In order to understand the recent round of fighting between Israel and the terror organizations that control Gaza, it’s important to talk about the regional context and the role of Iran. According to Iran’s deadly agenda, the Islamic Republic will do everything possible to use Palestinian proxy forces to destroy the hopes for peace and work toward the destruction of Israel.
For decades, we’ve known that Iran supports Palestinian terror organizations because they serve Iran’s larger goal for domination of the Middle East. The period between 1993 and 2008 is a case study of Iran’s agenda.
In 1993, Israel signed onto the Oslo Accords that created the Palestinian Authority. As a result, Israel withdrew from the major cities of the West Bank. It was a time of great euphoria, and the hopes for a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians were real.
In both 2000 and 2008, Israel agreed to two generous offers for peace through the two-state solution. Unfortunately, Palestinian leaders rejected both offers.
It was also during this period that the government of Iran did everything possible to literally blow up the hopes for peace.
Between 1993 and 2008, there were 168 Palestinian suicide bombings on Israeli buses, in restaurants and shopping malls. These suicide bombings, and other terror attacks, killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and wounded many thousands more.
Although Palestinian terror groups provided the hateful ideology and the suicide bombers, it was Iran that provided the financial means and technical support to commit mass murder and destroy the hopes for peace.
The majority of suicide bombings of this period were carried out by two terror organizations supported by Iran: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. These are the same terror organizations that fired more than 4,000 rockets from Gaza at Israeli civilians during this recent round of fighting.
Iran’s support for Palestinian terrorism was detailed in the eye-opening book titled,”The Bus on Jaffa Road” by author Mike Kelly. The author tells the tragic story of two American victims of a suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem in 1996, and the efforts of their parents to hold the perpetrators accountable in U.S. federal court.
In the book, we learn about the testimony of Middle East expert Patrick Clawson, who told a federal court that by the 1990s, Iran was already providing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad with $75 million per year in financial support in addition to training for Palestinian bomb makers.
Iran’s Middle East agenda is not a secret.
Iran’s strategy calls for supporting the “Axis of Resistance.” The goal is to surround Israel with terror proxy forces like Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iranian proxies in Syria. Iran uses these proxies to “export the Islamic Revolution” and arms them for “resistance” to the very existence of Israel.
Gaza is an important part of Iran’s strategy.
Since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired more than 16,000 rockets at Israeli civilians including more than 4,000 rockets fired in this recent round of fighting.
The rocket fire from Gaza is enabled by extensive support from Iran. In fact, leaders of Hamas are very open about the assistance they receive from Iran.
In a speech given by Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar in June 2019 about the long-range rockets of Hamas he said, “Let me reiterate. If not for Iran’s support for the resistance in Palestine we would have not obtained these capabilities… Iran has supported us with weapons, equipment and expertise.”
Beyond the inevitable suffering that Hamas and Islamic Jihad bring upon Palestinian civilians in Gaza, they are also destroying the hopes for peace through the two-state solution. How likely is it that any Israeli would be willing to support withdrawal from more territory in the West Bank if they fear that it will become another Gaza backed by Iran?
Yet, that is exactly the end goal of Iran and its Palestinian terror proxies: to destroy the hopes for peace so that they can pursue the destruction of Israel.
Until the international community holds Iran accountable for its deadly agenda, peace between Israelis and Palestinians will continue to remain a distant dream.
Source » southbendtribune