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GAZA DESERVES BETTER THAN HAMAS' ENDLESS AND POINTLESS WARS WITH ISRAEL

Historically, states and non-state actors have almost always used violence as a tool to achieve their strategic objectives. Hamas’ endless wars with Israel are unique because they are not driven by rational or realizable political goals, but by religious fanaticism. The terror group won’t miraculously reverse course to become reasonable after 36 years on this destructive path. Reaching a viable and long-term diplomatic solution with a non-state actor as irrational as Hamas is unlikely if not impossible.

Hamas does not hide how hardcore it is. The terror group's brutality is an integral part of its identity. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Hamas derailed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by suicide bombing it to death. In 2007, the terror group mercilessly massacred members of Fatah to seize control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority (PA). Shockingly, those iterations of Hamas were weak compared to the version that invaded Israel, senselessly slaughtered 1400 Israelis, and kidnapped 220-plus more as hostages on October 7.

Left unchecked, the threat Hamas will pose to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the broader Middle East, and the rest of the international community in the years 2030 or 2040 is unimaginable. Jerusalem, Cairo, and Amman have reluctantly tolerated the Hamas-governed terrorist statelet in Gaza for 16 years. Having suffered enormously from their government’s national security disaster on October 7, Israelis do not want their children and grandchildren to inherit the burden of fighting this conflict from them.

To be clear: Israel did not want, start, nor ask for this war. Israelis wanted to dance at the Nova Music Festival and enjoy time with their friends and families on Shabbat. They did not want to mobilize 360, 000 reservists out of the workforce, destabilize their society, jeopardize their economy, and send their sons and daughters to fight a bloody conflict in a dense and dangerous urban environment against terrorists who use noncombatants as human shields and civilian infrastructure for military purposes.

Every war that Gaza-based terror groups have started with Israel since the IDF's withdrawal from the Strip in 2005, Hamas' election in 2006, and Fatah's expulsion in 2007 was unjustified, bloody, heartbreaking, and pointless. In countries like Canada, the beginning of these conflicts is nonetheless marked by people celebrating, justifying and normalizing their acts of terror. When Israel responds, and the jubilation subsides after reality sets in, “progressives,” antisemites, and other terror apologists in the media, academia and diaspora cry foul to the international community.

Countless rounds of fighting later, the sensationalist accusation that Israel is violating "international law" still follows like clockwork. Without considering its endless list of brutal crimes against humanity, Hamas' existence alone contravenes at least half a dozen international laws – including UNGA 181 and 3210, UNSC 242 and 338, and the two Oslo Accords. Given their false moral equivalences and hypocritical double standards, I dare say that a lifelong commitment to abide by "international law" is probably not the reason why Israel is so harshly criticized by the terror group's apologists.

If the initial celebrations at the outset of the conflicts are any indication, their relentless and unequivocal condemnation of the Jewish State is more likely because the so-called Palestinian “resistance” failed to achieve its unachievable political objectives. Namely, freeing “Palestine” from “the river to the sea” and “obliterating” the free, prosperous, and democratic State of Israel. Blinded by their hatred, Hamas' uninformed enablers, apologists, and supporters neglect the lessons learned from 75 years of history: the Jewish State is not going anywhere.

As waging the war becomes increasingly futile for the Gaza-based terror groups, the “heroic” yet helpless suicide mission to destroy the State of Israel is rebranded with the heartbreaking images of corpses and traumatic videos of dead children. Like other liars and manipulators, Hamas gains sympathy by rewriting history and portraying itself as the victim of the tragic and unintended consequences of the war the terror group wanted, started, and begged for but couldn’t finish.

Hamas’ victimhood is then broadcasted to international audiences with the help of loud and one-sided coverage by outlets like Al Jazeera and online disinformation networks that disseminate easily digestible half-truths and other lies about Israel on social media. Within a few weeks, the brave “freedom fighters” who were initially celebrated as “heroes of the resistance” are totally forgotten and replaced by the innocent and defenceless children of Gaza in the world’s imagination.

Political pressure from the international community weighs heavily on Jerusalem as the myth of Israel’s so-called “disproportionate response” replaces that of its legitimate self-defence, totally disregarding that the terror groups wanted, started, and begged for the unjustified, bloody, and heartbreaking conflict to begin with. The Jewish State then reluctantly agrees to a ceasefire with the aggressors without either side having achieved any political objectives, only meaningless destruction and senseless killing that renders the whole war pointless.

While Israel bears the burden of living with a Hamas-governed terrorist statelet in its backyard, the terror groups in Gaza benefit from these ceasefires by collecting millions of dollars in donations, building new military infrastructure in civilian neighbourhoods, expanding and fortifying their networks of underground tunnels beneath residential areas, recruiting and radicalizing more “martyrs” to “obliterate” the "Zionist Entity," and resting and reloading until the next time they end the ceasefire unilaterally to launch another unjustified, bloody, heartbreaking, and pointless war with the State of Israel.

This results in a predictable and perpetual cycle of violence. Ordinary Gazans suffer the tragic and unintended consequences of the IDF’s retaliation against Hamas while the so-called “heroes” hide like cowards in underground tunnels that civilians can’t access, the organization’s leadership lives in luxury in Qatar, and their apologists and enablers without any skin in the game encourage the terror group to carry out its "heroic" suicide mission from the moral high ground in the safe and comfortable West. To call this endless cycle of meaningless violence "insane" is an understatement.

Contrary to every other round of fighting since 2006, the Jewish State won't let this be another one of Hamas’ pointless wars with Israel. After the terror group perpetrated the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, nothing will stop the IDF from disarming, dismantling, and defeating Hamas. The cost of ending Hamas' endless wars with Israel will be enormous just like eliminating ISIL was. Make no mistake, the terror group is to blame for all the infrastructure destroyed, lives ruined, and blood spilled during this war – not the IDF.

Gaza deserves better than Hamas' endless and pointless wars with Israel. The terror group could surrender immediately and unconditionally to save the lives of the innocent and defenceless civilians it hides behind or attempt to carry out its helpless suicide mission to destroy the Jewish State until the bitter end. Either way, Israel won’t stop until Hamas is defeated. A brighter future for both Palestinians and Israelis is contingent on ending Hamas’ endless and pointless wars with Israel once and for all.

Originally published by Toronto Sun on November 6, 2023.

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