Gaza and Mosul: Where is the connection?

Despite warnings from many world leaders, Israel conducted a ground operation in Gaza yesterday, raising the death toll to at least 166 since July 8.

Israel’s Gaza assault was triggered when the dead bodies of three young Israelis kidnapped earlier were found in Gaza at the end of June. Then, a 16-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was killed, which investigators believe was revenge for the death of three Israeli teenagers. It was not possible for the international community who tried to stop both Israel and Hamas, which has the power in Gaza, from reciprocal attacks and this is the point we are all witnessing now.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry is trying to find ways to transport humanitarian aid to Gaza after receiving the green light from Israeli authorities, despite the ongoing problems between the two countries because of killing of 10 Turks by Israeli commandos in 2010 on board the ship Mavi Marmara, which was carrying aid to Gaza under a blockade. There have been protests in Turkey (like in many other countries, mostly Western).

Palestinians are not only suffering from the Israeli government’s aggression, which is looking for excuses for provocation, they have been suffering from their own ideologically-blinded, incompetent leaders, too. Hamas leader Khaled Mashal is living in Qatar with a remote control in his hand delivering little to his people other than death and suffering so far.

He left Syria in 2012 as the Syrian civil war intensified. When the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria started to disintegrate, especially after the coup in Egypt on July 3, 2013, and as their fighters join to al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra and the new generation terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the...