As Western leaders celebrate the prospect of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, we should listen instead to the response of Adam Ma’anit, cousin of Israeli hostage Tsachi Idan. Tsachi’s 18-year-old daughter Maayan was murdered by Hamas terrorists in front of him on October 7th.
The world community, the international community has allowed Hamas to play a game where they have a lot of the cards and we are forced into a discussion of a deal where they can exact concessions from us in order to secure the release of the hostages.
The entire world has failed us. If the world stood steadfast on October 7, October 8 against Hamas, demanding their full surrender, exerting every kind of pressure possible on states like Iran and Qatar and Egypt who have any kind of leverage over Hamas, insisting on the unconditional release of hostages rather than pursuing a so-called deal, we might have had them released a lot sooner—and the devastation that has been wrought on Gaza as a result of the Hamas atrocities may have been averted as well.
In my travels across Israel last year, from Sderot on the border with Gaza, in the army camp at Reim, in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, and on the border with Lebanon in the north, I met and talked to many Israelis about their views on the war.
They divided into two camps. There were those who wished Hamas to be destroyed so that the hostages could be freed, and there were those who wanted the hostages freed and then Hamas to be destroyed. This was a tactical difference only. Neither camp can be satisfied with a prospective deal that leaves Hamas to fulfil its pledge to repeat the October 7th pogrom “again and again.”
So, what are Western politicians celebrating?
Before the ink is dry on a ceasefire agreement, Western leaders have announced victory. Not victory against the terrorists of Hamas, dedicated as they are to the destruction of Israel, but victory for their own attitudes towards the war.
Most leaders would not go along with the rhetoric of their NATO ally, the Turkish President Recep Erdoğan, who said “We respectfully salute the heroic people and brave sons of Gaza who courageously defended their land and freedom against Israel’s unlawful and inhumane attack”. But the main thrust of Western leaders’ statements was that, while welcoming the potential release of hostages, the important thing was that the ceasefire would stop Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, launched after October 7th.
French President Macron referred to the end of “the unjustifiable suffering” of Gazans, and opened the door to a two-state solution, thus effectively rewarding Hamas for its murderous attacks on Israel and failing to recognise that it is Hamas that has brought suffering to the people of Gaza. In America, an unseemly argument has already broken out between supporters of departing President Biden and incoming President Trump about who can claim credit for the ceasefire.
For many, perhaps most, Western leaders, Israel’s war against the death cult of Hamas has been an inconvenience at best and a threat at worst. For countries with large Muslim populations, such as France and the UK, and for those with large youthful contingents and leftists who have more sympathy with Hamas than with Israel, the war has caused internal conflicts and loss of political support. Western leaders’ domestic politics has taken precedence over their rhetorical support for the struggle against Islamist terrorism, helping to undermine Israel’s fight for survival.
While the release of hostages is to be welcomed, the only real victory represented in this ceasefire is for those who have tried to hold Israel back from defeating Hamas. For many commentators outside Israel, the ceasefire is an opportunity to once again condemn Israel for having fought back against the murder, rape, and kidnapping of it its people on October 7th, 2023.
Over the past 15 months, Western Commentators have repeatedly claimed that Israel could not defeat Hamas “because you cannot defeat an idea,” and that Israel should not go into Lebanon to deal with Hezbollah who were firing rockets into Israel because they would get “bogged down” and ultimately fail. Western governments have told Israel to hold off from fully attacking the Islamists because of civilian casualties. Israel has been faced with arms boycotts, prosecuted for genocide at the International Court of Justice, and its democratically elected prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has even been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Its alleged Western allies have forced Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, to fight the war against genocidal Islamists with one hand tied behind its back. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have gone to extraordinary lengths to limit civilian casualties in Gaza. Yet, the West has condemned Israel for the suffering of Palestinian civilians whom Hamas uses as human shields, and whose deaths Hamas has openly celebrated as martyrs. All this from Western politicians who claim to support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. One has to ask, with friends like these, who needs enemies?
The Israeli government is now being berated for not having negotiated a ceasefire earlier, because the Biden plan has been on the table since last spring. Netanyahu is presented as a ruthless and selfish leader, bent on staying in power at the expense of the Gazans and the Israeli soldiers and civilians who have lost their lives. Alternately, he is presented as the puppet of the ‘far right’ ministers in his coalition.
Critics of the Israeli government conveniently forget how much it has achieved since the ceasefire deal was first tabled last year. The IDF has had remarkable success over the past six months in punishing the Hamas killers, neutralizing Hezbollah, helping to destabilise the Assad regime in Syria, and pushing the tyrannical Islamist regime in Iran onto the defensive.
These advances, and the threats from Donald Trump to “unleash hell,” have pushed Hamas onto the defensive and forced them to the negotiating table. Israel has shown that you may not be able to defeat an idea, but you can degrade and defeat an army and rout your enemies through the skill and bravery of your own army and the support of your people.
The hostage crisis is a symptom of the problems that Israel faces, not the cause. The continued existence and operation of Hamas poses an ongoing existential threat to Israel, something which I found Israelis understand full well.
The young people who were murdered, raped, and kidnapped at the Nova festival on October 7th are part of a generation in Israel which had hoped for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This hope was largely extinguished by the butchery carried out by Hamas terrorists on that day.
The latest opinion polls show that three-quarters of Israelis think that Hamas has no future role to play in Gaza. It is against this background we should understand the ceasefire. It will be met with qualified support by most Israelis because hostages must be freed. Most do not believe there can be a peaceful future while Hamas still runs Gaza. And how could there be when Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and the driving of all Jews from the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the entirety of Israel?
It is completely understandable why the families of the remaining hostages should welcome the prospect of their release, however distant and uncertain that might remain under the drawn-out process proposed. An initial halt to fighting will also be a relief, if perhaps temporary, for the citizens of Gaza. But the ceasefire provides no answer to the question of Hamas, which cannot be allowed to survive and prosper.
How the Israelis conduct their war is their business. They are the people who are under threat from neighbours on all sides who wish to see them destroyed. We on the outside must do all we can to persuade our governments to support Israel’s fight.
Between the democratic state of Israel and the Islamists of Hamas, there is no equivalence. Hamas is part of an Islamist movement which bombs and murders citizens of Europe, America, and beyond. The Israelis are fighting for their lives to defend their democracy. As it was on October 7th, so is it now. Israel’s is a war in defence of Western civilization against those who wish to destroy it, both in Israel and beyond. It is their fight, and it is our fight.
Ceasefire Is No Victory for the Israelis—Or for Us
Photo: JOHN WESSELS / AFP
As Western leaders celebrate the prospect of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, we should listen instead to the response of Adam Ma’anit, cousin of Israeli hostage Tsachi Idan. Tsachi’s 18-year-old daughter Maayan was murdered by Hamas terrorists in front of him on October 7th.
In my travels across Israel last year, from Sderot on the border with Gaza, in the army camp at Reim, in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, and on the border with Lebanon in the north, I met and talked to many Israelis about their views on the war.
They divided into two camps. There were those who wished Hamas to be destroyed so that the hostages could be freed, and there were those who wanted the hostages freed and then Hamas to be destroyed. This was a tactical difference only. Neither camp can be satisfied with a prospective deal that leaves Hamas to fulfil its pledge to repeat the October 7th pogrom “again and again.”
So, what are Western politicians celebrating?
Before the ink is dry on a ceasefire agreement, Western leaders have announced victory. Not victory against the terrorists of Hamas, dedicated as they are to the destruction of Israel, but victory for their own attitudes towards the war.
Most leaders would not go along with the rhetoric of their NATO ally, the Turkish President Recep Erdoğan, who said “We respectfully salute the heroic people and brave sons of Gaza who courageously defended their land and freedom against Israel’s unlawful and inhumane attack”. But the main thrust of Western leaders’ statements was that, while welcoming the potential release of hostages, the important thing was that the ceasefire would stop Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, launched after October 7th.
French President Macron referred to the end of “the unjustifiable suffering” of Gazans, and opened the door to a two-state solution, thus effectively rewarding Hamas for its murderous attacks on Israel and failing to recognise that it is Hamas that has brought suffering to the people of Gaza. In America, an unseemly argument has already broken out between supporters of departing President Biden and incoming President Trump about who can claim credit for the ceasefire.
For many, perhaps most, Western leaders, Israel’s war against the death cult of Hamas has been an inconvenience at best and a threat at worst. For countries with large Muslim populations, such as France and the UK, and for those with large youthful contingents and leftists who have more sympathy with Hamas than with Israel, the war has caused internal conflicts and loss of political support. Western leaders’ domestic politics has taken precedence over their rhetorical support for the struggle against Islamist terrorism, helping to undermine Israel’s fight for survival.
While the release of hostages is to be welcomed, the only real victory represented in this ceasefire is for those who have tried to hold Israel back from defeating Hamas. For many commentators outside Israel, the ceasefire is an opportunity to once again condemn Israel for having fought back against the murder, rape, and kidnapping of it its people on October 7th, 2023.
Over the past 15 months, Western Commentators have repeatedly claimed that Israel could not defeat Hamas “because you cannot defeat an idea,” and that Israel should not go into Lebanon to deal with Hezbollah who were firing rockets into Israel because they would get “bogged down” and ultimately fail. Western governments have told Israel to hold off from fully attacking the Islamists because of civilian casualties. Israel has been faced with arms boycotts, prosecuted for genocide at the International Court of Justice, and its democratically elected prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has even been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Its alleged Western allies have forced Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, to fight the war against genocidal Islamists with one hand tied behind its back. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have gone to extraordinary lengths to limit civilian casualties in Gaza. Yet, the West has condemned Israel for the suffering of Palestinian civilians whom Hamas uses as human shields, and whose deaths Hamas has openly celebrated as martyrs. All this from Western politicians who claim to support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. One has to ask, with friends like these, who needs enemies?
The Israeli government is now being berated for not having negotiated a ceasefire earlier, because the Biden plan has been on the table since last spring. Netanyahu is presented as a ruthless and selfish leader, bent on staying in power at the expense of the Gazans and the Israeli soldiers and civilians who have lost their lives. Alternately, he is presented as the puppet of the ‘far right’ ministers in his coalition.
Critics of the Israeli government conveniently forget how much it has achieved since the ceasefire deal was first tabled last year. The IDF has had remarkable success over the past six months in punishing the Hamas killers, neutralizing Hezbollah, helping to destabilise the Assad regime in Syria, and pushing the tyrannical Islamist regime in Iran onto the defensive.
These advances, and the threats from Donald Trump to “unleash hell,” have pushed Hamas onto the defensive and forced them to the negotiating table. Israel has shown that you may not be able to defeat an idea, but you can degrade and defeat an army and rout your enemies through the skill and bravery of your own army and the support of your people.
The hostage crisis is a symptom of the problems that Israel faces, not the cause. The continued existence and operation of Hamas poses an ongoing existential threat to Israel, something which I found Israelis understand full well.
The young people who were murdered, raped, and kidnapped at the Nova festival on October 7th are part of a generation in Israel which had hoped for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This hope was largely extinguished by the butchery carried out by Hamas terrorists on that day.
The latest opinion polls show that three-quarters of Israelis think that Hamas has no future role to play in Gaza. It is against this background we should understand the ceasefire. It will be met with qualified support by most Israelis because hostages must be freed. Most do not believe there can be a peaceful future while Hamas still runs Gaza. And how could there be when Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and the driving of all Jews from the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the entirety of Israel?
It is completely understandable why the families of the remaining hostages should welcome the prospect of their release, however distant and uncertain that might remain under the drawn-out process proposed. An initial halt to fighting will also be a relief, if perhaps temporary, for the citizens of Gaza. But the ceasefire provides no answer to the question of Hamas, which cannot be allowed to survive and prosper.
How the Israelis conduct their war is their business. They are the people who are under threat from neighbours on all sides who wish to see them destroyed. We on the outside must do all we can to persuade our governments to support Israel’s fight.
Between the democratic state of Israel and the Islamists of Hamas, there is no equivalence. Hamas is part of an Islamist movement which bombs and murders citizens of Europe, America, and beyond. The Israelis are fighting for their lives to defend their democracy. As it was on October 7th, so is it now. Israel’s is a war in defence of Western civilization against those who wish to destroy it, both in Israel and beyond. It is their fight, and it is our fight.
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