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The horror is just beginning to unfold in the Middle East
Post mortem into the Hamas attacks has started, the first of which how intelligence could have failed, especially of an agency, Mosad, which is seen as the World’s Number One.
Residential areas in Israel go up in smoke as Hamas terrorists infiltrate communities / X/@IsraelMFA
October 7, 2023 will go down in history not exactly as a re-run of Sept. 11, 2001 but something close. On 9/11 a bunch of hardened terrorists under the aegis of the al Qaeda unleashed death and destruction on America as never seen before with nearly 3000 persons perishing in one clip at the World Trade Center in New York.
Earlier this week, a terror outfit called Hamas, at times masquerading as the voice of the Palestinian people, unleased horror in the streets of Israel including in an alleged gunning down of 260 persons attending a music festival, a heinous act that only sick minds would subscribe to.
The Hamas’ well orchestrated attack took the world by surprise particularly the Jewish state that has seen terrorism and violence from the outside for more than seven decades. The post mortem into the Hamas attacks has started, the first of which how intelligence could have failed, especially of an agency, Mosad, which is seen as the World’s Number One.
And a painful reminder has been that agencies that are outside of the political scheme of things are at times victims of political wrangling, infighting and fractured messages to grave peril. This is a message that other democratic societies, including India, should take seriously.
It will be a while before the full soul searching exercise is out of the way; but in the meantime the Middle East and the world at large is witness to yet another full scale conflict that shows every signs of expanding and escalating.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu means every word of what he says… “You started and I will finish”. And in this context, the law of proportionality means little to a leader who is keen on wiping out the Hamas even if it means re-drawing the map of the region. The disproportionate response of Tel Aviv has come as a shock even to those who are on the side of Israel.
The Hamas surprise of October 7 on a Jewish holy day is quite reminiscent of what happened exactly 50 years ago in 1973 by way of the Yom Kippur war when the Egyptians and Syrians surprised Israelis, something Israel vowed that it would never allow to repeat.
In the few days that have gone by, indications are that it was a highly secretive operation planned for months and executed almost without help from the outside. But it is tempting to see the hand of Iran, a nation that has consistently bankrolled and armed outfits like the Hamas and the Hizbollah to further its own interests in the area. Teheran denies any involvement even while cheering the Hamas’ assault.
In its objective of finishing off the Hamas, Prime Minister Netanyahu has to keep the broader picture in mind. It is obvious that the Hamas wanted to disrupt the normalization process between Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations; and what is a better way to fall into this trap by an indiscriminate use of force against Gaza citizens including in a planned ground invasion?
Terrorists seek publicity by killing innocent civilians; and the cowards hide in the midst of ordinary folks knowing full well bombs and bullets make no distinction. Why else take hostages at the start of a crisis and threaten to kill them with every building blown away by Israeli jets? This is where Israeli leaders must be careful in not being carried away.
Currently Editor in Chief of New India Abroad, the writer was Special Correspondent of The Hindu in Washington DC covering North America and the United Nations.
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