Why Israel's fight with Hamas and Hezbollah must not become a regional war – Firstpost

As we remember Mahatma Gandhi on his birth anniversary October 2, the apostle of non-violence or ahimsa the likes of which the world has not seen in recent times, violence continues to shock the world. Russia and Ukraine are at war, with no end in sight. Another conflict that repeatedly leads to killings, bombings, displacement and untold misery is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This decades-old conflict sparked a new phase of crisis when Hamas, the terrorist organization fighting for Palestinian rights, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. In this terrorist attack, 1,189 Israelis died, including 815 civilians, and 251 Israelis were taken hostage. It was an unprecedented escalation that caught Israel unprepared. Terrorism of any kind can never be justified and India, like most of the world, condemned this wanton killing.

Israel had the right to retaliate, immediately and with unprecedented violence. According to UN statistics, as of May 13, Israeli bombings have killed 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including 7,797 minors, 4,959 women and 1,926 elderly people. In addition, about 10,000 people were disabled by injuries. According to other experts, these numbers are greatly underestimated. They estimate the number of deaths at over 300,000. Either way, even the understated numbers are higher than the total number of deaths in the Russia-Ukraine War.

Israel has now targeted its bombs against Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist organization, in Lebanon. The new wave of deadly bombings left an estimated 1,000 people dead, 900,000 displaced, 110,000 already fleeing their homes in anticipation of the impending Israeli attack and more than 40,000 people forced to live in refugee shelters. Starvation is ravaging Gaza's 5 million Palestinians, and there are now reports that there is even a shortage of body bags to bury the dead. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed along with most of his top leadership. And Israel has now begun its ground invasion of Lebanon.

Most countries have asked Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire. In his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, French President Emmanuel Macron firmly stated that Israel cannot continue its bombing of Gaza, its policy of killing civilians and its new attacks on Lebanon. Both France and the US have urgently called for a 21-day ceasefire to allow time for negotiations and to end the endless killing. The UN Secretary General also called for an “immediate ceasefire,” adding that “all hell is breaking loose.”

India has taken a nuanced and, in my opinion, balanced stance in the conflict. We condemned the October 7 terrorist attack; we also condemned the loss of civilian lives in the ongoing conflict; We called for restraint and de-escalation and for a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy, while reaffirming our support for a two-state solution to create a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine within secure and recognized borders. Live side by side in peace with Israel. This is a reiteration of our consistent stance on this issue. We have important relationships with Israel and the Arab world and, in our national interest, have no choice but to walk a fine line in the conflict.

But I wonder whether India and the world need to do more and more urgently than just repeat familiar positions. Although I have no sympathy for terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, I cannot condone state terrorism either. Israel, backed to the teeth by America with the latest and most advanced weapons, is capable of carrying out the most devastating attacks against its enemies, while the military capabilities of the Palestinians and their supporters are asymmetrically negligible.

There is general global consensus that Israel has gone too far in its retaliation. Public anger over Israel's ongoing frenzied attacks has led to widespread public protests in America itself. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scorched-earth policy of literally wiping out the enemy without regard to the enormous collateral damage to civilians does not find support among most Israelis themselves. Netanyahu leads an unstable seven-party coalition that is by far the most ultra-right and religious government in Israel's history. For Netanyahu, himself no dove, support from hardliners is crucial to his government's survival. His popularity has plummeted and his only hope for political survival is to continue this war.

Israel has the right to defend itself. But this right does not mean the destruction of the rights of Palestine, on whose ancient land British and Western colonial harassment led to the creation of a Jewish state in 1948. The genocide of Jews was committed predominantly by Germany and other European countries, but in a world where only their will counted, it was convenient for them to create the new state of Israel in the middle of Arab territory, where there were conflicts with Arabs who Having done this, living peacefully with the Jews for a long time was inevitable. Ironically, 15 million Palestinians are now global refugees.

History is a complex phenomenon. Yet even the most biased observer will admit that Israel is far from innocent in its violent occupation of Palestinian land following the 1967 war, and has completely refused to do so despite repeated UN resolutions calling on it to vacate Gaza and the West Bank to do this. On the contrary, it has systematically increased the number of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, and the current government's manifesto aims at the illegal annexation of the West Bank.

Whatever the story, it is time to end this war and the immense and tragic loss of life it has cost. India, the US and other major global powers must do far more to achieve this. Not least because the war is spreading to Lebanon and now also involves Iran, whose support for Hezbollah can be proven. The situation threatens to develop into a major regional war and possibly even beyond, which would be catastrophic for India and the global economy and world stability.

The author is a former diplomat, author and politician. The views expressed in the article above are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Firstpost.