Palestinians try to search for survivors in a house belonging to the Al-Zahar family, after an Israeli air strike in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, on October 31, 2023. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90
Published November 1,2023
When horrible images of Gazan civilian suffering flood the media and inflame passions beyond all rational analysis, the challenge is to stay clearheaded about those responsible for the horrors unfolding.
So blame Hamas for all of the suffering endured by Gazans after October 7th, because on October 6ththere was no reason for Israel to focus its military power on Gaza. Indeed, the October 7th massacre was possible partly because Israel had been fooled by Hamas into thinking that it was interested in economic prosperity.
But on October 7th Hamas invaded Israel’s sovereign territory, abducted over 230 Israelis and slaughtered 1,400 people, which is the equivalent of almost 52,000 deaths in the USA – about seventeen September 11s in one day – and approximately 8,500 Americans taken hostage. And the horrific savagery of those murders and abductions even in far smaller numbers would likely prompt most militaries in the world to act far more aggressively and decisively than Israel has thus far. Indeed, with “just” one September 11, the US launched massive wars against two countries on the other side of the planet, resulting in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. So a crushing military response to the mass atrocities by Hamas was entirely predictable, making Hamas alone responsible for the current conflict. In legal terms, Hamas was the “but-for cause” of the present war: no Hamas massacre on October 7th, no “Operation Swords of Iron” by Israel’s military afterwards.
It would be negligent of any Israeli government not to pursue the complete eradication of Hamas after the October 7th massacre, which made the genocidal intent of the terror organization undeniable. The Hamas charter openly states the goal of killing all Jews, but this objective had never been advanced on such an overwhelming scale and with such grotesque atrocities proudly recorded and broadcast by Hamas. In addition, the massive amount of weaponry, food, and supplies found among the perpetrators shows that Hamas intended to attack several major Israeli cities over a period of weeks, and sought to maximize its murder of Israelis, as further evidenced by the instructions on how to make a cyanide chemical weaponthat were found. So there can be no doubt about Hamas’ intentions, nor any more illusions that Israel can somehow learn to live with such a neighbor, or that there is any hope for peaceful coexistence with Palestinians in or out of Gaza as long as Hamas survives.
RELATED: Civilians in Gaza Must Not Be Collectively Punished for Atrocities Committed by Hamas, Speakers Tell Security Council, Urging Ceasefire
Nearly 3,200 Palestinian Children Killed in Three Weeks, Says Senior UN Official
Published October 30,2023
Civilians in Gaza must not be the target of collective punishment, speakers told the Security Council today, as calls for a ceasefire gained greater urgency amid the intensification of Israel’s lethal military offensive into the besieged enclave, following the 7 October attacks by the armed group Hamas against that country.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), called the Israel Defense Forces’ relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip “shocking”, with the level of destruction unprecedented, adding that “the human tragedy unfolding under our watch is unbearable”. Reiterating that “no place is safe in Gaza”, he said 1 million people were pushed from the north to the south over three weeks, with the south also being bombarded. Civilians remaining in the north are now receiving evacuation notices from the Israeli forces, urging them south, although many, including pregnant women and people with disabilities, are unable to move, he said, stressing: “What happened and continues to happen is forced displacement.”
Nearly 70 per cent of those reported killed are children and women, he said, pointing out that nearly 3,200 children were killed in Gaza in just three weeks. “This cannot be ‘collateral damage’.” After two weeks of full siege, basic services were crumbling; medicine, food, water and fuel are running out, with last weekend’s communications blackout accelerating the breakdown of civil order, he said, adding: “The current siege imposed on Gaza is collective punishment.” Gazans today feel that the world equates all of them to Hamas, he said, warning: “An entire population is being dehumanized.” The atrocities of Hamas do not absolve the State of Israel from its obligations under international humanitarian law, he stressed, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
BELATED: Hamas Bears the Blame for Every Death in This War
On Wednesday, Gaza residents after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis.Credit…Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Published October 15,2023
On Friday the Israeli government gave civilians in the northern Gaza Strip 24 hours to evacuate to the southern part of the territory, in anticipation of a major military offensive. Hamas, for its part, “told Gaza residents to stay put, despite Israel’s deadline,” Reuters reported the same day.
Reasonable people can criticize Israel for not allowing enough time for civilians to get out of harm’s way: There are, especially, elderly, disabled and sick Gazans — and those who help them — who may be effectively homebound.
Reasonable people can also oppose other measures that Israelis have taken in response to the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It seems neither right nor smart for Israel to cut off water and electricity to Gaza until Hamas’s hostages are returned — not because Israel shouldn’t do whatever it takes to obtain their release but because the people who suffer most from the action are the ones who have the least say over the fate of the hostages. Hamas’s leaders, I’m sure, have amply supplied themselves and their forces with fuel, generators, potable water and other essentials.
But what reasonable people cannot debate is the cynicism with which Hamas is conducting its side of the war. It’s a cynicism the wider world should not reward with our credulity, lest we once again turn ourselves into Hamas’s useful idiots.
Consider: Hamas launched an attack with a wantonness like what the Nazis showed at Babyn Yar or ISIS at Sinjar. It did so knowing that it would provoke the most furious Israeli response possible. Why put millions of Palestinians at risk? Because Hamas has learned that it profits at least as much from Palestinian deaths as it does from Israeli ones — the more of each, the better.
Murdering Jews is an end in its own right for Hamas, because it believes it fulfills a theological aim. The original Hamas covenant invokes this injunction: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’” Hamas later softened the language from “Jews” to “Zionists” and “kill” to “resisting the occupation with all means and methods,” but the meaning is the same.
