Planned or not, those who would destroy all Jews are inciting around the world waves of antisemitism. The genocide driven Hamas exploded a “9/11” catastrophic bomb of murder in Israel. Israel’s retaliatory answer to destroy Hamas, which hides in Gaza, with inevitable suffering for civilian Palestinians who live there, is being turned into a new reason to attack the Jewish diaspora. While the only possible solution to the Israel/Palestinian problems has been to find a two states solution, all doors there are for now slammed shut. It is hard to see how they open again with the idea of Jihad against Israel being promoted across the globe. But how quickly too could sympathy for Israel turn to disgust if the suffering of the Palestinians living in Gaza, who are not Hamas militants, is, or is believed to be, too appalling. Is the bombing of Gaza to destroy Hamas with all the terrible collateral civilian damage justified? A huge moral dilemma.
THE STORM CLOUDS OF WAR THREATEN AN ANTISEMITIC PANDEMIC
Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, is an extreme Islamist group whose objective set out in its Covenant of the Hamas, based in Gaza, is to kill Jews and destroy the State of Israel. That is fairly clear. Their recent slaughter of Jews, including the elderly and babies with barbaric butchery, is proof of that. It is a declared terrorist organisation by Western democracies. Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, said to be the most effective military non-national force, is also dedicated to destroying Israel. The policy of Iran includes it seems the destruction of Israel. Iran is said to sponsor Hamas and Hezbollah. Perhaps, Iran uses them to fight proxy wars it cannot itself openly initiate. And is not Syria also heavily anti-Israel?
Hamas is the chosen government of Palestinians in Gaza. Do most Palestinians there approve of Hamas’ objectives? But to what degree also do Hamas, Hezbollah and also Iran and Syria really care for the ordinary Palestinian? Are Palestinian citizens receivers of great generosity from their Arab or other Muslim neighbours, as it does not appear so? Are they pawns in broader political games?
Two weeks ago, Hamas implemented a deliberate plan to invade Israel, murder as many Jews as possible and take civilians as hostages. In a systematic slaughter, reminiscent of Al Qaeda’s murder of Americans and others on 9/11 in 2001 using aircraft as weapons, Hamas pursued its goal and thousands of Jews were murdered, maimed, or otherwise injured coldly and barbarically, leaving a trail of misery. Hezbollah threatens a new battlefront to the North and missiles are being rained on Israeli settlements there. Can that be contained? Does Iran wish to avoid being a war participant or is it looking for an excuse to bomb?
However, Israel was formed following the systematic extermination of Jews in Europe in the Holocaust. Is the intent of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran and perhaps Syria, ISIS and other extreme Islamic groups all that different from that of the Nazis of Germany in the 1930s and 40s? And now, it is reported, Hamas, Iran and Putin, the modern-day Hitler, have met together in Moscow.
Is it surprising that, following the killings by Hamas, Israel declared a state of war, with the intent to destroy Hamas, so that “never again” could the slaughter of Jews be repeated, just as was said after the Holocaust? Israel has strong Western support in the form of the USA, UK and EU. But, ironically, the likes of Putin of Russia and Xi of China will cite international law to vilify any attack by Israel on Gaza. To what extent is Israel entitled to attack Gaza, to destroy Hamas? But inevitably Palestinians, innocent civilians, are dying or are displaced South as refugees and each such death may be awarded martyrdom by antisemitic incitement worldwide. And Western support is premised on Israel observing the laws of war – yet, while murdering non-Hamas civilians may not be their aim, Israel will kill some because Hamas military hide in urban Gaza behind and mixed with civilians.
Rationally, had Hamas not invaded Israel, then Israel would not now have declared war and be attacking Gaza. And so, it can all be said to be the fault of Hamas. But that is arguably too simple, and the history of Palestine and Israel, and the surrounding Arab states, with religious factions splitting the entire region, is complex. It is very difficult for outsiders, not immersed in that history, to account for undoubted injustices and violence of that history and make fair judgements of rights and wrongs. But the real world is that the countries of the world, invested in or linked to this troubled region, must manage relations and seek solutions. It is easy to declare the need for all to down weapons and talk and make peace, with a two-state solution; but there are so many disrupters, extremists, states such as Russia and China for which confused chaos in the region works to their grand plans, without care for humanity generally, who stand in the way. Even President Erdogan of Turkey promotes Hamas as a liberation army. And how is a two-state solution ever possible if “sides” are sworn to the genocide of Jews?
CONTAGION TO BE CONTAINED AND PEACEMAKERS MUST TAKE OVER
There is wide increasing fear of the violence against Jews spreading like a disease, not confined to the narrow region where it started. Hamas reporting of a hospital struck by a missile with hundreds killed led to worldwide condemnation and outrage against Israel; yet considerable evidence points to the cause being not an Israel launched missile attack, but instead a Hamas or Islamic Jihad fired rocket, accidentally it is assumed, going off course, and even that the hospital was not in fact hit. Absolute certainty is hard, but the bulk of evidence points to a non-Israeli source. So misleading information, possibly deliberately disseminated to incite, did its job. This is war and each side will promote propaganda. But just as with the Ukraine war, most free world listeners consider any Putin sourced information to be unreliable, and probably lies, so too perhaps the same distrust should be applied to Hamas, a terrorist organisation which murders and tortures innocents, it appears with enjoyment. BBC and others beware. The damage done against Jews by the misreporting of the hospital incident is irreversible.
If Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamic extremist groups are spinning hatred and Jihadist ideas to communities worldwide, perhaps with readily sympathetic ears in many quarters, the stirring of uncontrolled anti- semitism could cause eruptions of terror which may further turn the world upside down, as if there have not been enough. How can European nations continue any relations with Iran, as the sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah? That UK streets have resounded with Jihadist incitement from so called protestors is an abuse of the freedoms those antisemites enjoy. It is one thing for the world to sympathise with innocent Palestinians, but it is another to demonstrate support of Islamic State extremism and slaughter, a threat not just to Jews but to the whole UK population and the fabric of society.
Hamas hides in Gaza, and Israel’s objective is the destruction of the Hamas snake. The world must not permit another Holocaust-like event against the Jews. But Gaza is the home of a tormented displaced people, and they are suffering because of Hamas, and because of Israeli pursuit of their objective. The wider western world fears contagion and seeks containment. Russia and others seek chaos. Gaza itself seems like an abominable creation, never a solution to the Palestinian nation’s problem. How can Hamas be destroyed without the consequent killing of many thousands of Palestinians? It is important to remember also that 3 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank, not strictly Hamas territory, also need a resolution.
Surely Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran must cease the programme of Jewish annihilation and Israel must get serious about a Palestinian state and advocate it, with the only way perhaps including Israel foregoing revenge for Hamas’ murders; and the Arab world too must assist resolution to find a proper home for a peaceful cohabitation of Jews, Palestinian and all Arab nations. The USA, Europe and the UK need to demonstrate unified policies which must become finding a lasting solution. How we cry out for peacemakers who will open the doors to the two-state solution, so the Phoenix of peace can rise from the ashes of war, antisemitism can be quashed for ever and the abominable Gaza become a place of aspiration not despair.
