JD
Ask why Hamas launched the October 7 massacre and the answer is to provoke an Israeli war of retaliation. Then ask what is Hamas’ ultimate goal in this war, and the answer is either (a) the unlikely death of the Jewish state or (b) the more likely death of the great majority of the civilian population of Gaza and coincidentally the great bulk of Hamas’ own fighters too.
But surely the latter goal (b) is counter to all logic? Well it is until you consider who funds Hamas and why.
Iran, or more precisely its ageing leadership, may claim it is their mission to destroy Judaism, but the reality is, without the Jewish enemy to distract the attention of their population, secular Iranians would turn their focus and logic inward, causing the whole theocratic edifice of the Iranian Government to collapse.
Just as Putin cannot stop fighting his ‘special military action’ for fear of destroying the Russian economy and his dictatorship with it, both being dependent now upon the Ukraine war, Iran’s theocratic dictators cannot countenance the end of fighting in Gaza without suffering similar consequences.
And so to the reality. Ideally for Iran ‘from the river to the sea’ is achieved and they can claim a great victory for their Shia version of Islam, shoring up their leadership for a few more years.
But if this doesn’t happen then their next most desired alternative is the decimation of the population of Gaza. The opprobrium consequently generated on the world stage then, perversely, legitimises calls for the eradication of the Israeli state and gives the mullahs a continued reason to exist.
In short then, Hamas is not fighting for the civilians of Gaza: it is fighting to ensure the maximum number of deaths among them. Not fighting to kill Jews, although they see that as a bonus, but fighting to promote the death of Palestinians.
And we should also recognise the part played by the Israeli ‘hostage situation’ in all of this. One fact seems most probable, much as politicians and family would have it otherwise, namely that the remaining hostages are already dead.
But of course, neither side can admit this: the Israelis because it would destroy hope and smack of government failure, and Hamas because it would take away Israel’s reason to continue the fight.
Once this happens, deaths of Gaza’s civilians would cease, the world focus would shift away and Hamas become irrelevant. Irrelevant, that is, until another October 7 is instigated to start the whole thing over again.
Also complicit in the objective of Iran and Hamas to cause the deaths of as many of Gaza’s civilians as possible, are other Arab states, such as Egypt and Jordan, who don’t want a mass of refugees from Gaza exporting Iran’s Shia radicalism to their shores (which of course they cannot do if they do not exist).
And Hamas’ reward in all this? When enough civilians, and the majority of Hamas’ rank and file are dead, despatched to enjoy the virgin delights of Jannah, the Muslim heaven, the senior Hamas leadership will be extradited from the ruins of Gaza to join their even more senior compatriots in Qatar.
Once there they can enjoy the earthly delights (and presumably the even greater number of virgins) paid for by the billions of dollars they have so far milked from the world aid agencies and the Gazan people.
