The irony of it all |
The irony of it all
Jaroslava Halper
Just a couple of months ago Israel was seen as a rising power—if not at the world level, at least on par with the big wigs in the Middle East. After all, even if Hamas was not disarmed it was pushed into a corner and promising to disarm, the hostages were to be released (and all have been, except for the remains of Ran Gvili), a ceasefire was in place, and a new governance structure including recruiting peacekeeping troops had been discussed and seemingly agreed upon by the potential participants. Everything looked to be going well at the other fronts as well. Houthis were relatively quiet. Iran had suffered major blows in the war with Israel back in June, and Hezbollah lost its leadership and suffered major losses on the ground—so much that the Lebanese government was emboldened to sign off on the ceasefire and its implementation. Iraq released Elisabeth Tsurkov after almost 3 years as a hostage. Syria was making overtures of peace towards Israel even if its treatment of the Druze on Israel’s border raised concerns.
The irony of it is that Israel, successfully fighting for its existence and, by extension, for the freedom of the Western world, the seeming winner of a seven front war is now being pushed around by certain Arab and Muslim states in the current round in the war in Gaza. Yes, the war is still going on in deeds and words though technically and theoretically speaking there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas since October 10 this year. Practically, Hamas is suppressing opposition militias and bolstering its authority in Gaza by continuing to attack Israel with small operations. Of course, western news sources love to publicize Israel’s response and ignore Hamas’s attacks. Support for Hamas not only by Qatar and Turkey but by most other........