“Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group,” writes Summer Said, Benoit Faucon, and Stephen Kalin in The Wall Street Journal.
“Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions—the most significant breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War—those people said.”
Iran’s involvement with Hamas is by now expected but still reprehensible. The vile ferocity of the attacks and brazenness of members of the involved terrorist groups immediately admitting to Iran’s alleged involvement is as inscrutable as it is horrific. Their casual neglect for human life, of young people celebrating peacefully at a music festival, is beyond words.
Militarism, threats, and violence are so commonplace among Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea now that one’s eyes begin to glaze over at the latest atrocities. That arguably racist normalization of violence and hate for the West, including Israel, portends ill for the future, especially in an era of hypersonic nuclear missiles, genetically-modified viruses, and military artificial intelligence. The responsibility lies with these rogue nations, as well as the United States, Europe, and all G7 countries for not stopping their racialized hatred and violence more quickly, when the rogues began making threats almost as soon as the Cold War was over.
There is a pattern beyond racism in the current maelstrom, unfortunately. All of the worst antagonists have links to China. Hamas is supported by Iran, and Iran is supported by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). That parallels the Taliban in Afghanistan, whom Pakistani intelligence and security elements supported during the war. The Pakistani government is, in turn, heavily supported by Beijing.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping likely supported Russia’s attack on Ukraine before it started. His Beijing meeting with Vladimir Putin just before the onslaught, and after the Crimea invasion, included a major gas deal that insulated Moscow from sanctions expected from its next planned attack—on Kyiv. North Korea’s nuclear program is heavily supported by the CCP. One of Venezuela’s strongest international supporters is China. Beijing responded to the latest attacks on Israel, not with condemnation, but with a call for a “two-state solution,” which gives a pass to the violence of Hamas and would be a loss to America’s ally, Israel.
After the attacks, as with prior such attacks throughout history, the Palestinians will likely lose even more control of their lands and freedoms. If Iran is pulling the strings of Hamas or supplying them with weapons, which we have every reason to suspect, it is an incredibly sinister strategy without due care for the Palestinians, who are sure to bear the brunt of retaliation.
The latest attack on Israel has killed over 1,000 Israelis already. Tens of thousands of Palestinians will likely die if past Hamas attacks and the Israeli response are any indication.
