(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - When Hamas launched the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israeli communities near the border with Gaza, its leaders were hoping that many Arabs and Muslims would join the fight to eliminate Israel. The hope was that Hizbullah in Lebanon would launch a similar invasion of Israel, that Iran would unleash thousands of ballistic missiles against Israel, and that tens of thousands of Muslims would invade Israel from Jordan. The only parties that chose to join Hamas's war on Israel were Iran's other terror proxies: Hizbullah, the Houthis in Yemen, some Shiite armed groups in Iraq, and several Iran-backed armed groups, consisting mostly of Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank. Hamas leaders view the involvement of Iran's other proxies in the Jihad against Israel as insufficient. "We truly feel let down by the [Islamic] nation in an unprecedented manner," said senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya. Many Palestinians and Arabs are openly talking about the "betrayal" of the Arabs and Muslims. The reason more Arabs didn't join in is that many Arabs and Muslims are aware that Iran's mullahs want to use them to export the Iranian "Islamic Revolution" to their countries and to expand Iran's control over the Middle East. It appears that a large number of Arabs and Muslims are tired of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations constantly entangling the Palestinians in pointless and lethal conflicts with Israel. The writer, a veteran Israeli journalist, is a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
2024-12-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive