It’s complicated

In armed conflict, public sympathy typically goes to the underdog. And perceptions of which side is the underdog or weaker force can be complicated.

Usually, whoever throws the first blow is seen as the aggressor. This was the case in the first hours after Hamas launched a stunning attack on Israel on Oct. 7, killing civilians attending an open-air concert, and going house-to-house to murder many more and grab hostages. As Israel’s vaunted “Iron Wall” crumbled, missiles breached its dome shield, killing more.

About 1,400 people including four Filipinos and other foreigners were reportedly killed in the Hamas rampage – the worst attack on the Jewish state since its creation. There was no doubt that Israel would launch an even deadlier counter-attack.

Fighting Hamas and other extremist groups, however, is always complicated by their use of civilians as shields. Once images of Palestinian women and children dying began piling up, people started hesitating in describing Hamas militants as terrorists.

And once the casualty count on the Palestinian side surpassed the Israeli death toll – and kept rising – Israel was increasingly seen as an oppressor going for overkill.

Such perceptions pose a dilemma for Israel, whose legitimacy as a state continues to be questioned by several of its neighbors. The Jewish state is located in a hostile neighborhood, with groups committed to its annihilation.

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Israel’s top diplomat in the Philippines, Ambassador Ilan Fluss, laments the lack of condemnation from many countries and groups for Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities against civilians. He noted that some of the killings were so vicious the dead still cannot be identified.

Video compiled by Israel from cell phone and surveillance camera footage also showed Hamas raping and then killing Jewish women in the Oct. 7 rampage. Yet even as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women approaches, Fluss laments the lack of condemnation of the atrocities from women’s groups.

Hamas, which is the elected governing body in Gaza, has adopted in its charter the slogan “from the river to the sea” for Palestinians – referring to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean