Now all hell breaks loose. The diabolical mastermind behind the massacre

The shock is deep. How could it come to this? The Israeli army was taken by surprise when terrorists from the Islamist Hamas launched a major attack on Saturday. Thousands of rockets flew into Israeli cities and armed fighters managed to overrun the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. A border that was considered particularly well secured with its watchtowers and a network of fences and walls. In Israel the terrorists became bloodthirsty.

The terrorist group’s fighters entered Israeli cities, stormed buildings and shot civilians indiscriminately. The terrorists didn’t even stop at children. And that’s not all: Hamas, together with the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad, claims to have kidnapped 130 people to the Gaza Strip. For Israel, the hostages are mainly a shock because the Israeli army will probably have to launch a ground offensive there to free them.

It is likely that Hamas will use the bloodshed for its political purposes. Ultimately, murder and manslaughter are always a breeding ground for terrorists – a vicious circle that has seemed impenetrable in the Middle East for decades. Without the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Hamas would not be necessary. That is why the terrorist group will repeatedly try to escalate the conflict in the Middle East.

So now all hell breaks loose. Israel and Hamas are at war, but the terrorist group isn’t just setting fires in Israel. The major attack could ultimately set off a fire in the region and, in any case, the Hamas killings are a huge step backwards for peace in the Near and Middle East.

The Middle East is a powder keg and the threat of a major war is back. However this war ends, the villains have already won, as ultimately only one power benefits from the current escalation.

Hamas only exists to fight Israel

The inhumane acts of the Islamists are based on a calculation. Hamas knows it cannot win a war against the heavily armed Israeli army. She knows Israel will respond with a military operation. Airstrikes, a ground offensive in Gaza. Civilians are dying on both sides.

It is cynical that the terrorist group has always benefited from these escalations in the past. Every time people died in this conflict, the radical forces gained more support. The Islamists set up their weapons depots to protect residential areas. When civilians die in Israeli attacks, Palestinians do not blame Hamas, but Israel.

An insidious strategy that gave the terrorist group more fighters after each war. The Islamists’ radical ideology finds itself in a breeding ground that is also steeped in mistrust as a result of the settlement disputes and the territorial conflict. It is at the heart of this terrorism.

This explains Hamas’s motivation for such a killing squad. But without international support, the organization would not be able to assert its bloody self-interests.

Terrorist action against peace

The focus is mainly on the Shiite crescent, although the radical Islamist Hamas is actually Sunni. The Shia crescent includes Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The Iranian leaders in particular make no secret of their contempt for Israel. Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described Israel as a “cancer,” and Iranian leaders celebrated Hamas’ terrorist act as the beginning of the Palestinian liberation struggle.

But Iran is not the only Hamas supporter in the Arab world. Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar blamed Israel for the violence. Protesters in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen also waved Palestinian flags.

Traditionally, there are some states in the Middle East that want to side with the Palestinians. But experts agree that it is Tehran’s support that allows Hamas to carry out such a terrorist attack. Finally, Iran supports Hamas both financially and with weapons.

The reasons for Iranian support of Islamists in the fight against Israel are varied: Before this terrorist attack, the Israeli government improved its relations with some Arab countries. These include the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan. After many decades of bitter hostility, peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia was even within reach. Relations between Israel and Turkey had also improved.

Iran apparently did not want to allow that.

Hamas is dividing the Muslim world

This process, which was stimulated by the US under the leadership of US President Donald Trump in particular, would not only have eased the situation in the Near and Middle East, but also isolated Iran. From Tehran’s perspective, it would have been an alliance between its archenemies, who also have good relations with the Americans.

But the peace process has suffered a serious setback due to the current crisis. While the United Arab Emirates expressed itself diplomatically and called for a ceasefire, the leadership in Riyadh appears to be on Hamas’s side. “The Kingdom recalls its repeated warnings about the dangers of an escalation of the situation due to the continued occupation,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry blamed Israel for the attack.

King Salman is considered a champion of the Palestinian cause, but states such as Saudi Arabia and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan see themselves as champions of all Muslims. In doing so, they want to consolidate their position as a regional power; therefore they do not side with Israel.

Ultimately, Hamas’s terrorist attack will once again drive Israel and the Muslim world further apart. Iran will benefit from this as it will exploit the suffering of the Palestinians for its political purposes in the coming days.

Iran and Russia benefit from it

This is exactly what US President Joe Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) alluded to when, in their responses to the Hamas attack, they warned other actors from using the situation for their own purposes. Biden said this “is not the time for any hostile anti-Israel party to exploit these attacks to their advantage.” “The world is watching,” the American president emphasized. The Americans sent an aircraft carrier and warships to the eastern Mediterranean.

A clear warning to Iran and to the Islamist Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has already fired rockets at Israeli army positions on the Golan Heights. With the US Navy present in the response, Hamas is unlikely to receive military support from other countries. There is also a forest fire involved.

Hamas terrorists will likely ultimately become victims of their own ideology and the pawns of Iran and its brothers in arms. Russia is also one of these brothers in arms. If Iran was involved in the planning of the Hamas attack, it is conceivable that Tehran would receive political support from Moscow.

The alliance between Russia and Iran has improved as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The Iranian leadership supplies a large number of Shahed drones to Russia, which cause serious damage in Ukraine. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin benefits from the war in the Middle East in two ways: on the one hand, Hamas’s attack distracts the West from the war in Ukraine. On the other hand, the Kremlin blames the West for the current crisis because it has neglected the region.

Although Putin has never pursued anti-Israel policies, Russia still maintains relations with Hamas. The Russian response now shows Moscow’s current priorities: the alliance with Iran. Israel, on the other hand, has little choice. After the kidnappings by Hamas, it will probably have to move to the Gaza Strip and the conflict will become even bloodier. This benefits the powers that are in control in the background – and that is what has fueled this escalation. The Middle East also knows this from its history.

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