Terror groups like Hamas have as one of their objectives the sowing of divisiveness as a tool to dominate a population.
Among extremist groups’ devices is associating their movement with religious causes and rationalizing their actions as a pushback against Western persecution.
On a global scale, terror groups are seeking a religious confrontation, which is behind using civilians as shields and inflicting the most casualties possible from Israeli retaliation to seduce other nations into the fray.
Stoking division is making a headway. Just recently, thousands of people gathered in Mindanao to protest Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in response to the deadly 7 October cross-border raids by Hamas militants.
Palestinian flags were waved while many had national colors painted on their cheeks, shedding tears as they prayed.
Placards read “Free Palestine!” and “Bangsamoro against injustice,” referring to the Muslim self-ruled region of Mindanao.
The calls boil down to demands of a halt to the Israeli military operations and for the United States and the United Nations to “stay neutral” in the conflict, which strangely is the same call of Hamas.
This was in contrast to solidarity rallies with Israel in several nations.
Those who joined the assemblies in support of Israel recalled the horrifying attack 50 years ago that began the Yom Kippur War, of which the Hamas terror assault is a replay.
Still, the terror groups are doing the same as rights activists in the US.
Recently, hundreds of UCLA students marched through the campus in Los Angeles, joining a so-called “National Day of Resistance” in support of Palestine to bring up their people’s loss of land, homes, freedom, and lives as a result of “Israel’s decades-long occupation of their historic homeland.”
Highlighted were the deaths in Israeli military retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip instead of condemning the terror carnage that started the renewed conflict. “Zionism = Terrorism,” read some of the placards.
The welling up of support for Palestine resulted in tension on campuses across the US, primarily played out in social media, a favorite battleground of the terror groups.
One account said that the vitriolic climate is on scores of campuses, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, USC and Cal State Long Beach.
During a “Stand With Israel” demonstration at UC Berkeley, more than a hundred students and community members gathered to mourn the victims of the attack. Some were draped in Israeli flags or held signs with photos of women and children held hostage by Hamas fighters in Gaza.
“This is not about politics. If you believe in human rights, where are you now?” one of the participants asked.
An Israeli soldier interviewed by one of the news outfits covering the war was asked what drove his resolve to fight terror. “It’s either I fight, or it would be my family who suffers,” he said.
A statement from the National Students for Justice in Palestine called for campus rallies and extolled the acts of terrorism, saying the Hamas attack was a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance.”
Pro-Israel students have also been harassed. At UCLA, students walking on campus with an Israeli flag reported being accosted by another student yelling profanities and calling them “colonizers” and “occupiers.”
Bella Brannon, president of the UCLA Hillel, said it would be hard to move forward in dialogue after seeing fellow students support the Hamas attack as liberation for the Palestinian people and disregarding the horror of Israeli women and babies killed.
“If people won’t condemn terror attacks for what they are … there is no conversation to be had,” Brannon said.
Being obfuscated, through the efforts of anti-Israel groups, is the fact that the tragic situation now unfolding was started by the Hamas operations that massacred people of different nationalities.
Evil has a way of winning support. “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” the Bible says.