| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Reply | |
| Posted by: | Steven Rose | |
| Date/Time: | 25/03/24 00:14:00 |
| Hamas is all but defeated militarily. Their last hope is that peace campaigners in the West will put pressure on their governments to compel Israel to call a unilateral ceasefire. Unfortunately such a ceasefire would simply leave Hamas in possession of the hostages, whom they can use as bargaining chips, and in control of parts of Gaza where they hope to regroup and renew their attacks. Peace campaigners, motivated by sympathy for the civilian population, naturally take offence at any suggestion that they are antisemitic or apologists for Hamas. Some of this indignation has been expressed on the Forum. But in effect, however much they may dislike the implication, these campaigners are furthering Hamas’ cause for the reason given above. Their presence also gives respectability to the groups organising the demonstrations, some of whom make no secret of the fact that they regard the whole of Israel as ‘under occupation ‘, proved by the chants of ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. The immediate solution is for Hamas to lay down their arms and release the hostages and for Israel to suspend its military campaign. Regrettably the demonstrators only demand the latter, but never the former. Some contributors to the Forum have tried to justify this one-sided approach by arguing, in effect, that there is no point in appealing to Hamas because they are just a bunch of terrorists while Israel is a democratic country. In my view this approach simply favours Hamas. I have got two questions. Is Israel supposed to tolerate on its border an army of over 20 000 militants who not only perpetrated a dreadful massacre but have threatened to repeat it ‘again and again’? And if not, how is Israel to remove this threat? |