Ever since its birth in May 1948, Israel has been at war, invariably wars of survival. The current war of Hamas and Hezbollah began on 7 October 2023. It is important to be reminded of the historical context.
In May 1948, the armies of Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt invaded Israel with the pupose of driving the Jews into the sea. The defeat of their mighty armies against the Jewish forces has been ecer since a source of revenge against such humiliation. They tried again in 1956, 1967 and 1973. Thereafter their wars against Israel were conducted by proxy. Both the PLO and Hamas were created by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, despite a peace treaty with Israel later. The current war must be looked at in this historical perspective. But with at least one major and dangerous difference. The leadership in the war against Israel's existence has been taken over by the shi-ite Islamic Republic of Iran, openly supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. All three have the destruction of Israel as their principal purpose.
The current war must be looked at against this background. At the first war of 1948 the inhabitants of what is now Israel were urged to temporarily settle as refugees close to the borders created by the 1949 armistice: Gaza then under Egyptian military control; the (current) Westbank then under Jordanian control; and Southern Libanon. The PLO has its headquazrters in the Westbank, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Beiroet and the South of Libanon. All three with the destruction of Israel as their ultimate goal. "An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth", Israel's war of self defence has turned into a war of destruction of those who started he war.
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