By Paul M
Hamas embarked on its October 7th onslaught with a specific goal in mind. It hoped, and had been planning for several years, to begin the complete destruction of Israel. Nor was it a total fantasy: If things had gone the way it visualized, with Iran’s “Ring of Fire” around Israel all joining in the attack, it is plausible that that it might have succeeded. Perhaps one day historians will tell us why Hezbollah and the others lost their nerve.
But that was then. Now Gaza is in ruins and Israel, scarred physically and emotionally and bloodied in world opinion (to whatever extent that means anything) is at least secure against imminent destruction. However things go for the next few years, Hamas, Hezbollah, the ayatollahs and the Houthis won’t be pushing the Jews into the sea or watering the desert with oceans of their blood just yet.
Today, the ceasefire is over and the war is on again. Targets are being bombed in Gaza, civilians are fleeing once more to wherever seems safer and terrorists are leaving them to their fate, diving for the protection of their tunnels. The chorus berating Israel has restarted instantly and predictably—everyone’s back to doing what they do best.
What does the international community have to say? The Arab world condemns Israel as expected (even the signatories to the Abraham Accords, though the Palestinian Authority, with an eye to its own struggle with Hamas, criticized them also). Iran, Turkey, China, Russia and the UN have all had yet another epiphany about the importance of human rights and human life, but only insofar as Israel might be found wanting. But Europe has once again been no better, laying everything at Israel’s feet. Britain’s ambassador to Israel tweeted “We all want to see Hamas defeated and we are desperate for the hostages to return home, but renewed IDF operations in Gaza will achieve neither of those aims.” This is simply incoherent—does he somehow think Israel can negotiate Hamas’s defeat? Why is the UK seemingly so intent on showing that it’s no longer a serious country? Their man at the UN said “I want to be clear—a return to fighting will only result in the deaths of further Palestinian civilians, Israeli hostages and IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers.” No mention of Hamas; he must be assuming that the IDF will completely miss them. France’s representative “expressed his country’s condemnation of Israeli strikes.”
— Simon Walters (@simonwaltersuk) March 18, 2025
France and the UK did both declare that Hamas should release its hostages “immediately” and “unconditionally.” Yes, it should and Hamas could do that, but Hamas is not doing that. There has never been a ghost of a possibility that Hamas would “unconditionally” release all its hostages without the kind of defeat that Israel has continually been told not to inflict, and we’re a year and a half too late for “immediate.” In my own opinion there has never been a possibility that it would ever release all the hostages—they’re simply too valuable for extortion and as shields and some will always be kept, just as four (two living and two dead) were kept for a decade until October 7 brought fresh meat. To demand that Israel cease fire and then toss in an insincere bit of mouth-noise about the hostages is breathtaking hypocrisy. It’s also as witless a bit of self-harm as could be done by democratic governments—the only kind susceptible to the agony-inducing tactic of hostage-taking.
But what is Hamas fighting for now? There’s only one possible remaining answer to that question today. With the longed-for destruction of its enemy beyond reach, the only goal it has left is its own continued existence as an armed terrorist organization. It is fighting to keep its weapons and its ability to continue killing Israelis in the future. Crucially, what Hamas can not claim to be doing now is protecting Gaza’s citizens. It is doing the exact opposite, deliberately drawing fire onto them again rather than release its 59 remaining hostages and surrender, and that makes it alone responsible for whatever amount of additional suffering Gaza now has to look forward to. Hamas launched a war (the war crime of aggression) targeting civilians (another war crime) for murder, rape and hostage-taking (more war crimes, all) and with genocidal aims (the worst war crime of all). If it had succeeded, it would at least have had a triumph to show for it, its ultimate objective of erasing its enemy and taking the land. Its supporters would have cheered. The rest of the world would have said Shame about the Jews and figured out how to rehabilitate the butchers. But now it is fighting, and sacrificing the Palestinians it claims to care about, merely for its own survival as an armed gang. Even Hitler and his cronies had enough of something resembling decency to call a halt at that point. Whatever you may think of the current US administration, it does at least seem to understand that. Europe seems so fixated on blaming Israel that it can’t pause long enough to see the state of play. What will it take for them to achieve similar clarity?
