Hamas Paving the Way for Middle East Terror

July 12, 2024

by: Ilse Strauss

Friday, 12 July 2024 | The Hamas terror attack on October 7 has prompted record numbers of aspiring terrorists to join the ranks of radical extremists across the globe, eager for their share of the bloodshed, the State Department’s top intelligence official warned recently.

In an interview with the Washington Post last week, Brett Holmgren, the assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, described the largest massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust as an “inspiration for lone actors” and “a generational event that terrorist organizations in the Middle East and around the world use as a recruiting opportunity.”

From a Western perspective, the allure seems illogical. Yet according to Dr. Nir Boms, research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, the appeal stems from the fact that a relatively small terrorist group—and Iranian proxy—managed to strike a significant blow and now faces the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza.

“Of course, the IDF is fighting with one hand behind its back,” Boms explains. “But that provides some inspiration. And if there’s no victory, then it stands as encouragement to other terrorist groups to use extremism, violence and terrorism because they see that the strategy works.”

In a region where the best defense is deterrence, Israel understands the threat of allowing terror to go unchecked all too well. Unanswered terror breeds yet more terror. She’s not the only one though. “Many of our friends and allies in the region—including the moderate Arab and Gulf states—agree with us. They know that we need to fight, that we need to win, that we need to neutralize Hamas.”

Israel is often the proverbial canary in the mineshaft, the first target and the one being tarred and feathered on the world stage, Boms concedes. But ultimately, Israel’s regional allies know that they face a common nemesis and that the Jewish state isn’t the sole target in that enemy’s crosshairs.

“If you study jihadists from the Muslim Brothers all the way to the Islamic State, there’s a well-known distinction between the near jihad and the far jihad, which determines which arena jihadists deal with first,” Boms holds.

This means radicals often prefer to put their proverbial house in order first, to eradicate secularism and tolerance on the home front and subjugate their own people under extremist rule before engaging in external battles to export that extremist abroad.

“The Islamists are not fans of secular governments. Remember that Islamists assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat because he was regarded as too secular. He attempted to promote stability and peace. And for that he was killed,” Boms says.

“It is clear to the Saudi king, to the Emiratis and to the Bahrainis that these types of Islamists—those who are inspired by Sunni ideologies from the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State school of thought or those who are inspired by Iran—would kill them too and often chooses to kill them first.”

“So of course they don’t want Hamas to win, because that will inspire the type of people who are going to do the same thing to them. They encourage us because they understand that. Don’t forget that the Emiratis and Saudis have been fighting in Yemen, they’ve been fighting Iran. They understand who they’re fighting. At the same time, they need to default to diplomacy because of public opinion, but make no mistake, they understand that Hamas must be eliminated.”

Of course, the ideal would be to neutralize the terror group without any civilian casualty, Boms stresses, but Hamas has made that impossible. “When schools or hospitals are used as terrorist bases, it makes things more difficult. And we’ve seen it really on a daily basis.”

Israel has long since charged Hamas with using their people as human shields. Yet the reality of the practice goes well beyond an Israeli allegation. News outlets and world governments have documented—and condemned—Hamas’s use of civilian structures like hospitals, schools, mosques and apartment buildings for military purposes. This equites to textbook use of human shields and a direct violation of international law. It is also a ploy used by Hamas with much success to garner international sympathy and condemnation for Israel.

Israel currently faces tough decisions, which a number of considerations complicate even further, Boms concludes. “There is also an incentive not to drag the region into an even larger war in the south and the north.”

Yet when all is said and done, it is imperative that Jerusalem emerges from this conflict victorious—for the sake of the people of Israel, for the sake of the region and ultimately, for the entire free world. There is no other choice.

Posted on July 12, 2024

Source: (Bridges for Peace, July 12, 2024)

Photo Credit: Hadi Mohammad/ Fars Media Corporation/Wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia