"Peace For Our Time" or "A Deal with the Devil"?

Melanie Phillips, writing last week, observed:

There was one immediate and very public effect of the hostage deal that was prematurely reported to have been agreed between Israel and Hamas. No sooner had this news filtered through on Wednesday than thousands of jubilant Arabs poured onto the streets of Gaza brandishing weapons, uniforms and insignia, and chanting that they had won the war.

These men were demonstrably well-fed, well-clothed and equipped with smartphones.

So much for the libel - the ludicrous calumny that has been amplified from Gaza throughout the length and breadth of the west - that Israel has been conducting a genocide against the Palestinian Arabs. As was bitterly observed by some of those watching the euphoria in Gaza, this must be the first genocide in history where the victims have emerged to declare victory.

Those Arabs were ecstatic because they believed that the deal would enable them now, finally, to destroy Israel and the Jews. “Jews remember Khaybar, where Muhammad massacred the Jews,” they chanted, a reference to the seventh-century onslaught by Islam’s founder that remains the Muslim battle cry to slaughter the Jews today.

And in the Qatari capital Doha, the Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya responded to the deal by expressing pride in the October 7 pogrom, which he pledged to repeat ... 

With reports swirling that the deal involved a staged release of hostages in exchange for a far larger number of Arab terrorists to be released from Israeli prisons, as well as a staged withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Gaza, there was panic in some Israeli quarters. There were fears that Israel was being forced to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory and would continue to face a genocidal enemy that would be enabled to regroup, rule Gaza again, and repeat its slaughter of Jews.

The deeper question  is why any negotiation was taking place at all - and why Qatar, the sponsor, patron and protector of Hamas, was still being used as an honest broker.

As Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said: “The only ‘deal’ should be unconditional surrender by Hamas, which is already nearly destroyed, and return of ALL hostages. … Here’s the ‘deal’ to offer Hamas and its patron, Iran: You have five days to release ALL the hostages or we ‘unleash hell.’”

The release of any of the hostages is to be welcomed. Their terrible fate is uppermost in every Israeli mind, but at what price? The certainty of yet more Jewish hostages being taken and more murderous attacks?

The taking the Israeli hostages was an evil masterstroke by Hamas taking advantage of the “liberal delusion” that all conflict is soluble through negotiation and compromise.

But when the conflict is between those committed to genocide and their intended victims - as is the case between the Iran/Palestinian Arab axis and Israel’s Jews - any compromise by Israel is tantamount to offering its throat to be slit.

The European Conservative asks:

Exactly what are all of these Western  politicians celebrating?

As Western leaders celebrate the prospect of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, we should pause and ask these question.

What has been achieved?

[Israelis are] divided into two camps. There were those who wished Hamas to be destroyed so that the hostages could be freed, and there were those who wanted the hostages freed and then Hamas to be destroyed. This was a tactical difference only. Neither camp can be satisfied with a prospective deal that leaves Hamas to fulfil its pledge to repeat the October 7th pogrom “again and again.”

Is this cease fire a “victory” and, if so, for whom?

Before the ink is dry on a ceasefire agreement, Western leaders have announced victory. Not victory against the terrorists of Hamas, dedicated as they are to the destruction of Israel, but victory for their own attitudes towards the war. 

Most leaders would not go along with the rhetoric of their NATO ally, the Turkish President Recep Erdoğan, who said “We respectfully salute the heroic people and brave sons of Gaza who courageously defended their land and freedom against Israel’s unlawful and inhumane attack”. But the main thrust of Western leaders’ statements was that, while welcoming the potential release of hostages, the important thing was that the ceasefire would stop Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, launched after October 7th. 

French President Macron referred to the end of “the unjustifiable suffering” of Gazans, and opened the door to a two-state solution, thus effectively rewarding Hamas for its murderous attacks on Israel and failing to recognise that it is Hamas that has brought suffering to the people of Gaza …

For many, perhaps most, Western leaders, Israel’s war against the death cult of Hamas has been an inconvenience at best and a threat at worst. For countries with large Muslim populations, such as France and the UK, and for those with large youthful contingents and leftists who have more sympathy with Hamas than with Israel, the war has caused internal conflicts and loss of political support. Western leaders’ domestic politics has taken precedence over their rhetorical support for the struggle against Islamist terrorism, helping to undermine Israel’s fight for survival.

While the release of hostages is to be welcomed, the only real victory represented in this ceasefire is for those who have tried to hold Israel back from defeating Hamas. For many commentators outside Israel, the ceasefire is an opportunity to once again condemn Israel for having fought back against the murder, rape, and kidnapping of it its people on October 7th, 2023.

Over the past 15 months, Western Commentators have repeatedly claimed that Israel could not defeat Hamas “because you cannot defeat an idea,” and that Israel should not go into Lebanon to deal with Hezbollah who were firing rockets into Israel because they would get “bogged down” and ultimately fail. Western governments have told Israel to hold off from fully attacking the Islamists because of civilian casualties. Israel has been faced with arms boycotts, prosecuted for genocide at the International Court of Justice, and its democratically elected prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has even been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court. 

Its alleged Western allies have forced Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, to fight the war against genocidal Islamists with one hand tied behind its back. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have gone to extraordinary lengths to limit civilian casualties in Gaza. Yet, the West has condemned Israel for the suffering of Palestinian civilians whom Hamas uses as human shields, and whose deaths Hamas has openly celebrated as martyrs. All this from Western politicians who claim to support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. One has to ask, with friends like these, who needs enemies? …

The hostage crisis a symptom of the problem not the cause.

The hostage crisis is a symptom of the problems that Israel faces, not the cause. The continued existence and operation of Hamas poses an ongoing existential threat to Israel, something which I found Israelis understand full well.

The young people who were murdered, raped, and kidnapped at the Nova festival on October 7th are part of a generation in Israel which had hoped for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This hope was largely extinguished by the butchery carried out by Hamas terrorists on that day.

The latest opinion polls show that three-quarters of Israelis think that Hamas has no future role to play in Gaza. It is against this background we should understand the ceasefire. It will be met with qualified support by most Israelis because hostages must be freed. Most do not believe there can be a peaceful future while Hamas still runs Gaza. And how could there be when Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and the driving of all Jews from the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the entirety of Israel?

It is completely understandable why the families of the remaining hostages should welcome the prospect of their release, however distant and uncertain that might remain under the drawn-out process proposed. An initial halt to fighting will also be a relief, if perhaps temporary, for the citizens of Gaza. But the ceasefire provides no answer to the question of Hamas, which cannot be allowed to survive and prosper.

How the Israelis conduct their war is their business. They are the people who are under threat from neighbours on all sides who wish to see them destroyed. We on the outside must do all we can to persuade our governments to support Israel’s fight. 

Between the democratic state of Israel and the Islamists of Hamas, there is no equivalence. Hamas is part of an Islamist movement which bombs and murders citizens of Europe, America, and beyond. The Israelis are fighting for their lives to defend their democracy. As it was on October 7th, so is it now. Israel’s is a war in defence of Western civilization against those who wish to destroy it, both in Israel and beyond. It is their fight, and it is our fight.