BACKERS OF HAMAS LAUNCH INFOWAR TO CONSTRAIN IDF

A campaign seeking to portray Israel as the aggressor has been launched, and this has been assisted by the comparatively poor performance of Netanyahu government.

- MADHAV NALAPAT

In the way that civilian infrastructure and people are used as human shields, extremist groups have sought to camouflage themselves by passing off as the overwhelming majority of the population of a Muslim country. This is done even while a large majority of believers in Islam in those very locations are modern and moderate. Members and associates of Hamas do not represent the population of Gaza, much less the whole of the Palestinian people, yet the effort by their sympathisers is to claim that any action against them is equivalent to an attack against Palestinians as a whole. The reality is that extremism, exclusivism and radicalism are being challenged from within the Muslim community in West Asia, as witness Crown Prince MBS being the first Al Saud to move away from Wahhabism. Should Hamas get away from the necessarily existential consequences of carrying out a terror attack against Jews in Israel on the scale of 7-9 October, it would be a win for the extremist fringe and bad news for the majority seeking pathways to a moderate, prosperous future for the Palestinians. It is within such a context that even well-meaning calls for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas would result in a boost to extremists rather than to moderate forces in the region.

HAMAS NEEDS A CEASEFIRE