Never forget where the blame for this war lies

WITH such an interconnected modern world the fact that events halfway around the globe should have resonance here in Yorkshire shouldn’t come as a surprise. But it does.

This week for example it emerged that one of the 252 hostages abducted by the Hamas terror group from their homes in Israel on October 7 last year was actually a Yorkshireman.

Nadav Popplewell was reportedly born in Wakefield, although he had lived in Israel for at least two decades.

The 51-year-old was kidnapped along with his mother from their home in Kibbutz Nirim near the border with Gaza eight months ago. His brother was killed during the attack and his mother was released during a temporary ceasefire in November.

Mr Popplewell appeared in undated video footage released by Hamas with a black eye and confirming his name, which must have raised hopes in his family that he would eventually be released unharmed.

Hours later the terror group issued a statement saying he had actually died a month ago. How cruel can you get?

It is hard to disagree with Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron when he said: “You just think, what callous people they are to do that, to play with the family’s emotions in that way.

“I met Nadav’s family, his sister, and I know the heartbreak they’ve been going through for over 200 days, and when you see what Hamas are prepared to do, you just realise the terrible, dreadful, inhuman people, frankly, that we are dealing with.”

Hamas claimed Mr Popplewell died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike. Frankly, I don’t believe a word these scumbags say. Monsters who gleefully murder babies and gang rape and mutilate young women are perfectly capable of telling bare-faced lies, and I suspect that is the case here.

It is worth remembering that around an estimated 100 hostages, including babies and young women, are still being held by Hamas and other Islamist terror groups, and they have stubbornly refused to release them.

That is in addition to the 1,200 innocent civilians murdered by Hamas last October. Israel responded, as it had to do in order to protect its citizens, and this has resulted in terrible suffering to the people of Gaza.

But never forget where the blame lies for this; it is firmly with Hamas terrorists who began this awful conflict and who use the Palestinian people as human shields while their leaders live in luxury in Qatar, well away from danger.

The simple fact is that there will never be peace in the Middle East while Hamas continues to exist. The leaders of the terror group have made it abundantly clear that they will repeat the October 7 slaughter again and again while it has the capability.

Israel has absolutely no choice other than to go after Hamas and destroy it.

You can’t negotiate with people who want you dead. No country on earth would accept the presence of a genocidal group of armed terrorists dedicated to its demise to exist on its borders.

And Western countries need to back Israel to the hilt, not because the Israelis are right, although that is true, but because it is in our own best interest to do so. Because Israel is on the frontline of the world-wide war against Islamist terror. And it is a war that involves us all, and that we have to win if good is to triumph over evil.

For example, the Hamas fanboys who pollute our cities with noisy pro-Palestian demonstrations every weekend often shout the slogan “Globalise the Intifada!”.

Let’s be absolutely clear what this means. It is a direct call for political violence and to unleash terror against Western civilians. It champions the sort of people who set off rucksack bombs in crowded London tube trains, and blow up little girls attending pop concerts in Manchester.

If we lose this war you can say goodbye to religious and political tolerance, women’s equality, the rule of law, democracy and individual liberty, which all be washed away by a tide of murderous bigotry. In this war we are all Israelis now.

War is terrible. Perfectly innocent people suffer and die. That’s exactly why Hamas should not have started this war in the first place.

But the war and the suffering could end today if Hamas unconditionally surrenders, frees the remaining hostages and hands over their leaders for a criminal trial at an international court.