THE global community is increasingly wary of Israel using the deadly attack of the militant ‘Hamas’ last October 6, 2023 on its territory as an opportunity to purge the Gaza enclave of its entire Palestinian population—and further expand its control of the entire Palestine as in the days of King David and King Solomon more than 4,000 years ago.
In an order reported by various mainstream media, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) last October 13, 2023, gave the more than 2.3 million Palestinian residents of Gaza to move out of their homes “within 24 hours” or face the full brutality of its revenge action against Hamas, which is the acknowledge government running the entire ‘Gaza Strip,’ including Gaza City.
Particularly, the target of the evacuation are the more than 1.1 million residents of Gaza City, the seat of power of the Hamas, the acronym in Arabic for the ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’ that is the acknowledge government of the Palestinians living in Gaza.
Beginning on the early evening of October 6, Hamas fighters staged a rocket and ground assault on Israeli territories that resulted to the immediate death of more than 1,000 Israelis and the taking of hostages, some of them foreign workers including Filipinos.
Of Filipino casualties, the latest report said at least 3 OFWs have been killed and dozens more were taken by Hamas as hostages along with other foreign workers and Israelis.
As of this writing the situation continues to deteriorate with the IDF opening its own ground assault on the Gaza strip using tanks, artillery and air assaults that resulted to the Palestinian civilians bearing the brunt of the developing human tragedy inflicted by the IDF, particularly children.
Blame Britain, US for the unending war in Palestine
The Hamas assault came on the same day that sparked the 1973 ‘Yom Kippur War’ between Israel and its neighboring Arab countries led by Egypt and Syria.
A year before the founding of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, a virtual ‘civil war’ is already going on in Palestine between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jews, largely thru the stupid and divisive policy of the British in Palestine contained under the infamous ‘Balfour Declaration’ of 1917 attributed to British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour.
The declaration “view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” – and over territories occupied by the Palestinian Arabs.
The root cause of the stupid policy lies in the then ongoing World War 1 when Britain solicited the support of both the Arabs and the Jews against the Ottoman Empire, an ally of the German Empire by promising both a homeland for their people in Palestine. At the time, most of the countries in the Middle East are part of the Ottoman Empire.
The birth of the state of Israel were immediately recognized by the United States of America and the Soviet Union that further gave it credibility and legal standing within the newly-established United Nations.
However, the start of the Cold War would also shape the future course of the relationship between the Arabs and the Jews with the United States siding with Israel and the Soviet Union siding with the Arabs, particularly Egypt and Syria.
Immediately after Israel’s declaration of independence, the Arab countries of Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, formed an army and attacked Israel but were defeated.
In 1967, the Arab armies again attacked Israel but were again defeated, similar to their military fiasco during the 1973 war.
As a matter of policy, Israel took every defeat of the Arab armies as an opportunity to further expand its territory within Palestine at the expense of the Palestinians who are now cornered and living mostly as refugees in the areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
Especially after the war in 1967, Israel took possession of East Jerusalem, Sinai Peninsula (returned to Egypt in 1982, 3 years after a peace accord between Egypt and Israel in 1979), portions of the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
In the present conflict, the policy of enlargement by Israel is now rearing its ugly head again with its eyes on the entire Gaza Strip and the IDF driving the remaining Palestinians to the territories of Egypt and Jordan “for their own safety.”