Those pro-Palestinian activists and Greens in Australia who cannot bring themselves to criticise Hamas should take a closer look at the true nature of their so-called ‘freedom fighters.’
As we approach the 12 month anniversary of Hamas’ mass murder of around 1200 Israelis on October 7 last year, the dark heart of this terror group has never been more apparent.
Those activists in Australia who – as we have seen during street protests – profess to tolerate or even support Hamas’ behaviour are showing themselves to be no less deluded and hostile to western values as those extremists who once supported Islamic State.
Indeed, the Islamic State-style cold blooded executions of six young Israeli hostages by Hamas in a tunnel complex in Rafah last week was a further glimpse into Hamas’ penchant for pure evil. The terror group compounded their barbarity by videoing what would be the hostage’s final messages to their family before, at some point later, being shot at close range in the head.
Then, overnight, the group threatened that if Israeli forces tried to rescue any of the remaining hostages in Gaza, Hamas would kill them before the Israelis arrived.
The outrage over the six murders was enough to send more than 100,000 Israelis onto the street to call on their leader Benjamin Netanyahu to strike a deal to bring home the roughly 60 hostages held in Gaza who are believed to still be alive.
Hamas would be pleased with this outcome. Ordinary Israelis are sick of the eleven month war and want their prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prioritise a deal to release the remaining hostages over continued fighting.
A hostage deal would include an initial ceasefire which could become permanent, giving respite to the severely damaged terror group which is now a shadow of its former strength.
But any leverage Hamas might now have is limited and is likely to be temporary. If Hamas proceeds to progressively kill its remaining hostages, it will lose any leverage over Israel, which could go after Hamas’ remaining fighters with impunity, free from the fear that it may cost the lives of Israeli hostages.
After almost a year of war, it is clear that the terror group will never rule Gaza again because Israel and the West won’t let it. Israel will also never allow Hamas to regroup so that it once again becomes a potent fighting force. The group will never again be able to launch another October 7 style attack.
The best that Hamas can hope for is that its survivors and future recruits create a small-scale guerrilla-style group which has the power to launch limited counter-attacks on any Israeli forces which continue to operate in Gaza.
Meanwhile the damage that Hamas has intentionally brought upon Palestinians in Gaza by launching the October 7 massacre and inviting war with Israel, will see the people they purport to represent living in far worse conditions than they ever did before the conflict.
The only ‘success’ which Hamas has had, apart from killing innocent Israelis on October 7, has been to sully Israel’s international reputation by forcing it to go to war with Hamas in a conflict which has killed too many civilians. But Hamas has failed in its fundamental aim of threatening Israel’s existence. Instead, the terror group has all but destroyed itself as a fighting force while tens of thousands of Palestinians are dead and Gaza lies in ruins.
It’s a bleak and evil scorecard for a murderous terror group. And yet there are still a small but vocal number of Australian activists, up to and including the deputy leader of the Greens, senator Mehreen Faruqi, who cannot bring themselves to say that Hamas should be dismantled. They should be ashamed.
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