Middle East Violence During Holy Time for Three Faiths
A Dangerous Situation
For the past few years, Hamas and other anti-Israel forces have made a show of launching rockets into Israel around Passover. This time, the rocket launches come on the heels of increased violence in and around the Holy sites in Jerusalem, and Israeli police raids in the West Bank.
Over the past several days, Hamas and allied forces have launched rockets into Israel and Israeli-controlled territory from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel, as usual, responded in kind, launching retaliatory strikes into all three locations. Israel made a point of holding the Assad regime in Syria accountable for any attacks from Syrian territory. If you will recall, Syria is a client state of both Iran and Russia now.
In addition, Iran seems to be preparing to retaliate against Israel for the recent killing of Iranian agents in Syria. The word is that Iran may hit Israeli-owned civilian shipping in and near the Persian Gulf. Because of this threat, the U.S. is sending attack submarines to the area in case of trouble.
Add to this, a lot of domestic political turmoil in Israel that may tempt the Netanyahu administration to show toughness against Israel’s enemies.
The Middle East has been in a crisis situation for years, but the violence of the past week or so seems more heightened and concerning. Coming at a time of the year when very important religious observances by the three main faiths of Middle Eastern origin, Muslim (Ramadan), Jewish (Passover), and Christian (Easter), intersect, is an odd coincidence that can only heighten the military and political turmoil.
Subscribers can use the new Substack Chat feature to comment. For those who celebrate, either Ramadan, Passover, or Easter, may this season be a peaceful one for you and, hopefully, for the world.
For further reading on this situation:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/world/middleeast/us-submarine-middle-east-iran.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/08/middleeast/jordan-warns-israel-al-aqsa-mosque-intl-hnk/index.html