Early morning Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on the nation of Israel, a country known for its defense system known as the Iron Dome. The conflict between the Jewish state of Israel, and Palestine, a predominantly Muslim state, has been ongoing for decades.
Palestine, the nation under the control of Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist group by both the European Union and the United States, launched a series of land, air and sea attacks confirmed by the Israeli government at 7:40 a.m. Oct. 7.
These attacks are unprecedented in the history of this bloody conflict. Israel has predominantly been the aggressor, as it believes it has the right to seize the West Bank.
Israel, a longtime ally of the United States, has effectively been holding Palestine hostage since the 1900s, claiming it has the right to the land Palestinians claim as their own, which has resulted in incredible human costs over the years. According to Statista, Israel has been responsible for the deaths of more than 5,500 Palestinians. Since the conflict escalated this week, Israel has been claiming themselves as the victim of the situation.
Israel is far from being the victim, however, as it has been the aggressor for decades and decades against the Palestinian people, who are simply trying to exist on their land. Instead, they are surveilled by Israeli forces and constantly bombarded by shellings and attacks from their Israeli neighbors.
Hamas has come out and stated the United States’ “unwavering support” of Israel is “active participation in the aggression against our people” since President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been extremely vocal about where the United States stands in all of this.
While this situation is incredibly complex, dating back many decades, many solutions have been proposed. The main one being a peaceful solution that would designate land to both the Israelis and the Palestinians. It was quickly shot down by Israel.
This has the possibility of becoming a global-scale conflict, as it is far more complex than it seems, with Iran being one of Hamas’ main benefactors since Palestine has been cut off from funding by the European Union and the United States. Similarly, Hamas has been receiving aid from Hezbollah, a terror group based out of Turkey on the Southern border of Israel, which has launched attacks on at least three Israeli military installations last week.
The global implications of this conflict could be disastrous, as Russia was once an ally of Israel – despite Israel hypocritically condemning the invasion of Ukraine, calling it “a serious violation of international order.” Israel went on to state it is preparing to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine. Following this declaration, Israel broke away from the United States and the EU in a vote that would force Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine by abstaining from the vote altogether.
The tide has also shifted in the United States, with former President Trump becoming involved by making false claims that the United States is funding Hamas and that the terrorist group used American taxpayer dollars to attack Israel. As a former president, this is a dangerous claim to make since it is untrue, and he has such a large platform on social media, he knows this will rile up Americans and drum up support for Israel.
It is incredibly easy for those who are in support of Israel to claim anyone supporting the liberation of Palestine is anti-Semitic due to the fact Israel is a Jewish nation. However, supporting the freedom of Palestine from the oppression of the Israeli government does not equate to being anti-Semitic.
Neither Israel nor Palestine have taken the right steps to settle this conflict, and by stating Palestine must be freed does not mean Hamas has not committed egregious atrocities by murdering Israelis and taking them captive.
Rather, it means the people of Palestine deserve to have a free and sovereign state free from the oppression of Israel.
Jackson Small is an opinion writer. Contact him at [email protected].