The trajectory of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka—widely known as the Tamil Tigers—is often cited by proponents of Israel’s stated war aim of entirely eliminating Hamas from Gaza. The Tamil Tigers were one of the most effective and brutal terrorist formations in the world, responsible for the murder of a sitting Sri Lankan president, a former Indian prime minister on Indian soil, and an unending array of prominent Sri Lankans. Eventually, a decimating war waged by the Sri Lankan state between 2006 and 2009—known as the Eelam IV war—resulted in the LTTE’s comprehensive defeat.
But the Tamil precedent is much more ambivalent than the most common references suggest. The precedent indicates that the survival of Hamas will largely be determined by two factors that are themselves still undetermined, and which may operate in tension with one another.
By Ajai Sahni, the Executive Director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.
Idk. Other countries weren’t gonna shelter LTTE but Hamas will get shelter within its neighboring region.
Tamil Tigers were not crushed by a party with western values.
These days, part of Western values is not defeating your enemy.
Can we realistically compare the situation with Hamas with the Tamil Tigers?
Hamas is a state sponsored group that has the support of non-Gazans throughout the world. There seems to be various groups attempting to push the narrative that Israel and the IDF are attempting to genocide the Gazan people.
The Tamil Tigers never had the same world wide support. The majority of their funding was through taxation of the lands they controlled, money sent from overseas Tamils, and international investments made by the group. I never learned about the Sri Lankan Civil War until years after college when I was deep diving into the use of suicide bombers by various groups.
Once Sri Lanka militarily defeated the Tamil Tigers there was nowhere for them to regroup. India had ended aid and support through RAW long before the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in ’91, and the Indian Peace Keeping Force in the country was so unpopular that the Sri Lanka Army helped provide arms and munitions to the Tamil Tigers to combat them.
Most people in the Western world, in other areas as well, know about what is happening in Gaza. And if Israel and the IDF could realistically drive Hamas into the sea, what is to keep Iran from reforming it?
The LTTE was annihilated for a very specific set of reasons.
The most important, IMO, was that LTTE (earlier a nimbler guerilla force) changed into a conventional army shit conventional logistics, org structure etc.
This army was then forced into a last stand, in a single geographical area, surrounded and then utterly destroyed. Among their officers and leaders an almost 100 percent death rate. There was no mercy shown, no Geneva convention applied. All shot out of hand in that last battle.
LTTE had was no chance for recovery, no ‘fading into the local populace’ to fight another day. They leadership totally gone. Their local support vanished. They lost all previous international backing as well.
I’m not following this one that closely but are conditions for Hamas the same today?
This war has made it clear to the world that Israel does not have western values. It is currently a nation driven by religious nationalist extremists. They are an American ally, but who knows how long that will last as the country becomes increasingly orthodox, non-liberal and warlike. At some point they will cease to fulfil their function as a stabilising power base in the Middle East and will need to be curtailed.
The destruction of the Tamil Tigers was only achieved through the mass murder of civilians, after the military victory. Something like 150,000 civilians were massacred in the final phase of the war in 2008/9 in a series of bloody acts.
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The trajectory of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka—widely known as the Tamil Tigers—is often cited by proponents of Israel’s stated war aim of entirely eliminating Hamas from Gaza. The Tamil Tigers were one of the most effective and brutal terrorist formations in the world, responsible for the murder of a sitting Sri Lankan president, a former Indian prime minister on Indian soil, and an unending array of prominent Sri Lankans. Eventually, a decimating war waged by the Sri Lankan state between 2006 and 2009—known as the Eelam IV war—resulted in the LTTE’s comprehensive defeat.
But the Tamil precedent is much more ambivalent than the most common references suggest. The precedent indicates that the survival of Hamas will largely be determined by two factors that are themselves still undetermined, and which may operate in tension with one another.
By Ajai Sahni, the Executive Director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.
Idk. Other countries weren’t gonna shelter LTTE but Hamas will get shelter within its neighboring region.
Tamil Tigers were not crushed by a party with western values.
These days, part of Western values is not defeating your enemy.
Can we realistically compare the situation with Hamas with the Tamil Tigers?
Hamas is a state sponsored group that has the support of non-Gazans throughout the world. There seems to be various groups attempting to push the narrative that Israel and the IDF are attempting to genocide the Gazan people.
The Tamil Tigers never had the same world wide support. The majority of their funding was through taxation of the lands they controlled, money sent from overseas Tamils, and international investments made by the group. I never learned about the Sri Lankan Civil War until years after college when I was deep diving into the use of suicide bombers by various groups.
Once Sri Lanka militarily defeated the Tamil Tigers there was nowhere for them to regroup. India had ended aid and support through RAW long before the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in ’91, and the Indian Peace Keeping Force in the country was so unpopular that the Sri Lanka Army helped provide arms and munitions to the Tamil Tigers to combat them.
Most people in the Western world, in other areas as well, know about what is happening in Gaza. And if Israel and the IDF could realistically drive Hamas into the sea, what is to keep Iran from reforming it?
The LTTE was annihilated for a very specific set of reasons.
The most important, IMO, was that LTTE (earlier a nimbler guerilla force) changed into a conventional army shit conventional logistics, org structure etc.
This army was then forced into a last stand, in a single geographical area, surrounded and then utterly destroyed. Among their officers and leaders an almost 100 percent death rate. There was no mercy shown, no Geneva convention applied. All shot out of hand in that last battle.
LTTE had was no chance for recovery, no ‘fading into the local populace’ to fight another day. They leadership totally gone. Their local support vanished. They lost all previous international backing as well.
I’m not following this one that closely but are conditions for Hamas the same today?
This war has made it clear to the world that Israel does not have western values. It is currently a nation driven by religious nationalist extremists. They are an American ally, but who knows how long that will last as the country becomes increasingly orthodox, non-liberal and warlike. At some point they will cease to fulfil their function as a stabilising power base in the Middle East and will need to be curtailed.
The destruction of the Tamil Tigers was only achieved through the mass murder of civilians, after the military victory. Something like 150,000 civilians were massacred in the final phase of the war in 2008/9 in a series of bloody acts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullivaikkal_massacre?wprov=sfti1#
It’s one of the darkest acts of this century. I certainly hope it’s not a template for Gaza.
Disappointed that someone as reputed as Mr Sahni is making apples to orange comparison.
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