Anti-Semitic mobs must face truth of Hamas evil

The publication of previously unreported details about Hamas’s depraved sexual violence against women as a weapon of war should shock a cynical world. First-hand testimony from 15 returned hostages from Gaza and 17 witnesses to the slaughter of 1200 Jews on October 7, 2023, reveals a widespread and systematic onslaught of sexual savagery. Evidence collected by the Dinah Project, funded partly by the British government, reveals that among the 1200 people slaughtered were the bodies of “young women stripped and tied to trees and poles, shot through the genitalia and in the head”, The Times reports. Gang rapes were followed by mutilation and execution. For those who survived and were taken hostage, the horror continued in captivity, with returnees telling of forced nudity, physical and verbal harassment, sexual assaults and threats of forced marriage. The Dinah Project’s findings put Hamas, and those who show an inkling of support for it, beyond the pale of civilised conduct. Ideologues who blindly support the Palestinian cause and blame Israel for Gaza’s woes need a reality check. The revelations must destroy for all time any Hamas claims to a role in post-war Gaza or a Palestine state.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Donald Trump in Washington amid hopes for a US-brokered ceasefire, and negotiators sit down in Qatar to discuss details of a ceasefire – including the release of the remaining hostages as soon as possible – the gross inhumanity of Hamas over the past 21 months must never be forgotten. While callous pro-Palestinian mobs, some of whom are foolish to the point of delusion, chant “Death to the IDF” in Melbourne, other parts of Australia and in Britain, the Dinah Project’s findings prove it is Hamas, not the Israel Defence Forces, that is mainly responsible for the worst atrocities committed in almost two years of war. The violent anti-Semitism of those mobs runs counter to Western democratic interests and values – a point the leadership of free nations needs to drive home, especially among gullible young people swayed by malign social media operatives.

Demonstrations that intimidate and lead to violence against the Jewish community or any group of Australians, as lawyer Mark Leibler wrote in Monday’s paper, are inimical to this objective. “Silence is no longer an option, if it ever was, and nor is sitting back and waiting in the hope that when the war in the Middle East finally comes to an end, life will go back to normal … the only way we can stop this creeping breakdown of our society now is to reject it as a collective of people who care about our country,” he wrote.

If accurate, BBC reports that Hamas is in a state of collapse after months of Israeli strikes eliminating its leadership are testament to the competence and will of Israel and its defence forces. It fought its existential battle against the militant, Iranian-backed terrorist army in the face of widespread international opposition, even from traditional allies. Gaza’s powerful local clans reportedly are filling the gap. If Hamas is on its last legs – though fanatics desperate to revive it will be lurking – the rest of the world has the competence and determination of the IDF to thank. Israel continued the heavy lifting on Monday to the benefit of other Middle East and trading nations, destroying Houthi terror infrastructure in Yemen ports. The IDF targeted a cargo ship seized by the rebels in November 2023 on which they installed radar to track Red Sea shipping for attacks.

And in another sign of potential progress, five of the most powerful Palestinian officials in the West Bank city of Hebron have said they are willing to leave the Palestinian Authority and join the Abraham Accords, recognising the state of Israel for the first time. In a move aimed at peace, the sheiks have written to Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat expressing their desire to transform the West Bank’s largest city into an emirate that “recognises the state of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people”. Accepting Israel as a Jewish state goes further than the Palestinian Authority ever has, sweeping aside decades of rejection. After 21 months of horrendous suffering, including by thousands of Palestinians, in one of the world’s most fragile regions, it is a promising sign.