Leave behind the death cult of Hamas
The massacre committed by Hamas in southern Israel last month was not a military manoeuvre or a tit-for-tat operation. As many as 1,400 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed on a holiday morning in brutal, medieval ways. Children were beheaded, whole families were murdered, civilians were burnt to death, and dozens of revellers at a music festival were gunned down.
I recently reread an article I wrote titled “Story of Hamas’s lawless actions not fully told”, (https://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/lifestyle/2014-09-28-story-of-hamasslawless-actions-not-fully-told/) published in September 2014 after a previous Israel-Gaza war. Much of that article could be republished without editing, as the story is the same. The intense global media coverage, the tribal choosing of sides, Hamas’s flaunting of humanitarian norms, the awful suffering on all sides, and the general sense of hopelessness regarding the coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis in the region remain unchanged.
But this time is quite different in a number of vital ways. I will describe three of them.
First, this was not military combat, but rather a massacre. This was the worst killing of Jews since Israel was founded. Dozens of videos documenting the sadistic slaughter are now in the public domain. The attack was unprecedented in its size and cruelty.
Israel unilaterally left Gaza nearly 20 years ago, before Hamas took over the area in a violent coup, murdering Palestinians who stood in its way. Gaza could have become a Singapore, but the wellbeing of Palestinians are not of any interest to Hamas.
In one incident, a Hamas terrorist cut open the womb of a pregnant woman, shot her foetus, and then killed her. In another, a woman was repeatedly gang-raped in front of her partner, who was made to watch the incident with a gun in his mouth.
More than 200 people (including at least three Africans), from babies to grandparents, are being held hostage in unimaginable conditions. Yet Hamas continues to peddle its lie that civilians were not targeted, and that those killed or taken as hostages were combatants.
Nearly every Israeli knows someone killed in the massacre or being held hostage as a result of it. I attended an Independence Day picnic a few months ago with Vivian Silver, a 74-year-old peace activist and grandmother. She was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri. Liat and Aviv Atzili, the daughter and son-in-law of a friend, were taken from their home in Nir Oz and are being held hostage in Gaza.
Second, Hamas’s behaviour towards its own people is inhuman. It has made Gaza City’s largest hospital its military headquarters, putting
Palestinian patients and doctors at risk.
Several times a day, it fires rockets aimed at Israeli cities. Those rockets often misfire, meaning up to one in four falls on Gaza. A few weeks ago, a rocket notoriously hit another hospital, killing many Palestinians. Hamas tried to pin the blame on Israel.
The international media knows Hamas is falsifying information, but still repeats its lies as gospel. Hamas has used years of international aid to build a network of tunnels under Gaza City to hide fighters, weapons, hostages, and humanitarian supplies withheld from the Palestinian people.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah said on October 26 from his comfortable Qatar home: “We need the blood of women, children and the elderly of Gaza ... to awaken our revolutionary spirit.” He literally hopes his own people get killed.
Third, the South African government is proPalestinian. As a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa, I know that better than most. I recognise the love of liberation mythology. Of course, many South Africans have a more nuanced view and reject Hamas’s terror.
The South African government has abandoned any pretence of even-handedness. It took nearly three weeks for it to condemn the massacre of
Israeli civilians and seemed to blame Israel for the slaughter. It stands unquestionably with Hamas and offers zero pushback to its horrific ideology of killing in the delusional belief this nihilist group somehow offers hope and liberation for Palestinians. It seems wilfully to ignore the disastrous Hamas leadership that inflicts horror on Gaza’s residents.
In the same way as the ANC votes in international forums with Russia against Ukraine, it revels in an extremist anti-Israel world view. Russia’s aggression, targeting of civilians and torture have not caused a peep of protest from Pretoria, as is the case with Hamas. However, the views of the South African government are irrelevant, and the country has no influence on international efforts to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.
In my article nine years ago, I tried to imagine a better future for Israelis and Palestinians, with weapons and security threats removed from Gaza. Today, it is clear to most serious world leaders that there is no future with Hamas remaining in power.
Any ceasefire that falls short of calling for the removal of all of Hamas’s terror capacity and the return of all of Israel’s hostages would only offer Hamas and any other future extremist group a reallife “get-out-of-jail-free card”. It would give terrorist groups permission to kill and maim, making a mockery of international norms. It would put all of us, everywhere, at risk of copycat efforts by the next Isis, Boko Haram or Hamas. It would tell
Palestinians and others who feel a grievance that radical violence is acceptable, and would send a message to Israelis (and Jews around the world) that their lives have less value and they are less entitled to self-defence.
Instead, the message needs to be reversed.
Hamas must be soundly defeated. A path to safety, security and hope must be built for Israelis and Palestinians alike, so that we can live as neighbours.
A rebuilding of Gaza and Israel’s western Negev communities, under vastly different security terms and priorities, is conceivable. Perhaps the institutional changes, international investment and rebuilding that took place in Germany after World War 2 could be emulated. We need to leave behind the death cult of Hamas and embrace a future of possibility, opportunity and coexistence.
Let it be, Lu yehi, Inshallah.