Why Hamas Must Lose

Israel is in a state of war after numerous attacks on its territory and people by Hamas terrorists. 

This morning, news of attacks on Israel was accompanied by multiple videos of the barbarity of those fighting for the Palestine cause. 

Two of these videos were unusually gruesome. 

In one video, an Israeli woman was shown being loaded onto the back of a mini-truck by Hamas terrorists. The woman is barely covered in clothes and her face has apparently been mutilated. It is unclear in the video if the woman is dead or alive. Cries of “Allahu Akbar” can be heard in the video and as the truck moves, a man is seen spitting on the woman. 

Another video shows another Israeli woman being dragged out of the boot of a car and being shoved into its seat. Her clothes have bloodstains and she is visibly scared. The man dragging her out of the boot is loudly repeating “Allahu Akbar”. 

These videos have made picking sides in this conflict even easier. The choice now isn’t between two sides at war but between barbarism and civilisation. 

If the Palestinians wanted to make a diplomatic case citing history or humanitarianism or anything else, their conduct with the dead and the captured has ruled out any chance of their efforts being successful. 

The videos coming out of Israel leave no room for any discussion on history or diplomacy. They are reducing the choice between Israel and Palestine to one between barbarism and fundamental civility. For anyone not a barbarian, the choice is simple. 

This behaviour by the Palestinians is self-defeating. It has not only got them labelled as the aggressors and terrorists but has also pre-emptively justified the Israeli response. Even if the Palestinian side has an assurance that Iran or the Arab states or the ‘international community’ would come to its aid and restrain Israel, the savagery of the Palestinian forces’ would make their benefactors' case before Israel that much weaker. 

There is no place for the kind of barbaric acts that we witnessed today - not even in war. This conduct cannot be allowed to pass.