The West is truly lost if it can’t see Hamas for what it really is
The terror group deliberately started a war against Israel. It is morally responsible for what happens next
DANIEL HANNAN14 October 2023 • 5:45pm
Hamas is not a terrorist group that happens to operate out of Gaza. It is the de facto government of that tragic sliver of land, providing its prime minister, regional governors and civil administrators.
When Hamas sent airborne and motorised units to massacre Israeli civilians,
it was deliberately starting a war. Sure enough, within hours of the abomination, Benjamin Netanyahu had declared that “Israel is at war”, a status his cabinet formally ratified the following day.
Critics of Israel talk as if the Gaza Strip were somehow still under Israeli jurisdiction, and Israel thus directly responsible for the welfare of its people.
But Israel is in a state of declared conflict
with a hostile neighbour. While it must honour the Geneva convention and seek to minimise civilian casualties, its primary goal is victory.
No one during the Second World War argued that Britain should supply electricity to Germany. On the contrary, we blockaded and bombarded that country – aware, as we did so, that we were harming civilians, including some who opposed the regime.
It is impossible to degrade enemy infrastructure without the risk of collateral deaths. This is what makes wars so hideous, and it is why we should punish those who begin them.
You might object to my parallel. Britain was fighting for its survival, you might say, whereas Israel is attacking a territory that lacks regular forces, warships and military aircraft.
But look at it from an Israeli perspective. Last weekend’s evil exposed a terrifying vulnerability. Israel’s worst nightmare is a three-front war against Hamas in the south, Hezbollah in the north and an armed uprising on the West Bank,
all backed by Syria and Iran.
Israelis know what a reversal would mean – the kibbutz horrors tell them that.
“Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees,” says the 1988 Hamas Covenant, “and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’”