Terror in Israel: Iran, Hamas, and the “Axis of Resistance” - Dr. Mackubin Owens

Terror in Israel: Iran, Hamas, and the “Axis of Resistance” - Dr. Mackubin Owens

The weekend attack in Southern Israel by the Iranian proxy, Hamas, has resulted in the death of hundreds of Israelis and injury to many more (with the body count continuing to rise). Roving bands of Hamas terrorists have murdered Israeli civilians—men, women, and children—in their homes. They have also kidnapped and raped Israeli women and girls, desecrating their bodies. Hamas has not been shy about publicizing their atrocities, sharing footage of abusing the bodies of their victims on social media for all the world to see.

Following a missile barrage, some 1000 terrorists crossed from Gaza and came ashore from the Mediterranean to attack Israeli towns. This attack was much greater in magnitude than any earlier attacks by Hamas.  Eighteen years ago, Israel unilaterally turned Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in a quixotic “land for peace” initiative, driving its own citizens out of their settlements. For its trouble, Israel has suffered numerous incursions and missile attacks from Gaza, although nothing comparable to the weekend attack.

This attack represents the most massive Israeli intelligence failure since the Yom Kippur War five decades ago. The failures were both technological and human. Regarding the first, some analysts have suggested that a cyberattack crippled Israel’s high-tech border fence, with its layers of sensors, early in the morning on Saturday, Oct. 7.  Regarding the second, the very astute Edward Luttwak has suggested that Israeli intelligence and security forces were “played” by Hamas operatives inside the Strip who have been secretly passing information about rocket attacks by Hamas’ rival inside Gaza, another Iranian-backed terror group, Islamic Jihad.

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But the ultimate villain in this attack is Iran. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the organization and planning for the attack came directly from the Iranian regime, and was finalized at a meeting last Monday in Beirut.  Iran backs Hamas as part of its “Axis of Resistance,” an Iranian-led alliance that includes not only Hamas, but also Bashar Assad in Syria, who butchered more than half a million of his own people; Hezbollah, the terrorist group that now runs Lebanon; militias in Iraq; and the Houthi tribal army that has torn apart Yemen.

Sadly, Iran and its axis of resistance was enabled by former President Barack Obama in his effort to extricate the United States from the Middle East. Obama believed the Iranians to be a “balancing power” in region. The Trump administration reversed Obama’s tilt toward Iran by means of the Abraham Accords, which created the basis for a Sunni Arab-Israeli alignment to counter Iran and its Axis of Resistance. Of course, the Biden administration has returned to the Obama approach of empowering Iran, dismantling the Abraham Accords. The administration recently unfroze $6 billion in Iranian assets, which now is in Qatar, the central bank of Islamist extremists. Although President Biden has said all the right things about “standing with Israel” against terror attacks, it behooves us to look at his actions rather than rely simply on his words.

What does Israel do now? In the past, Israel has been very restrained in its response to terror attacks, going so far as to drop leaflets and send texts to cell phones to warn civilians of an impending retaliatory attack. This is very much in keeping with the Western tradition of the conduct of war, which includes proportionality—the application of the least force necessary to prevail; and discrimination—taking all possible steps to avoid attacks on non-combatants. But are these distinctions even possible in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population supports Hamas and which population celebrates the murder of Israeli citizens, the rape of Israeli women, and the desecration of the dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has stated that Israel is now at war with Hamas. Perhaps discrimination and proportionality are not appropriate in the case of Gaza.

Maybe it is time for Israel to treat the savage Hamas murderers and their enablers among the population the same.