Devastating Attack, Day Five

Hamas, Religion, the West's Reaction (again) and unity in Israel

In many ways the past five days have unfolded much as post-9/11 evolved: initial shock and total disbelief, anger, and then when more stories were coming out, horror and grief. And through the entire process the questions: what are the authorities going to do now? And: what will happen next? Is this the beginning of something much worse? The first two weeks after such an event are surreal and are really a quest to find out every bit of information that you need to make sense of it all. So, endless news consumption and the stories this week are ever more horrendous as time moves on. It is impossible to link them all, but this survivor story is quite instructive on many levels. Do read it.

Hamas

One of the harder things to crack in the news was the history, role and motivations of Hamas. This week I have been sitting through many talk shows and news reports without the presenters often having any real clue about this group and its origins. The Palestinian leadership stood always under the leadership of the PLO/Fatah (remember Yasser Arafat) which became the Palestinian Authority (PA) after the 1994-95 Oslo peace accords and governed two distinct and quasi-sovereign areas: Gaza and the West Bank. In 2006 Hamas won an election in the Gaza strip and created a far more radical brand of Islamist opposition to Israel and in the process broke with the more collaborative PA which now runs the West Bank only. Hamas’ initial success could be found in offering social services, healthcare and related community engagement. They were incredibly successful in gaining the trust of its population, something they now have shamefully squandered by engaging in terror, ruthless repression and using its population as human shields. Its leader at the time was Khaled Mashal and in 2017 he handed over the reins to Ismail Haniyeh.

While diving into the reasons of the attack last Saturday, Hamas will not publicly acknowledge the geo-political aspects, but instead focus on the religious duty to wipe Israel of the map and reconquer Al-Quds, the place we know as Jerusalem. And with it the al-Aqsa mosque which is located on the Temple Mount where once the Jewish Second Temple stood. You will read endless stories about Jews attacking and desecrating al-Aqsa, all of which are largely inaccurate and fabricated. Yes, radical Muslims have used the holy shrine to create attacks on others though and forced Israel to somehow respond.

The Old City of Jerusalem where are all these holy sites are located is policed and secured to the extreme by Israeli authorities and the Temple Mount itself is administered by the Waqf, a Jordanian entity. In fact I will go as far to say that Jews and Muslims as descendants of Abraham do have in the end respect for each other’s religious beliefs and traditions and get along quite well. That is, as long as radicals on both sides do not interfere and stir the pot to foment discord and violence. Any hints at al-Aqsa being endangered by Israel are mere folklore to rally the Hamas troops as they belie the actual situation and safety on the site of the mosque (which actually sits opposite the golden ‘Dome of the Rock’ that everyone knows). Quite frankly the beauty of Jerusalem lies in the concept of peaceful co-existence of the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. No sane person or politician would ever mess with that equilibrium and Israel has gone to the extreme to preserve that.

So when Mashal appeared on TV earlier this week as a former Hamas leader in retirement it was primarily was to boost the troops, but he actually went a step further. He called out all Muslim believers globally to engage in massive resistance this coming Friday, October 13th. And while we can dismiss this as the call of a deranged fanatic whose organization is being decimated as we speak, one can imagine the fears over how this request might land across Muslim communities across the globe, in particular in Europe and North America. Only a small minority is needed to escalate violence and in a way we are back to 9/11 when that same anxiety enveloped the world. It started back then with al-Qaeda, after that ISIS emerged on the scene and we are now in the next iteration of radical Islamist terror. Yes, Hamas is shaping up to be that third wave. A unique brand of violence and a mission that only a small minority of Muslims subscribe too and as such it may be neutralized in time which is why Hamas, with the help of Iran and others, is keen to escalate and globalize the conflict.

Al-Aqsa on the right, Dome of the Rock on the right.

Protests in the West

Although I was not there last night, there was a great turnout in Vancouver to support Israel. Notably many of the Iranian community joined the protest as well and stood side-by-side to listen to mayor Ken Sim and other speakers. It warmed my heart as progressive enclaves like Vancouver are seen to be leaning anti-Israel and I did get a number of e-mails warning me to be careful and dress neutrally if I was planning to go. Despite that we have seen massive and largely uninterrupted rallies in support for Israel and politicians of all sides making it very clear where we need to stand in the face of a murderous fanaticism that willfully and cruelly destroys everything it encounters. Criticism of Israel is one thing, but it is not incompatible with standing on the right side of history. The West is waking up to the grim state of world affairs and are making the calls that should probably have been made much earlier.

The counter-protests are there too and there is no better example of the depravity of the pro-Palestinian side than to march this coming Sunday in Amsterdam to the Jonas Daniel Meijer square. A place where in 1941 in the first and incredibly violent razzia 400 young Jewish men were rounded up and deported to be murdered in Buchenwald and Mauthausen. There is also a synagogue at the far end of that square. If you protest on that very spot against Israel, you are dancing on the graves of all those innocent murdered Jews. Let’s hope Amsterdam’s mayor finds a way to call this thing off.

Finally …

Israel is coming together. You think these people can be beaten? Never. And Nethanyahu just agreed to the formation of a cabinet of national unity and a war cabinet with key roles for former IDF chiefs and now opposition politicians Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot. History unfolds rapidly.

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