October 7, 2023, was the day when the brutal terrorist organisation Hamas unleashed inhuman acts on the innocent Israeli population, which included women, infants and senior citizens. Besides killing and maiming innumerable people, 251 innocents were taken as hostages one year down the line. Still, 101 of them have been held captive by the terrorist organisation. The sympathisers of Hamas, especially in the Western world, have been successful in manipulating the global media and non-government organisations. The action taken by Israel to get the hostages free is talked about and criticised by the so-called custodians of human rights, but not even a tear is shed for those innocent souls who are still incarcerated in the dingy tunnels dug by Hamas.
Terrorist organisations portray themselves as Gazis ( Islamic warriors) who swear by the fundamentalist ideology, but their actions tell different stories. Hamas has constructed tunnels and bunkers in the basements of schools and hospitals; their command centres are underneath mosques and residential buildings. The plan is obvious; in retaliation when Israel attacks the terrorist hideouts, civilian casualties should be enormous. If they are Gazis, then why are they hiding behind the shields of schoolchildren? They should either be warriors of their faith or play the victim card. They cannot have pleasures in both worlds or, proverbially, they cannot have their cake and eat it.
Iran has created the three H proxies, namely Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis. All three have unleashed together the reign of terror against the state of Israel. Thousands of missiles have been fired on civilians by the said terrorist organisations; it is the resilience of the people and the state of Israel that the attackers could not fulfil their agenda. Hezbollah has been relentlessly attacking, in particular, the northern territory of Israel. Hapless citizens have to be shifted out of that area.
Counterattacks by Israel on Gaza and Hezbollah hideouts in Lebanon hog the limelight of the international media, but unfortunately, very few are talking about the hardships undergone by the Israeli masses, day in and day out, caused by the proxies of Iran. On university campuses, especially in the Western world, protests in favour of the terrorist organisations are engineered by vested interest lobbies. Still, hardly so-called custodians of human rights pressurise Hamas to release innocent Jewish hostages.
In very simple terms, Jihadist forces created and nourished by Iran do not want the state of Israel to exist. The question is, what does a democratic and humanist world want? The world community has to come out open and shed duplicity. At one point, G7 countries state their support for Israel in its war against terrorism. At another point, one of its members, France, declared an arms embargo against it if it continued its retaliation to the designs of the aggressors. Suppose Israel does not want Iran to develop a nuclear arsenal. In that case, it defends the interests of the entire West and the USA. In the context of Bharat, no nation in the world has faced the kind of nuclear blackmail we have faced so far. Pakistan has unrelentingly unleashed terrorist attacks on us but went scot-free by raising nuclear bogey. In the aftermath of the 26/11 terrorist attack by the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba on the city of Mumbai in the year 2008, when 166 innocents were massacred and more than 300 injured, Bharat could not take any punitive action because Pakistan resorted to nuclear blackmail. Similar situations will occur in West Asia if Iran is allowed to go nuclear.
In Bharat, many analysts are of the view that if Israel attacks Iran, economic fallouts for our country will be enormous. According to the commentators, there is a likelihood of Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz in case of its war with Israel. Since a big percentage of our crude and gas passes through it, there will be huge economic losses. This myopic thought process has to be jettisoned. If we are apprehending a non-nuclear Iran to arm-twist us, then a nuclear Iran surely will give us sleepless nights. We are contending with one threatening nuclear neighbour, Pakistan, on our western frontier, and another Islamic nuclear power, Iran, is going to multiply the threat. Therefore, Bharat should extend wholehearted support to any military initiative Israel takes against Iran. Israel has always stood by Bharat in need; it is time we reciprocate the gesture.
Israel so far has shown restraint against two barrages of missiles fired on its territory, one in April and another in October, by Iran. However, it has substantially incapacitated Hezbollah’s firepower. It has stated that it will retaliate against Iran at the time and places of its choice. Western world must recognise that Israel is not only fighting for its existence; in the process, it is protecting the interests of the former, too. They must reckon that Israel is standing like a sentinel to protect their interests in West Asia; any harm to it will be detrimental to their security and stability.
Regarding Bharat’s interests, it is noteworthy that we have invested a huge amount in the Chabahar port of Iran to make it a gateway to our further outreach to Central Asia and even Russia through Eurasia. However, the port could not be optimised mainly due to arch-rival China’s influence on Iran. Alternatively, our reach to Europe through the proposed North-South corridor, which starts from Bharat and passes through UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel, seems more feasible and credible. Bharat, as the largest democracy in the world, must play its part in the peacemaking process. Still, the prerequisite for any initiative must be recognition of the right of existence of the state of Israel by Iran and its proxies. Jews, like Hindus, have been persecuted for centuries; both have decided to put an end to the persecution. Both believe in the proclamation of peaceful coexistence, but if the destination of peace passes through lanes fraught with wars, they are determined to fight and emerge victorious.
