Islamic Terrorism and the Israel-Palestine Conflict

• The attack of Hamas must not be perceived by any means as an independence struggle by the people of Gaza. Instead, it must be seen as it is – an attack by an Islamic terrorist group and nothing else.
• Unless the world sheds political correctness and narrow-minded motives, there can be no long-lasting solution for terrorism and such inhuman attacks.

Although the clashes between Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation and Israel are not new, the scale this time is unprecedented in recent history. With the development of technologies, the scale of destruction has increased exponentially. So, although the famous Iron Dome managed to protect them from most of the thousands of incoming rockets, the ones that managed to sneak through caused significant destruction and loss of life in Israel. In addition to this, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killed many unaware civilians at a party, at their homes, in bomb shelters mercilessly and also took hundreds as hostages

The friction in the region is nothing new. With such a complicated and murky history with the region being holy to all of the Abrahamic religions, it is no wonder that there is such contention for it. While it is accepted that the Israeli State has failed to honour the Oslo Accords to a satisfactory level, it cannot be an acceptable excuse for these kinds of inhuman terrorist acts. 

Failure of the Comity of Nations

There is also a bigger issue with the global implications of the Israel-Palestine conflict. How can a terrorist organisation have the audacity to announce a full-fledged war against a legitimate Nation-State? How are they able to amass the huge resources needed for such an audacious terror attack? Is it an exceptional situation or is there any consistent and sustained phenomenon at work here?

Considering contemporary history, an Islamic terrorist organisation gaining control over a nation is not a new phenomenon. It happened in Syria, where ISIS at one point in time had gained huge territory. Taliban easily bulldozed the elected Afghanistan Government and took control over the whole region even as Americans withdrew with little planning or preparation. The world has been a silent witness to the horrific bloodbath and atrocities that followed it.

Hamas is basically a Palestine-based, Sunni Islamic fundamentalist militant group designated as a Terrorist organisation by multiple countries across the world. Its main objective that it proclaims is the creation of an Independent Palestine state. But along with it, their other important objective is the complete destruction of the Israel State, which is a proclaimed Jewish State.

How Hamas Operates

Hamas basically mobilises its troops and resources with the same religious calling as many other terrorist organisations in the world. That is the idea of Jihad, which is the holy war for every Muslim whose purpose is the end of ‘kafirs‘. With certain variations of the same idea, many of these terrorist organisations mobilise huge resources and support from across the globe. The support for such nefarious actions might be active or passive. 

Active support may be in the form of supply of defensive equipment, monetary support or mobilisation of personnel required. Hamas gets these from the likes of countries such as Iran, UAE etc. The passive support is from the likes of many intellectual individuals who are citizens of various other nations with strong ideological tilt or some vested interests. They tend to cleverly and swiftly divert the whole issue of terrorist acts of the Hamas organisation to the humanitarian crisis situation in Gaza, which they blame solely on Israel Defence Forces. The supporters bring the issue of the Palestinian State in what can be an indefensible act of blatant terrorism very concerning. So is there any solution to the problem in this region?

Fate of Two-State Solutions

Everyone agrees that the only long-term solution to these problems is a proper Two-State solution, where there would be an independent Palestinian State. But the problem with this is that time and again history has shown the instability in such regions in the long term. For example North Korea and South Korea. The situation in India-Pakistan is no different and when looked at, can anyone safely proclaim the two-nation theory has been a success or will be a success?

Billions of dollars are wasted in developing and creating weapons to destroy one another or as the official position of both countries states “to have a deterrent” against one another. The resources which might have been better used for the development of the masses. Thousands of lives from one side were sacrificed to sustain cross-border terrorism and Thousands from the other side to protect themselves. Especially in Pakistan where millions are suffering from the food and energy crisis, while the government is not ready to decrease the defence budget instead increasing it year by year. It has spiralled into such a situation that sustaining perceived enmity with India has become a necessity for the establishment of Pakistan to ensure its control over it. There doesn’t seem to be any long-term solution on the horizon.

Granted, the situation is different in these countries and Israel. Israel considers itself a Jewish State but India claims itself as Secular, however flawed the idea might be. But that’s an even bigger friction point as fundamentalist organisations such as Hamas cannot tolerate the existence of the Jewish State in its neighbourhood. As with many others, these countries will look for one or the other reason for conflict. 

Can there be a Solution?

The attack of Hamas must not be perceived by any means as an independence struggle by the people of Gaza. Instead, it must be seen as it is – an attack by an Islamic terrorist group and nothing else. There is a lot of hesitancy within the world to identify it. This might be because of the pressure to be politically correct or the individual security of oil imports. No matter what, there cannot be a solution unless the problem is looked at objectively and with honesty. 

Condemning Islamic terrorism doesn’t necessarily mean that all the Muslims of the world are somehow related to terrorism. The people of Gaza deserve a better standard of living, freedom of choice and right to self-determination. But the cowardly acts of violence on civilians by terrorists cannot be justified or even equated with the sentiments of all the Palestinians or even the residents of the Gaza Strip.

_{(The views expressed are the author’s own)}