Beginning Friday, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire, thus bringing to temporarily halt 11 days of intense clashes, during which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were given a free hand by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pound Hamas in Gaza. The fragile ceasefire, which has only momentarily brought a stop to the fighting, has come in the heels of Hamas suffering irreparable damage in terms of both its military infrastructure as well as human resources. That, however, has not stopped the radical and extremist armed group from celebrating victory over Israel.
Hamas and its primary funder – Iran are jubilant or are at least pretending to appear so. However, while Hamas’ celebration of supposed ‘victory’ came after the announcement of a ceasefire with Israel, the Shi’ite nation of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were seen breaking into a dance even before the ceasefire was announced, and at a time when the IDF was still bombing Hamas’ assets in Gaza.
Iran believed that if only it could cripple Israel through Hamas, it could bargain with the US to drop the sanctions on it. But Hamas has been pounded like never before. Now too, although a ceasefire is in place, one misstep by Hamas would lead to Israel resuming its bombing over Gaza, and might even roll in its ground troops into the strip this time around. After 11 days of devastating Hamas, Israel has entered into a ceasefire from a position of strength. Also, it has gained a lot out of the fighting. It has sent across a message to the entire world – that the Jewish nation is willing to stand up to and destroy any entity which seeks to cause harm to it and its people.
The United States in particular, under President Joe Biden, was increasingly giving Israel a cold shoulder. By carrying out unprecedented strikes in Gaza against Hamas, Israel has knocked sense into the Biden administration. It is for this very reason that Joe Biden has been calling Benjamin Netanyahu on a regular basis and almost been pleading for a ceasefire. Apart from showing Biden his place, Israel has also managed to get a whopping $735 billion arms sale cleared for itself by the United States.
This is apart from all the times when the US supported Israel in its right to defend itself against Hamas’ terror. Whether it be the UNSC or against far-left Democrats at home, Joe Biden has surprisingly been standing by Israel for the past 11 days. On Thursday, Joe Biden also announced that the United States will replenish Israel’s Iron Dome air defence systems that were depleted during the recent conflict.
Speaking of Iran, the Shi’ite nation started celebrating a Hamas victory prematurely, at a time when Israel was still pounding the terror group’s assets. On Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force Brig.-Gen. Esmail Qaani sent a letter to Mohammed Deif, the “supreme commander” of Hamas’ military wing. In it, the top IRGC commander said that the latest round of fighting with Israel “has opened a new era in the conflict with the Zionist enemy.”
Qaani added, “I kiss the hands that are carrying the weapons of Jihad (holy war) to defend Jerusalem and its holy sites. We will never be satisfied until this entity (Israel) is removed from the blessed land of Palestine and the liberation of every grain of its soil.”
Hamas and Iran both seem to suffer from what we, in India, refer to as the “Pakistan syndrome”. Those afflicted with this syndrome believe that they win every conflict and war against their enemy – which is almost always the case with Pakistan. The Islamic country has lost all wars against India and yet, it claims victory in all of them barring the one which led to it getting split in half in 1971. Similarly, Hamas and Iran are celebrating a victory that simply does not exist!
In fact, Hamas was forced to agree to a ceasefire since it has suffered incalculable losses in the past 11 days. Losses for Hamas are directly proportional to losses for Iran since it is the Shi’ite nation, which funds and replenishes the Palestinian militant group. Also, in the past 11 days, apart from bombing the living daylights out of Gaza, Israel has also specifically destroyed Hamas’ ‘metro network’. The ‘metro’ is referred to a series of underground tunnels used by Hamas in Gaza.
The losses for Hamas have been unprecedented. Yet, in order to save their face, both Hamas and Iran have been pretending to celebrate their ‘victory’ over Israel. The reality, however, is that after pounding Hamas and setting back its strength by multiple years, Israel is getting its military arsenal replenished by the United States almost instantly. The Jewish nation has secured a $735 billion arms sale for itself, and has also sent a stunning message across the Middle East: try to harm us, and we will bring the sky crashing down on you.