Gaza – Hot Spot on the World Map

Manifested by rocket fire, the destruction of the border fence that separates the Gaza Strip from Israel, the penetration of Israeli territory - by air, land and sea - and by massacres committed in several kibbutzim and at a music festival dedicated to a Jewish holiday, the surprise and unprecedentedly harsh offensive of the terrorist organization Hamas shocked the international community. October 7, 2023, when in their incursion terrorists killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, including women, children, and the elderly, injured several thousand and took more than 200 hostages, will remain in history as a black day and the moment that triggered a large-scale Israeli response, resulting in a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Israel declared a state of war for the first time since 1973, with 300,000 reservists called up to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stated goal of completely destroying Hamas. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled from the north of the Gaza Strip's 365 square kilometer territory to the south of the enclave, with the rest stranded in their attempt to shelter and facing lack of electricity, water, food, and medicines. Outraged by Israel's actions, the Muslim world responded with demonstrations, some violent, in many countries in the Middle East, but also in Europe and the United States. Anti-Semitism in the US is reaching 'historic levels' following violence in Israel and Gaza, the FBI director has warned, while other countries, including Britain and France, have also warned of a major rise in anti-Semitic incidents. The crisis in the Middle East is seen as a fissure in the regional security structure, and some analysts speak of the fact that it has become clear that the EU has limited influence in managing a geopolitical crisis on its periphery, including due to its exhaustion as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine. According to university professor Ştefan Ciochinaru, the two wars can be compared from the perspective of Europe's reaction, but only up to a point, because the political objectives of the aggressors differ:

"In the case of Ukraine, the objective of the aggressor is the destruction of the European order and the expulsion of America from Europe. Because, basically, this means Moscow's refusal to accept Ukraine's integration into the EU and NATO. As he actually stated, Putin wants to return to the situation of 1994, he wants to keep European countries in his sphere of influence, as happened during the USSR period. (…)On the other hand, in the case of aggression against Israel, the objective of those behind the aggressor Hamas is directed like billiard balls against the USA. Hence the vast network of complicity that connects a number of Arab states with the anti-American left in Europe, with Russia, with Iran and its vassals and, not least, although much more subtly, with China. They simply aim to instigate the entire Muslim world against the United States, against the West, because, in the strategic conception of those who want at all costs the revision of the world order, America is the main target. If you take down America, you can handle the rest very easily. Europe is a strategic dwarf. Japan, South Korea, and Australia remain isolated in the immensity of Asia. The whole great West will then collapse like a sandcastle. And Europe's reaction, as usual, shows a lot, a lot of strategic myopia. For a year we have seen the inconsistency of the attitude and measures in the case of the war in Ukraine, a war which, let's not forget, is being fought on the territory of Europe, in the name of these values, and whose outcome will define the very future of the European project. As for the reaction to the attack on Israel and the provocation set up in the Arab catacombs, things are even worse. The European political left joined hands with the extreme right and with Muslim immigration, condemning the aggressor, the state of Israel. And there is also the fact that Europe also has its catacombs, where the old and new policies of anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and anti-democracy are still boiling in more or less secret crucibles."

With good reason, we can ask ourselves what world we live in, and many do, of course , realize, Professor Ștefan Ciochinaru also says, that we live in a world assaulted by a hybrid war, which has nothing sacred:

"We see, as a result of the fire started in the Middle East, how teachers are assassinated in France, how railway stations and airports throughout Europe are threatened with bombings, how stars of David are drawn on the houses of the Jews in Berlin, how Mosaic cemeteries are desecrated, how in countries with old democratic states rallies are being held to condemn the victim, in solidarity with the aggressor. We see how the democratic press in Europe seems to have forgotten about the crimes of the Russians in Crimea, the crimes of Hamas in Israel, but is instead very worried about the so-called punitive actions taken by the Israeli army."

Evoking a significant increase in anti-Semitism in the world since the beginning of the war with Hamas, Prime Minister Netanyahu advised Israeli citizens not to travel abroad. The request is, however, difficult to comply with, given that there are Israeli businesses and enterprises in many places in the world, and the economic factor is an important one. On the other hand, the World Health Organization categorized the conditions in Gaza as 'indescribable'. 'It is too late to help the dead, but we can help the living,' said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, pleading for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.