apply – a significant and painful strategic blow. Normalization with Saudi Arabia was supposed to be the last nail in the coffin of the “Palestinian taboo,” after which the Palestinians will be more isolated and poorer than ever, especially if their leadership decides not to jump on the bandwagon of peace and be part of the historical transformation occurring in the Middle East.
Like in the 1970s, when Palestinian terrorists hijacked planes, and the Second Intifada erupted following the Palestinian refusal at the Camp David conference in 2000 to join the peace wagon, the Palestinians again chose the path that has always raised their status in the world: launching terror attacks.
With the Palestinian Authority powerless, Hamas aims – with the direct aid of Iran – to arouse the Palestinian street and ignite the territories in the West Bank. That street no longer perceives the Palestinian Authority as an entity representing the population but as a collaborator with Israel. According to a PSPSR poll this month, most of the Palestinian public supports a return to the intifada and the armed struggle (58%), opposes the two-state solution (67%), supports the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (52%), and sees it as a burden on the Palestinian people (62%). That is why Hamas strives to ignite the Palestinian street that opposes normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not resolved.
In such a scenario, the Palestinian Authority will have no choice but to join the violence and terrorism as they did in the Second Intifada, or else it will be finished.
In Palestinian eyes, the surprise attack carried out by Hamas and the possible outbreak of a third intifada – which would lead to harsh confrontations between Israel’s security forces and the Palestinians – will once again label the Palestinians as the weak side fighting for its independence against Israel that would be portrayed as the occupying and brutal side.
The Palestinians hope then that the intifada will lead to sharp worldwide criticism against Israel for acting severely against the Palestinians, as even the countries of the Abraham Accords – including the upcoming entrant Saudi Arabia – will not be able to stand aside for fear of losing its local street. Thus, the Palestinians will use the intifada to embarrass Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf countries that are signatories to the Abraham Accords, including Jordan and Egypt. Those two countries are also sensitive to public opinion that criticizes them for betraying the Palestinian cause and again abandoning the Palestinian people to their cruel fate.
But this time, Hamas made a strategic mistake by embarking on a campaign of murdering innocent civilians. As a hybrid terrorist organization that controls territory and uses, among other things, psychological warfare, Hamas documented its actions to damage the Israeli consciousness psychologically. However, in the current campaign, the videos and photos circulating on the Internet, in which Hamas terrorists slaughter innocent civilians, are Israel’s strategic weapon in the campaign for awareness among the international community.
The Western world, which sees the horrific images from the Gaza Strip that remind them of the dire events in Iraq and Syria, understands today that there is no difference between Hamas and ISIS. These horrific videos and images that illustrate the barbaric behavior of Hamas give Israel complete legitimacy to end the Gaza problem, when this time, the enlightened world understands exactly what kind of vicious terrorist organization the State of Israel is facing. Better take advantage of it and fast!
JISS Policy Papers are published through the generosity of the Greg Rosshandler Family.
Photo: IMAGO / Saeed Qaq
- בניית אתרים