Historical Outlook of the Hamas-Israeli War: Lessons for Nigeria

Abstract

The existence of conflict within or between nations is as old as time. Conflicts sometimes take the form of disagreements that lead to boycotts or confrontations, such as declared wars. The Israeli War with Palestine is one notorious situation that has remained adamant and unrelenting. In contemporary times, the Palestinian Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmiyyah (Hamas)–Israeli war has continued to attract international attention from both individual nations and committees of nations. The history of wars between Israel and its neighbours has remained an interesting study that is neither a tribal nor ethnic-based conflict, but that of legitimate survival and territorial occupation. The interventions by the United Nations (UN) have led to several suggested solutions, such as the creation of two separate states joined economically or the formation of a single binational state. The acceptance of these solutions has remained a mirage that has lingered to date. The Palestinian Hamas–Israeli war leaves a lot of lessons for Nigeria, whose boundaries are shared with four francophone nations. Supposing a similar conventional war erupts between Nigeria and one or an alliance of these francophone nations, would Nigeria be able to contain the aggression just as is the case with the Palestinian Hamas–Israeli experience? It is viewed, therefore, that there is a need for Nigeria to revamp her intelligence network system, rejig her foreign policy content, enlighten the civil society on the need to be vigilant, begin to robustly equip her armed forces as necessary, and heighten her border security with her Francophone neighbours.