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Here’s How Asia Is Responding to the Israel-Hamas War
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Chinese Premier Li Qiang attend a signing ceremony in Beijing. Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter
On October 7, the terrorist organization Hamas conducted a brutal and unprecedented attack against Israeli civilians. The terrorists committed heinous crimes against the civilian population, with an emphasis on children, women, and the elderly.
In response, the State of Israel launched the Swords of Iron War against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
The countries of the Indo-Pacific have a number of fears arising from the crisis in the Middle East. First, they are apprehensive that the next war (either concurrently with or following the Russia-Ukraine war) is likely to take place in their region, particularly between China and Taiwan. They are also concerned that the Swords of Iron War will have consequences for their energy security. They rely on oil and gas imports from the Persian Gulf that might be undermined due to instability in the region.
China
China’s conduct during the Swords of Iron War has not been neutral. In the past, China has tried to navigate in a somewhat balanced manner between Israel and the Palestinians. But China is Iran’s largest trading partner, and earlier this year it played a significant role in mediating between the two major rivals, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Swords of Iron War raises the potential for entanglement between these two adversaries.
Since the outbreak of the war, statements in the Chinese media and by senior government officials have indicated a shift. This was reflected on the ground in a stabbing incident involving an employee of the Israeli embassy in Beijing, and an unprecedented antisemitic wave on Chinese social media. Alongside Russia, China vetoed the American proposal at the UN Security Council.
China’s ambassador to the UN referred to Israel as an “occupying force,” demanded an immediate lifting of the siege on Gaza, said the root of the conflict is the “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territories, and made no mention of Hamas at all.
China sees itself as an important neutral mediator for peace in the Middle East, but it is no longer perceived as such by the relevant parties. This is a severe blow to Beijing’s diplomatic approach. It aims to strengthen its position in the region and be a meaningful part of shaping the new order, leading to a distancing from the United States that does not create drastic changes in the region. Providing support to extreme Islam could entail possible costs.
In addition, Israel must now recognize that China is not a friend. Countries in the Indo-Pacific expect that Israel’s relationship with China, as well as that of other Western countries, will change, strengthening their support in the face of their own serious tensions with China. There is also concern that China might exploit the conflict in Gaza to implement change in the current order concerning Taiwan.
India
One of the most striking condemnations of the events of October 7 came from Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. He tweeted, “I am deeply shocked by the news of terror attacks in Israel. Our thoughts and prayers are with the innocent victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with Israel in this difficult hour.”
The UN General Assembly passed an essentially symbolic resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire without mentioning either Hamas or the events of October 7. The resolution passed with 45 abstentions, including India. This marks a continuation of a trend that began in 2014 with Modi’s rise to power. In contrast to his predecessors, Modi significantly elevated the level of relations between India and Israel.
Support for Israel can also be seen as a continuation of India’s positioning as a significant player in the Persian Gulf and the entire Middle East. This was particularly evident in the vision announced by Modi and President Biden in September at the G-20 summit in Delhi, according to which they aim to connect India to Europe through the Persian Gulf and Israel. The importance India places on the region can be seen in its participation in the I2U2 framework (India, Israel, US, UAE), which strengthens its presence vis-à-vis Israel and the UAE. It should be noted that there is one issue where India remains consistent in its stance: the need for a two-state solution to resolve the conflict.
Another common denominator is the challenge India and Israel share in dealing with severe terrorism committed by extreme Sunni Islamist organizations. This bond facilitates the garnering of support for Israel from India, which has been dealing with the threat of these organizations for many years. It has been necessary to continue monitoring the responses of the Muslim population in India, especially in light of the violence that occurred at the end of October in the state of Kerala, governed by the Congress Party. The upcoming year is an election year in India, and Modi is aiming to preserve stability and avoid exacerbating tensions between Hindus and Muslims against the backdrop of the Swords of Iron War.
Japan
In recent years, there has been a trend toward rapprochement between Japan and Israel, particularly in the security domain. In 2022, Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz visited Japan, when the countries marked 70 years of diplomatic relations. Japan, like other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, is adjusting its security policy to incorporate lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine war.
For many years, Japan refrained from direct involvement in the Middle East. The current war is prompting it to reconsider this approach. The Japanese are particularly interested in cooperation with Israel on missile defense (given the threat from North Korea), as well as cyber defense.
At the center of Japan’s interest in the Middle East is energy security. Approximately 90% of its energy needs are supplied by regional countries, so there is a strong Japanese interest in preserving stability in the region. Hamas’ surprise attack puts a big question mark on this stability. Another Japanese interest during the war is the effectiveness of Iron Dome. Israel’s air defense superiority, of which Israel is proud, is a big contributor to Israel’s prestige in the Indo-Pacific region.
Diplomatically, Japan initially responded to the war in a neutral manner and criticized Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza. Until October 11, Japan did not address Hamas actions at all and did not explicitly acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defense. Only in the past two weeks has there been a noticeable shift in this approach: Japan expressed a willingness to convey messages to Iran to prevent escalation and decided to impose sanctions on companies and individuals transferring funds to Hamas. However, it also called on Israel to suspend its attack on Gaza to allow for the entry of humanitarian aid. Unprecedented expressions of support for Israel are taking place in the streets of Tokyo.
Japan is watching and learning regarding the Western response to events.
South Korea
A few days after October 7, South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol condemned the indiscriminate killing of Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the abduction of hostages to Gaza. While South Korea did not express a clear stance in favor of Israel, this constituted an official public condemnation of Hamas.
Yeol also initiated an emergency cabinet meeting aimed at examining the effects of the war on South Korea’s economy and security. At the meeting, concerns were raised about the impact of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on the regional and global scene.
Another important concern for South Korea is North Korea’s involvement. The Israel Defense Forces revealed that North Korea is supplying military technologies to Hamas, and Kim Jong-Un has declared support for the Palestinians and expressed a willingness to send aid to them. All of this clearly places South Korea at odds with the axis in which North Korea actively participates. As the axis countries take more and more anti-Western action, South Korea’s and Japan’s ability to leverage their own interests and needs is strengthened.
The Swords of Iron War has wide-ranging implications for the Indo-Pacific countries, which are grappling with threats such as radical Islam and the tensions resulting from inter-power competition. While the perceived threats in the Indo-Pacific region include China and North Korea, the overall strategic picture is much more broad and complex.
For these countries, the preservation of energy security is critical, and the situation in the Middle East is posing a threat to that security. In addition, the countries of the Indo-Pacific are concerned by the position of the Iran-Russia-China-North Korea axis regarding the war. While Iran is considered a friend, its alignment with China and North Korea creates tensions with India, Japan and South Korea.
Dr. Lauren Dagan Amoss is a member of the Deborah Forum, a lecturer and a researcher in the Department of Political Science and the Security Studies Program at Bar-Ilan University. She specializes in Indian foreign policy. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
The post Here’s How Asia Is Responding to the Israel-Hamas War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel, Hamas Reach Deal Meant to End Gaza War, Free Hostages, Official Says
Supporters of Israeli hostages, who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, react to news on the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, during a protest to demand a deal to bring every hostage home, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Negotiators reached a phased deal on Wednesday to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after 15 months of conflict that has inflamed the Middle East.
The accord, which has not yet been formally announced, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, the official told Reuters.
Phase one entails the release of 33 Israeli hostages including all women, children, and men over 50.
Negotiations on implementing the second phase will begin by the 16th day of phase one and it is expected to include the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The third phase is expected to address the return of all remaining dead bodies and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction supervised by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations.
The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations conducted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and comes just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Hamas, Gaza’s dominant Palestinian terrorist group, told Reuters its delegation had handed mediators its approval for the ceasefire agreement and return of hostages.
A Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters earlier Hamas had given verbal approval to the ceasefire and hostage return proposal and was awaiting more information to give final written approval.
If successful, the planned ceasefire could halt fighting in Gaza that is still ongoing between Israel and Hamas, which launched the war with its invasion of the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023.
That in turn could defuse tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has stoked conflict in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between arch regional foes Israel and Iran.
Even if the warring sides implement the current deal, it will still require further negotiation before there is a lasting ceasefire and the release of all the hostages.
MASSIVE TASK OF RECONSTRUCTION
If all goes smoothly, the Palestinians, Arab states, and Israel still must agree on a vision for post-war Gaza, a formidable challenge involving security guarantees for Israel and billions of dollars in investment for rebuilding.
One unanswered question is who will run Gaza after the war.
Israel has rejected any involvement by Hamas, which had ruled Gaza since 2007, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was cutting a visit to Europe short and flying home overnight to take part in security cabinet and government votes on the deal — meaning the votes would likely be by or on Thursday.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the conflict when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages to Gaza during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7. Jerusalem responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza.
As his inauguration approached, Trump repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released by the time he took office. His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff worked with President Joe Biden’s team to push the deal over the line.
In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Oct. 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country’s history.
Gaza’s conflict spilled over across the Middle East, with Iranian-backed proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen targeting Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The deal emerged a few months after Israel eliminated the top leaders of Hamas and Lebanon’s Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in assassinations that gave it the upper hand.
The post Israel, Hamas Reach Deal Meant to End Gaza War, Free Hostages, Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Professor to CUNY’s Faculty Union: Let My People Go!
The B. Altman & Company Building housing the City University of New York Graduate Center in New York City. Photo Credit: Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia.
Three years ago, almost to the day, I joined five brave professors at the City University of New York (CUNY) in filing a lawsuit against the union that represents us.
Why? For starters, as a Zionist Jew, I was appalled when the union’s delegates chanted “Zionism out of CUNY!” at an anti-Israel rally.
And I was disgusted when the union passed a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that called Israel an “apartheid” state.
My fellow plaintiffs and I aren’t members of the union, but it imposes its tainted services on us, nonetheless.
New York’s Taylor Law cruelly forces us to accept this hate-infested union’s representation, even while the union’s members and delegates openly chant that they want to expel Zionists from the university.
That’s right — this union is supposed to protect our jobs, but it is doing its best to destroy them.
The union has just ratified a new contract, which will affect our terms and conditions of employment and the campus environment for Jews.
Despite the findings by multiple investigations — the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, the report by Judge Lippman commissioned by New York’s governor, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determination — of the massive antisemitism problem at CUNY, the union has been silent on the issue, and so is the new contract.
Does the contract propose reforms that will protect Zionist Jews from the violence and harassment that we have suffered on campus? No it does not.
Does it rectify what I see as the expungement of Jews from senior leadership positions at CUNY? Not by my read.
Does it demand measures to prevent violent and campus-disrupting anti-Israel encampments? No — probably because the union defended them.
However, because the union has pushed us out of its membership by spouting hateful attacks against our religion and heritage, my fellow plaintiffs and hundreds of other Jews have zero influence over the contract’s details.
We’ve been driven out, then denied a vote on an agreement that affects our careers and our safety.
So much for democracy and a union’s duty of equal and fair representation of all groups.
Union officials don’t want Zionist Jews in their membership ranks? Fine. They shouldn’t be speaking or negotiating for us either. We don’t need or want their “representation.”
A similar conflict existed 3,500 years ago in Egypt.
A tyrannical Pharaoh abused Jews, treating them like an underclass and exploiting their labor — until someone stood up.
Moses made a famous demand of that unaccountable leader: Let my people go.
I say the same to the leaders of the Professional Staff Congress.
They don’t want us, but they are forcing us to labor under the conditions they set. And they have argued that representing every last professor at CUNY is “fundamental to a union’s power.”
By their own admission, they are demanding the right to represent Zionist Jews not for our benefit but for theirs.
Unfortunately, on Monday, the US Supreme Court denied our appeal to address this ongoing injustice, meaning our antisemitic union will remain free to enhance its own power by mistreating groups it considers to be undesirable.
The Court has chosen not to intervene, but that doesn’t mean our representatives can’t get involved. It’s happened before. Just ahead of a Supreme Court decision in 2018 that affected public employees’ rights, lawmakers passed a significant change to the Taylor Law. They should do so again.
And Congress has a role, too. If Federal legislators really want to address the evil and insanity that is transpiring on our campuses, they must recognize that Marxist and antisemitic faculty unions are behind so much of it. A powerful first step would be passing Senator Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) proposed Union Members Right to Know Act, a bill that would prevent unions from promoting antisemitism and other hateful ideologies.
For our union at CUNY, after years of litigation and discrimination, it’s time.
Let my people go.
Jeffrey Lax is a professor of law and chair of the business department at CUNY, a co-founder of S.A.F.E. Campus, and a plaintiff in Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY.
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How to Hate the Jews? The Palestinian Authority Counts the Ways
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has reported for years on the endless stream of Jew-hatred that the Palestinian Authority (PA) constantly disseminates. This has led many Palestinians to hate Jews.
However, even by PA hate-standards, a recent item published in its official daily deserves honorable mention. The article is written as a letter to the writer’s German friend named Thomas, in which he spews just about every libel he can think of against the Jews — and then uses that as justification for why Europeans and Arabs should hate them:
Thomas, I have been monitoring them [Jews] in my land for 76 years. I have been monitoring their actions and their disgraceful deeds … I have been monitoring their dreams, which seek to concentrate all the happiness in the world in their hands. I have been monitoring their behavior, which is filled with barbarism and bloodthirstiness. I have been monitoring their voices, which call for superiority and arrogance, and claim that they are the only ones close to Heaven…
I have been monitoring what the world says about them, from all corners of the globe, and I see and understand the damage they have done to people, and how they have monopolized life and considered it their property and possession. The same is true of their situation on everything concerning money, power, arrogance, impudence, and declaring publicly — without convincing excuses and in a shameless fashion — that they are the children and beloved of Allah, while the others are his slaves and nothing more … They want to subjugate the entire world, and not just my Palestinian people …
Yes, Thomas. I have been monitoring them to know what kind of people they are, what they are made of, what characteristics they have inherited, and why they behave this way that the world fears and worries about — in the West, in the East, in the North, and in the South — and why they are busy creating lobbies to pressure states, peoples, institutions, bodies, and centers of power and influence in the world …
Thomas, ever since they — and I mean the Israelis — are in our Palestinian land at the expense of a people, land, values, history, and dreams, they operate by the culture of intimidation, not only towards us but towards all the region’s peoples … They have painted our lands with blood and flooded the space with fear, as they have flooded our cemeteries with laments … The only scents lingering there are the smell of gunpowder and corpses. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 15, 2024]
Profound Jew-hatred is so entrenched in Palestinian society because it comes from its very leadership.
As PA leader Mahmoud Abbas infamously stated, Hitler had not “killed the Jews because they were Jews,” rather “Hitler … fought the Jews because they worked based on usury and money. In other words, they caused ruin…”
Official PA TV, Speech at 11th conference of the Fatah Revolutionary Council at the PA headquarters in Ramallah on Aug. 24, 2023
Official PA TV tows the line of the PA leadership, and takes advantage of every opportunity to spread hate about Jews.
A PA TV host recently explained that “the sadism of the invaders [Jews] is embodied … this sadism was not coincidental, but is the result of a criminal, Zionist, racist ideology, which the Zionist movement has fed the Jews’ souls.”
The PA TV “Israeli affairs expert,” Alyan Al-Hindi, concurred that the “Israeli culture of murder and destruction is built on … the European culture, which is based on murder, destruction, and racism [and] on the Torah.”
Official PA TV, In Memory, Nov. 3, 2024
Another guest on PA TV likewise demonized Jews, claiming that the Torah/Bible is the reason the Jew “enjoys this killing and does not feel pangs of conscience. Why? Because for him, within him, in his experience, in his consciousness, in this core of consciousness, he must kill and he is rewarded for this killing.”
Official PA TV, Feb. 9, 2024
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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