For decades, the Middle East has been trapped in a cycle of instability. Geography and natural tensions play a role, but deliberate policies by major regional powers bear significant responsibility. By backing terrorist organizations and stirring up conflict, major powers protect their strategic interests at tremendous cost to regional stability.
Many observers point out that this support, whether direct or indirect, has allowed the rise of armed groups led by individuals with serious psychological problems. Leaders of such groups seem to get a disturbing satisfaction from acts of extreme violence, murder, and torture.
What was once a regional security concern has grown into something far more dangerous: an existential threat that demands a complete rethinking of how things work in the region.
Hamas's violence against its people and enemies
Hamas is a clear example of the troubling pattern. Individuals who have embraced blind violence as their method and mass killing as their purpose lead the terrorist movement.
On October 7, Hamas carried out a horrific massacre against Israeli civilians. Scenes of killing, burning, rape, and beheadings were truly shocking. Such actions point to deeply disturbed leadership within the terrorist organization.
Particularly alarming is that the perpetrators documented the crimes and spread them widely, showing a kind of sick pride in what they had done.
According to Western research centers, the behavior matches what criminal psychologists see in sadistic personalities: people who actually derive pleasure from others’ suffering.
Beyond Israeli victims, terrible consequences of the massacre extended to Hamas’s own supporters in the Gaza Strip as well. Anyone who opposed Hamas or who they suspected of betrayal was executed by the movement. As a way to intimidate and show power, killings were quickly filmed and shared.
International human rights experts agree that the actions represent a blatant violation of basic humanitarian law, confirming that the terrorist organization rules its own people with brutal authoritarianism before even turning to its enemies.
A disturbing need for attention and a pleasure taken in violence characterizes this brutal pattern, just like what happened during the October 7 massacre. In a display of complete moral collapse and psychological breakdown, atrocities were broadcast live on social media.
Israel's regional response
On several levels, Israel’s response to the dangerous behavior in Gaza and its extensions in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran has proven effective. Carefully planned and targeted Israeli military operations have shown a strong ability to break down organizational structures of terror groups and hit supply and financing networks provided by regional states.
Strategic analysts believe that Israel has become critically important for maintaining regional peace and stability, thanks to its advanced military capabilities and the room to act that the country has on the international stage. In calming tensions and deterring regional states that support terrorism, such a strategic position gives Israel a key role. Regardless of where anyone stands politically on the conflict, this reality holds true.
The slogan “Death to Israel and America,” used by terrorist organizations and the dictators that support them, has come at a huge cost to those who promote it. Recent events have given Israel the chance to confront the terrorist organizations and many of their supporter states with force and deterrence, trying to make them understand that the price will be steep if they keep up their aggressive approach.
Western research centers point out that Israel’s proactive strategy has had a real impact on the balance of power in the Middle East, creating a new reality that sets clear boundaries on how much provocation and threat the region can handle.
Creating the kind of deterrent balance the region has been missing for a long time has proven effective. After decades of empty threats from despotic regimes and terrorist groups that faced no real consequences, actors now understand that every action will trigger a decisive and harsh reaction.
Regional stability
Among strategic experts, general agreement exists that the new equation, painful and bloody as it is, may be the only way to force some stability in a region that has long resisted learning the lessons of peace through normal diplomatic channels.
In the end, shortsighted regional policies that put narrow interests ahead of broader stability keep the Middle East trapped. Supporting terrorism and funding extremist organizations is not just a strategic mistake; such support is a crime against all the peoples of the region.
While some states continue playing games of regional power through terrorist proxies, the price they will ultimately pay may far exceed any temporary gains they thought they would get. Simple and clear, the lesson from what is happening now is that violence breeds violence.
Terror, whatever groups call themselves and however they justify their actions, will always end up destroying those who embraced the ideology before it can destroy its enemy.
The writer is a UAE political analyst and former Federal National Council candidate.