Israel | 9 April 2024, 1:00 am IST
Nigeria’s Boko Haram — like Hamas (which rules Gaza), Palestine Islamic Jihad (also active in Gaza), Hezbollah (on Israel’s northern border), and their ilk — is an Islamist terrorist organization that won’t compromise on its extremist political aims and can’t be appeased.
My horrified first thought upon hearing of Hamas’ October 7th cross-border invasion into Israel, mass sexual atrocities, and mass abductions was of Boko Haram’s mass kidnapping, raping, and sexual enslavement of (mostly Christian) Nigerian schoolgirls in 2014. My immediate second thought was: We can’t let that become business as usual here.
The negligent, cowardly world essentially “lives with” Boko Haram’s crimes, which have been ongoing for over a decade now. The most recent mass abduction of Nigerian girls and boys took place last month; according to CBS News, the perps were Boko Haram and/or the Islamic State — West Africa Province (ISWAP).
I believe that because political Islam (jihadism) thinks and behaves with such atavistic cruelty (I specifically refer to Islamist rape culture and the sexual enslavement of captives), the modern world simply can’t or won’t comprehend it, choosing instead to turn a blind eye and sacrifice current and future victims.
As soon as the UN Secretary General (a moral relativist) disgraced himself forever by acting as an apologist for the October 7th massacre, I realized that wow, he is modeling for UN member states and humankind how to relate to jihad’s Israel-eliminationist ideology and the atrocities: as something to be contextualized and appeased. Because how else can I interpret the UN’s determination to keep Hamas in power?
However you may understand Hamas’ presence on Israel’s border, I understand it as analogous to the presence of Boko Haram and/or ISWAP in Nigeria or on Nigeria’s border — and probably closer to ISWAP, which like Hamas is not just a terrorist organization; ISWAP and Hamas are both hyperviolent, theocratic-fascist quasi-states.
So this is the State of Israel’s Catch-22 when it comes to intransigent Islamist (Israel-eliminationist) doctrine:
- Do we want to be in this war instigated by Hamas (Gaza’s government)?
- Do we feel okay about mass Gazan civilian suffering and death, trapped as they are — and by design, as Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh explicitly say here and here — in the urban crossfire between the IDF and Hamas?
- Do we feel okay about an indisciplined trigger-happiness on the part of some IDF soldiers and officers, which has led to the deaths of (most notoriously) three of our own hostages by so-called “friendly fire” and of seven food aid workers?
No, no, and no! All of this — the horrific suffering of Israelis and Gazans and of third parties such as those humanitarian food workers — is as tragic as it gets!
But I’m asking — I’m really asking: What does Israel do if the United Nations, UN member states, and other influential third parties to this conflict remain determined to keep the Hamas quasi-state in power on Israel’s border and thus announce their willingness to sacrifice additional Israelis to additional jihadist massacres and abductions?
One October 7th was more than enough for Israel—but is not nearly enough for Hamas, which their leaders and spokesmen say loud and clear.
Whereas I for one do not agree to the State of Israel’s becoming the Middle East’s lethal version of Nigerian schoolgirls targeted for repeat mass rapes and kidnappings and sexual enslavement by Islamist bullies. It shouldn’t happen to Nigerians, it shouldn’t happen to Israelis, it shouldn’t happen to anyone for any reason. Sorry not sorry if that disappoints the UN et al.
