Hamas terrorists’ other front of misery: at home in Gaza

After its barbaric attacks on Israel, including on babies and Holocaust survivors, Hamas is showing its cruelty to its own people. It prefers to leave them without water, power, food and fuel rather than release the hostages it is holding. If it does, Israel will restore services in the densely populated Gaza Strip, which is home to more than two million people whose hospitals can no longer function and whose supplies are running out. Under the circumstances, that is a reasonable offer. This is not the first time Hamas has cruelly mistreated its own. It has used them as human shields in past conflicts, and punished gay people and those who oppose its most extreme objectives by pushing them to their deaths from the top of tall buildings. Gazans, repeatedly, have been let down by bad leadership. Three Israeli prime ministers – Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert – Greg Sheridan writes in Inquirer, have offered a Palestinian state on all of Gaza, almost all of the West Bank, compensating territory from Israel proper and a capital in east Jerusalem. Such offers have been met with terrorism: “And any Palestinian leader who made such a peace would be killed by Hamas-style extremists.” While Hamas, and through it, Iran, retain their grip on Palestine, talk of two-state solutions is academic.

Hamas, in the interests of its own people, has no interest in peace or a negotiated solution to achieve a Palestinian state. Its goal is the eradication of every last Jew from the Earth. Its eventual aim, Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Zahar said in a video in December last year, is to see “the entire 510 million square kilometres of planet Earth … under our law (so) there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors”. It was exposed by The Jerusalem Post this week before the paper’s website was temporarily closed down by hackers. As the commander of a terrorist band that makes even al-Qa’ida look moderate, his view was straight from the Islamic State handbook. As Gerard Baker writes, previous Israeli wars against terrorists have shown that Western support for its struggle – first in Europe, then in the US – crumbles quickly: “This is because Hamas murders twice over: they kill Jews to prompt a response from Israel that will kill Palestinians. They position innocents by military targets then wave the bloody shrouds in front of the world’s TV cameras.”

The depths to which putrid anti-Semitism has penetrated the consciousness of the green-left across much of the West is already on display, including in Australia. It was evident in some reactions to the shameful demonstration at the Sydney Opera House on Monday night. And the ABC’s Middle Eastern correspondent Tom Joyner’s labelling reports about babies being beheaded by Hamas terrorists in ­Israel as “bullshit” was a low point for the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster. He made his remarks in a WhatsApp group discussion with more than 600 international journalists and broadcasters. They were met with condemnation. “I’m sorry about the wording – I regret that. But we still have not seen clear evidence,” he responded when challenged. Many reports, including from i24News journalist Nicole Zedek in Tel Aviv, had recounted first-hand testimony from soldiers about the atrocities.

After a deeply distressing and frightening week, far more testing times, for Israel, the Middle East and the world will unfold when the counter-offensive begins. Israel is urging 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza, for their own safety, to move to the south of the enclave within 24 hours, as its officials say the Jewish homeland will use “whatever means necessary” to destroy Hamas and its military infrastructure, as it must. Hamas has voiced strong opposition to that warning. But Israel has a duty to defend itself. And the US and its allies must continue to support it.