Hamas’ Attack
By Dr D.K. Giri
(Secretary General, Assn for Democratic Socialism)
Hamas, a militant outfit purportedly representing Palestine cause launched a horrific assault on Israel on 7 October. Such a massive attack has not taken place for several years since Arab-Israel war in 1973 known as the Yom Kippur War. The nature of the Saturday attack was savagery as Hamas militants reportedly butchered 40 babies and committed savage sexual crimes on women including rape and parading them naked. Several countries have reacted to this unprovoked brutal attack. As a friend of both Israel and Palestine, India has reacted too. But it is not a traditional response to the ongoing contentious situation prevailing between Israel and Palestine.
To discuss the issue between Israel and Palestine and ponder over the aftermath of the current war, we should first look at the causes and consequences of the Hamas’ attack on Israel. Shockingly, the children have been the targets this time around. Some of the children were found beheaded by their cots and their families gun downed in bed or burnt alive in their homes at Kfar Aza near the border with Gaza. The bodies were found by Israeli Defence Force as they went from house to house after mopping up the last gunman and clearing booby traps three days after the huge dawn raid. Reportedly, the soldiers were comforting each other. One soldier shouted to the reporters: ‘tell the world what you saw here’.
The characterisation of what happened in the attack by Israel Commander Man Gen Itai Veruv is instructive, which should make the pitch for countries to react. He said, “You see the babies, mothers, the fathers in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorists kill them. It is not a war, it is not a battlefield. It is a massacre. It is something we used to imagine from our grandfathers, grandmothers in the pogrom in Europe and other places. It is not something that happens in the new history”.
Likewise, a senior US defence official added: “I want to differentiate this from other times we have seen conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. This is ISIS-level savagery we have seen committed against Israel civilians – houses burnt to the ground, young people massacred at music festivals”. To remind ourselves, ISIS – the militant Islamist group also known as Islamic State and Daesh became notorious for its barbaric killings at it conquered swathes of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan from 2014-2019.
As one would expect, Israel has responded with heavy force. Although it was caught unaware, it has marshalled all its forces including recalling the reserves and is pounding Gaza with the bombs. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We will respond with force, enormous force”. He added, “We have only started striking Hamas. What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”
What Israel would do to its enemies was spelt out by Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in scaring terms, “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be stopped. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.” Indeed, they have put these words into action. It seems to be an all-out war as Israel is preparing to move its tanks to Gaza in order to pull out the last Hamas militant.
The question is why this massive attack on Israel? Why now on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war! There could be many theories. But the most plausible one is as follows, that underlines the dynamics of geo-political rivalry in the Middle East, mainly between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Obviously, Saudi Arabia’s greatest threat is Iran. Iran is on the brink of having nuclear weapons for mass destruction. Saudis want their own bomb to counter Iran. They can’t build one without the US approval. The US will only approve it if they make peace with Israel and start being more cooperative with oil prices via OPEC.
Saudis have no issue with Israel except the virtue signalling, so a peace deal totally makes sense. A peace deal with Saudi and Israel is close to be done. If there is an Israeli Saudi peace deal, Palestinians and Iran will be big losers. Palestinians, with the encouragement and support from Iran, have mounted a massive attack on Israel. The purpose is to provoke a harsh response from Israel. Once Israel responds and death toll on Palestinian side goes through the roof, the media will scream “genocide” and that’s how you derail a peace deal between Israel and Saudi.
India’s response has come in terms of two tweets from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. He strongly condemned terrorism and expressed solidarity with Israel. He gave the impression that India’s stands four square with Israel. The opposition parties mainly Congress has given a mixed response, expressing sympathy with the civilians in Palestine. Sadly, when a full-scale war occurs, civilian casualties are difficult to avoid.
Let us dissect the strong support expressed by the Prime Minister. Although New Delhi has friendly ties with both Israel and Palestinians, it has moved closer to Israel in recent years, especially during Modi’s regime. Modi and Netanyahu are on the same page on terrorism. They have had close inter-personal relations. In fact, Israel Prime Minister in his last election campaign put up the portraits of a very few leaders as friends of Israel. Narendra Modi was one of them.
A pivotal moment came in India-Israel bilateralism in 1999 when Israel sent weapons to India during the latter’s brief war with Pakistan. But they grew rapidly during the Modi era. In 2017, Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. He is also the first Prime Minister to decouple India’s ties from Israel-Palestine. New Delhi now deals with both countries independent of each other. In various sectors, the relationship has grown – trade and arms, technological cooperation mainly in agriculture and surveillance.
It is a bit early to assess the consequence of the war surging between Israel and Hamas. The crude oil may be costlier. It may hit India hard because it is the world’s third largest importer of crude oil. When the oil prices go up, it has a knock-on effect on other commodity prices causing inflation. But that is a possibility India can hardly avoid.
On a deeper analysis, India should be more concerned about Israel-Hamas war than the ongoing Ukrainian war. New Delhi could afford to take a neutral position on Ukraine. But given the close proximity with Israel, deepening security and trade relations, and Israel being a most reliable ally, New Delhi could not be equivocal. The popular prediction is that Gaza strip will be flattened by Israel. We have to wait and watch. New Delhi has to be cautious as well as resolute in responding to the situation. To be sure, India’s geo-politics hinges on its reaction. — INFA