ANALYSIS: Sudden Hamas Attack on Israel May Be Used by CCP to Distract West's Attention: Expert

The sudden attack by Hamas on Israel ignited another war after Russia's, shocking the world. An expert worries whether the United States can spare another hand to help defend world peace with the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war. In particular, communist China remains at high risk of waging a battle over its sovereignty claims of Taiwan.

In the early morning of Oct. 7, Hamas, a U.S.-classified terrorist organization based in Gaza, suddenly fired thousands of rockets at Israel, followed by a combined air, land, and sea attack. The Hamas terrorists attacked men, women, and children and kidnapped many Israeli soldiers and civilians as hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a “state of war” in Israel, emphasizing that the military is fully committed to fighting against Hamas and the war is likely to be protracted.

The United States, the UK, the EU, Japan, India, Ukraine, and dozens of other countries have expressed their solidarity with Israel while condemning Hamas for its acts of terrorism. Meanwhile, Lebanon, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iraq are siding with Hamas and claiming that Israel is at fault.

Beijing’s stance is intriguing. On Oct. 8, China’s Foreign Ministry urged the relevant parties to remain calm and cease hostilities to protect civilians, saying that “the fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine.”

Yuval Waks, a senior official at the Israeli Embassy in China, told reporters that Beijing should have lodged a “stronger condemnation” toward Hamas, and “When people are being murdered, slaughtered in the streets, this is not the time to call for a two-state solution.”

Countries with more or less similar attitudes as Beijing are Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey; they said that all parties should exercise restraint to avoid further escalation of tension and to prevent the situation from getting out of control.

In response to Hamas’s most devastating terrorist attack on Israel, there is no sense saying in “keeping calm or restraint,” said Shi Shan, a U.S.-based China political affairs expert.

“[Those countries] talking about ‘restraint’ at this moment is likely to be pulling the strings, implicitly supporting Hamas,” Mr. Shi told The Epoch Times on Oct. 8.

Regarding the motive of Hamas’s attack on Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Abraham Blinken said that it may be to undermine the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Shi believes it remains to be seen how far this war in the Middle East will go and whether it will spread to a broader area.

From Aug. 9 to Aug. 18, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps held a large-scale military exercise that involved 25,000 troops and spanned 22 time zones in Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indo-Pacific region.

The time zone of the exercise signals that the United States is preparing to fight two wars simultaneously, one against Russia in the Atlantic and the other against the CCP in the Indo-Pacific region, Mr. Shi said.

“We have to maintain the nation’s ability to project power globally ” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, in August.

CCP leader Xi Jinping has prioritized the “reunification of Taiwan” as a target in his third term. The CCP’s aggressive stance has raised alarm bells around the world. U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly said that the United States will defend the island if the CCP invades Taiwan by force.

Mr. Shi raised concerns that “if the ongoing conflict in the Middle East develops into a second war, even if the U.S. can cope with two wars simultaneously, can it tackle a third war? It would be a fairly daunting thing.”

“I am afraid that this is a situation that Beijing is particularly willing to see, so any unusual move by the CCP is worth paying attention to,” said Mr. Shi, warning, "Be wary of the CCP."

Adding another layer of concern, Mr. Shi held that the driving force behind Hamas’s intense rocket and missile barrage on Israel is Iran, the backer of Lebanese Hezbollah. The latter controls Hamas.

Given the Chinese communist regime’s close ties to Iran, it is likely the CCP played a role in Hamas’s sudden strike on Israel, Mr. Shi said.

Voices within the U.S. Congress are calling for a reduction in aid to Ukraine. The U.S. federal government nearly shut down due to the delay in passing a congressional budget. It was not until late at night on Sept. 30 that the House of Representatives narrowly passed a short-term bill that omitted extra aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, House Speaker McCarthy (R-Calif.) was removed from office by a disgruntled minority within the Republican Party over the bill.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sept. 24 that if Congress cuts off aid to Kyiv, Ukraine will face severe economic and political repercussions in a counteroffensive this fall.

The United States and other donor countries pay the salaries of 150,000 civil servants and more than 500,000 faculty members in Ukraine, as well as their government expenditures such as health care and housing subsidies.