October 7, 2023 shall remain perhaps the darkest day in the history of Israel as a nation. In one day, nearly 1200 Israeli civilians and military personnel were brutally murdered by the Hamas terrorists. They burned babies in ovens, raped women and took about 250 hostages, among them were Holocaust survivors. This demanded a response — a response to free the hostages, to avenge the dead and to eliminate the maniacal ideology which led to this unmatched brutality. Hamas is part of the network of totalitarian organisations like Al Qaeda and ISIS which aim to bring the whole world under the flag of their interpretation of Islam. So let me make it clear at the outset that Israel is fighting a war on behalf of the free and democratic world. The civil movements which support Hamas’s right to rule Gaza are in a way negating their own right to live in a pluralistic society. The call “from the river to the Sea” in reality aims to annihilate the state of Israel.
Israel wants peace in the region. We withdrew from Gaza in 2005 in the hope that the Palestinians could contrive a working and responsible state. They however elected Hamas to power, which refuses to recognise the state of Israel or abide by the peace treaties signed by Palestinians in the past. In 2007, Hamas seized power of Gaza in a violent coup. Over the past 17 years, it siphoned off billions of dollars of aid and used it for building hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels, procure arms and firing rockets indiscriminately against Israel. For years, we allowed thousands of people in Gaza to work in Israel hoping that the economic incentive will work as a deterrent. However, what happened on 7th October 2023 has shattered our belief that you can buy peace with terror.
It’s now been over 300 days since this war began. So where do we stand? Gaza at this point is more or less totally under Israeli control. A large number of Hamas fighters have been eliminated by Israel. Hamas uses civilian infrastructure like schools and hospitals for storing rockets and ammunition. That Hamas, an ostensibly pro-Palestinian force is using civilians in Gaza as human shields is perhaps the most telling example of how terror outfits operate only for their own gains, paying no heed to the suffering of those they claim to be fighting for. Hamas’s aforementioned use of civilians as human shields as also its refusal to return the hostages constitutes as grave a violation of international law, human rights and basic human sensibilities as one can imagine.
While one is accustomed to apologia for such actions emanating from terror organisations and their benefactors, it’s usually assumed that international bodies, especially the UN, would conduct themselves in ways befitting the high offices they occupy. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. If it wasn’t enough that the UNRWA facilities themselves were being abused to further the goals of Hamas, one now sees nothing less than the Secretary General’s office itself engaging in “providing context” to the unequivocally condemnable actions of Oct 7th. The penchant of the UN as also of the ICJ, ICC and other international bodies to repeatedly disregard Hamas’s use of human shields and equating the atrocities committed by leaders of terror outfits with the legitimate response to such attacks headed by democratically elected government of a sovereign state only serves to further weaken the credibility that such bodies enjoy.
Israel has always strived to live in peace with its neighbours. In the past, we have made peace with Egypt and Jordan. In the recent past, Israel established full diplomatic relations with UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and South Sudan. We are working closely with the moderate Arab countries on platforms like I2U2 and IMEC. However, the Oct 7 attacks taught us that regional peace and stability will remain a distant dream unless we end the Hamas rule in Gaza and dismantle the Iranian terror network in the region. Israel is fighting a seven-front war. It doesn’t want to escalate the situation but is well prepared to defend its borders and people. Any long-term peace in the region requires decimation of Hamas, demilitarisation of Gaza strip and rebuilding with the help of countries that have friendly relations with Israel and deradicalisation of the people.
In such tribulating times, it’s the outpouring of support from sensible and empathetic people all over the world that has worked as a moral force for Israel to continue its efforts towards ending this ideology of hate and terror and battling the rise of anti-Semitism globally. The unequivocal support from our Indian friends is overwhelming and heartening. India, being a victim of cross border terrorism has shown great understanding of Israel’s predicaments. We, the Jewish people, have a long memory and never forget the people and countries which support us during difficult times.
The writer is the Consul General of Israel to Mid-West India
