(The Hill) Robert Satloff - An aspect of Ramadan that has been a tradition through the ages is the holy month as a time for war. There is a history of Muslim armies waging war during Ramadan. This makes it ironic that some well-meaning non-Muslims are calling on Israel to suspend its military operations against the Islamist extremists of Hamas out of respect for Ramadan. The 1973 Arab-Israeli war is widely known in the Arab world as the Ramadan War, when Anwar Sadat dispatched Egyptian forces to cross the Suez Canal. The Saudi newspaper Arab News reported that "some of the greatest victories in Islam occurred during Ramadan." The Washington Institute's Patrick Clawson noted: "Modern proposals for Ramadan ceasefires by secular governments - the Soviets in Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein when fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran - were uniformly rejected by the Islamist side, which usually intensified fighting during Ramadan." For Hamas and their fellow travelers, waging war during Ramadan is as valid as in the other months of the year. The American government should not fall for well-meaning calls to urge Israel to display one-sided military restraint out of deference to Ramadan. We can be sure that Hamas (or what's left of it) won't be devoting the next month to introspection, service and worship. The writer is executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2024-03-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive