Fury at Israel, frequently boiling over into pro-Hamas protests and demonstrations, has become even more intense since Hamas murdered six hostages captured on 10/7/23. Singled out for special vilification is Prime Minister Netanyahu. But that fury and the protests it fuels should be directed at Hamas instead.
Those defending Israel—especially Prime Minister Netanyahu– can be pardoned for thinking they’re in an Orwellian dystopia, where black is white, night is day, freedom is slavery, good is evil, and evil is good. For evidence, we need to look no further than the protests, condemnations, and hatred directed against Israel and Netanyahu following Hamas’s murder of the six hostages. Hamas created the obscenely grisly deed, but somehow Netanyahu gets the blame.
And this has been par for the course ever since Hamas committed the atrocities of last October. Its thugs and goons attacked innocent civilians attending an Israeli music festival; murdered more Jewish men, women, and children in a single day since Auschwitz was shut down; raped countless women; and carried hundreds of hostages away into captivity, many of whom to be tortured and murdered. There are thought to be over a hundred hostages still held by Hamas, any or all of whom could soon be murdered without the slightest provocation. And somehow this is all Israel’s fault.
But how could that be? After all, it is Hamas, not Israel, which has the hostages (at least those whom Hamas has not yet murdered), and it is Hamas, not Israel, which has sole physical control over both the hostages and the means of murdering them. Yet sure as night follows day, Israel has been almost universally condemned for the hostages’ death.
The main reason normally given for condemning Israel is that the Israelis are “settlers” dispossessing indigenous peoples in the Middle East, much as the British and Afrikaners settled in Rhodesia and South Africa, creating white-minority regimes to govern black Africans. And like the minority regimes of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, the Zionist entity must be overthrown. After all, who ever heard of Jews living in the Middle East anyway?
The main reason given for blaming Netanyahu for Hamas’s murder of the hostages is that he is allegedly too intransigent in negotiating a cease-fire; he simply won’t make enough concessions to induce Hamas to release more hostages because he wants to prolong the war and thereby prolong his own power in office to avoid prosecution for corruption. But under Israeli law, being Prime Minister confers no immunity from prosecution anyway. Besides, Netanyahu has apparently offered to release hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of the hostages. But one of the sticking points in the negotiations is that he has also insisted on trying to shut down the Philadelphi Corridor, connecting Gaza with Egypt, through which more weaponry to Hamas is being delivered. Imagine that! For trying to stem the flow of weapons to be used by Hamas, Netanyahu is the villain sabotaging negotiations for the return of the hostages.
Indeed, Israel, although created by the United Nations, is unique among nations in that it’s the only nation whose right to defend itself is seriously called into question, and whose legitimate efforts at self-defense will almost invariably be branded as illegitimate acts of aggression. And while President Biden, to his credit, has authorized significant military aid to Israel, despite opposition from anti-Semites from within the Democratic Party who smear him as Genocide Joe, he has nonetheless sought to impose conditions and limits on how Israel uses its weapons. If the United States had fought World War 2 with the same restraints Israel and Ukraine must observe in exchange for American military aid, how much longer would that war have lasted? And who would have won? (Fun fact: Hamas’s supporters have also given nicknames to other leading Democrats, giving us Genocide Josh Shapiro, the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, as well as Killer Kamala and Baby Killer Blinken; they really value alliteration.)
Those demanding a cease-fire frequently say they’re neither anti-Semitic nor pro-Hamas. Rather, they’re opposed to the suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people because of the war, and they seek a cease-fire to end the war and thereby end the suffering.
No humane person can possibly want the Palestinians to suffer, and all humane people want the war, the suffering of the Palestinians, and the suffering of the Israelis to end. But it must be remembered that had Hamas not attacked the music festival, or kidnapped, raped, and murdered innocent Israelis of all ages, there would have been no war and therefore no Palestinian suffering. But Hamas began the war, leaving the Israelis with no choice other than to fight back. And in fighting the Israelis, Hamas chooses to hide among the Palestinian people, putting them in harm’s way. Therefore, the suffering of the Palestinian people, and especially of the hostages (if any) still left alive, is the fault of Hamas.
Given Hamas’s demonstrated cruelty and ferocity, as well as its promise of future acts of aggression, the only realistic hope for peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike is for Israel to destroy Hamas’s capacity to make war and inflict terror. Those who desire peace for the innocent should support, or at least not oppose, Israel’s efforts to defeat the guilty.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville
Economic Development Authority since 2018 and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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