Battle Has to Be Stopped

Islamist Group Hamas launched attack against Israel on Saturday. Israel immediately retaliated with missile strikes and air raids. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement that “We are at war, not an operation.” First strike must be accused. But in the stage of mutual retaliations, both sides have to stop the attacks immediately, because a number of lives have been lost on both sides. International instability already brought by the War of Ukraine can no more be deteriorated. Countries have to seriously consider how this long-time conflict in Middle East would be settled as soon as possible.

The response of Japanese media was relatively slow. Among the newspapers, only Asahi and Sankei located the news on the top of front page of the morning issue on Sunday. Others reported as the second or not put it on the front page. For Japanese, Israel and Palestine may be too far from Japan to be serious about the consequence of the conflict.

 

As the attacks developed to far more serious condition, every newspaper reported the situation of both nations as the top news in Monday morning, raising headline of “Intensified Battle Kills over 900.” Some papers introduced analysis of the structure of opposition, and others reported focusing on the facts of each party and the battlefield.

 

Overall recognition is that the attack of Hamas was triggered by the progress in the relations between Israel and Arab countries. Israel normalized the diplomatic relations with United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020. Saudi Arabia is negotiating with Israel to improve the bilateral relations, considering Iran’s approach to Hamas. Asahi also raised a point that Hamas had been suffering from division inside Palestine which was generated by the approach of West Bank to Saudi Arabia expecting to the negotiation with Israel. The negotiation between Saudi Arabia and Israel is supposed to be halted with the battle between Hamas and Israel.

 

The analysis of problem on the side of Israel is common among the papers. Justice reforms initiated by the administration led by Benjamin Netanyahu brought large confusion in the government, causing deterioration in collecting security information. The attack of Hamas against Israel was as large as unprecedented level, to the extent that it could wage a guerilla war inside Israel.

 

United States President Joe Biden condemned Hamas of attacking Israel, saying “Terrorism is never justified.” Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, uploaded his comment on X that “Our country strongly condemns it, because major damage is brought on the innocent people.” Both leaders have not demanded both sides to self-restrict of attacks.

 

The both sides have to refrain from escalating the battle, because the conflict may cause a chain reaction in a way that one regional conflict leads to another. The War in Ukraine is intensified by counteroffensive of Ukraine. Even how international organization such as United Nations tries to intervene the Middle East conflict, a permanent member, Russia, cannot afford to be involved in it. Iran, backing Hamas, is supportive for Russia and its anti-US sentiment may fuel the attack of Hamas against Israel. The battle needs to be stopped as soon as possible.

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