1.0 Background of the conflict
The feud between Israel and other Islamic countries is a precipitation of the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the very centre of the said conflict is Gaza strip that is currently occupied by Israeli military. The Gaza-Israeli conflict is about the ownership and the occupation of the Gaza strip, which has been historically controversial. Palestinians have actively and even violently Israelis occupation of the strip for years, resulting in Israel’s military action; all of which has culminated in the death of thousands of civilians and armed militants. Israel occupied the strip after the 1967 war, giving rise to intifada, considered by Palestinians as a fight for notional freedom from Israeli occupation and by Israelis as terrorism schemes. The said struggle has been advanced by Islamic militants and covertly supported by Islamic countries. The opposition to the occupation went a notch higher when the Hamas (an Islamic party) government was overwhelmingly elected in 2005. This conflict has been used by the terrorist organization as an excuse to carry out their activities, claiming “infidels” are massacring their Palestinian brothers. Arabs view the Palestinian struggle for national liberation as a religious war against infidels. Israelis, on the other hand, view the struggle as acts of terrorism from which the government must protect its citizens. As such, the Arabic nations have covertly supported the Hamas and terrorists in support of the Palestinians’ quest for national liberty (Israel Science and Technology Directory). This paper will review the Current events that have happened between Israel and the other Islamic countries in the Middle East (in the past year) and the war.
2.0 Israeli’s November 15 airstrikes
On November 15, 2012, Israeli launched an airstrike targeting the strategic military facilities of the Hamas and other terrorist organization dubbed “operation pillar defense. The airstrike was a military response to the escalating rocket attacks launched from territories that controlled by the Hamas. According to Israel Hamas, which Israeli considers to be a terrorism organization and other terrorist groups, had made the life of more than a million Israelis impossible by constantly launching rockets and missile attacks. In fact, since 2007, when Hamas took charge of the strip, Israel slapped economic bans on the region because Israeli regarded Hamas as a terrorist group motivated to destroy the state of Israel. As such, Israel had to defend her citizens against the Palestinian Islamists. The airstrikes resulted in the death of many Palestinians including that of 4 year boy and of the leader (Ahmed al-Ja’abari) Hamas’ military wing. Israeli claimed that the airstrikes targeted rocket-launching sites and weapon deports and downplayed the death of innocent civilians. However, the airstrikes sparked a worldwide protest against Israeli’s aggression. While the western countries saw Israeli’s action as one of self defense and a fight against terrorism, neighboring countries and other Islamic nations saw Hamas as a victim of Israeli’s cruelty and aggression (Daniel).
Hamas condemned the airstrikes and stated that these were examples of Israeli’s towards Gaza. Hamas also promised to retaliate culminating into the escalation of the exchange of missiles and rockets between Israeli and Hamas. There are fears that, as a result of the November 2012, the Israeli-Gaza conflict could escalate to a full blown war with more casualties and destruction than the 3-week ground offensive of 2009. The war is not only likely to affect Israel and Palestine, but would destabilize the Middle East and the world at large. It appears that Israeli is preparing for war with an aim to dislodge the Hamas government. The government has already placed thirty thousand troops at the border with Palestine and lined-up seventy-five reservists in readiness to any eventuality. As such, there has been a lot of shuttle diplomacy in and out of the region in an attempt to calm the situation.
3.0 Response of Islamic countries to the airstrikes
Despite the western countries and the Arab Nations condemning the airstrike, the two blocks viewed the conflict differently and thus responded differently to the airstrike. The western countries and some European countries view the Hamas as a terrorist group. Albeit condemning the airstrikes while the western counties view Hamas as the aggressor. On the other hand, the Arab countries (the Arab league) sympathize with the Palestinians and consider them as victims of the aggression of Israel. As such, different Arab countries responded variously to the airstrike (Almond).
Egypt, which has played the mediator's role between Israel and Palestine, was the first to react and make drastic decisions. The prime minister of Egypt, Hesham Kandil condemned the air strikes in very strong terms. He declared that the world should not just watch the Gaza strip conflict turn into war but rather the international community to intervene. In protest, Egypt recalled her envoy to Israel and submitted a formal protest to the Government of Israel. The prime minister even visited the hospital at Gaza where the body of the 4-year-old boy was and kissed the boy. Israel denied claims that it did not participate in the killing the boy because it had stopped the airstrike for a while at the time the child died. Egypt Muslim Brotherhood, closely associated with Hamas, demanded for the end of diplomatic relationship with Israel (Daniel).
Iran is another country that participated in the worldwide condemnation of the airstrikes. It has been an enemy of Israel and the U.S. because of her insistence on developing nuclear weapons. In addition, Israel has claimed numerously that Iran supplied Hamas and the other terrorist organization with rockets, missiles and firearms as well as tactical training. Qatar also condemned the military offensive through the prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim al Thani. The Prime minister warned of a repeat of the events of 2008-2009. He further condemned the killing of Hamas Leaders by Israel’s defense forces as well as the occupation of Gaza by the military (Sidner, Damon and Botelho). Jordan also condemned the air strike warning that if the situation is left unabated the region will be dragged into instability and violence. However, Jordan like many other Arab countries had more pressing matters to handle at home (the political turmoil affecting most of the Arab countries). Finally, Turkey remained quiet on the matter (Sidner, Damon and Botelho).
In conclusion, the conflict between Israel and Islamic countries originated from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the Gaza strip. The historical conflict has been punctuated by times of war and times of cease-fire. While Palestine claims to fight for national liberty, Israel looks at the struggle as acts of terrorism aimed at eliminating Israel. In response to the constant missile and rocket attacks by the Hamas and other terrorist groups, Israel launched “operation pillar defense” in a bid to protect her citizens. The primary targets of the operation were the leaders of the military wing of Hamas and the weapon deport. However, despite the operation having killed the said leaders it raised concerns of full-blown war. As such, Israel was widely condemned by the international community causing the diplomatic ties with Arabic countries to be damaged.
Works Cited
Almond, Kyle. Israel and Hamas: How the conflict reignited. 20 November 2012. 20 March 2013
Daniel, L. "Edging closer to war." The Economist 16 November 2012: 11-23.
Israel Science and Technology Directory. Arab-Israeli Conflict: Role of religion. nd. 18 March 2013
Sidner, Sara, Arwa Damon and Greg Botelho. Gaza and Israel continue to be pounded as diplomatic efforts intensify. 20 November 2012. 3 March 2013
