Israel is winning the war against barbarism

Surrounded by enemies and constantly under threat, the Jewish state fights on

Last week saw jubilation across Israel as three female hostages, including British Israeli woman Emily Damari, were freed from captivity under the terms of the new ceasefire agreement. With four more female hostages to be freed this weekend there is reason to be cautiously optimistic.

As well as securing the release of hostages, Israel has reportedly killed nearly 20,000 Hamas operatives, including many of its top leaders. Despite Hamas's claims of victory, its ability to attack Israel has been significantly degraded. It has also failed to achieve its initial goals set after the October 7^th terrorist attack which killed 1,200 Israelis. These included stopping the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, establishing a Palestinian state, freeing all Palestinian prisoners and ending the blockade of Gaza.

The ceasefire deal, however, has come at a massive cost to Israel, which claims to have lost 405 soldiers in combat since its Gaza ground operation began on 27^th October. It has also been forced as part of the current ceasefire deal to exchange nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners for the freeing of 33 hostages.

For now, the ceasefire represents a pause to the fighting. It is highly unlikely that Israel will tolerate Hamas reclaiming full control of Gaza because that would allow the group to conduct further attacks on Israeli communities near the border. In a televised speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that the ceasefire was “temporary”, and Israel reserved the right to resume strikes in Gaza.

Despite the fighting in Gaza being suspended, however, violence continues in the West Bank, where Israelis continue to be targeted by Palestinian terrorists. On the 6^th of January, three Israelis were killed in an attack on the Kedumim settlement in Samaria. On 18^th January, several people were wounded in a Tel Aviv in another terrorist attack. This is part of a broader worsening of tensions in Judea and Samaria, where Israel Defence Forces have been conducting counterinsurgency operations against Palestinian terrorists in Jenin.

According to a former Israeli security official, the northern West Bank “is flooded with Iranian weapons.” Hamas, which also has a presence in the West Bank, can only be stopped in his opinion by “evacuating the population from a specific area and conducting house-to-house operations until the last terrorist is reached.”

Surrounded by enemies, Israel’s resilience is to be admired, as is its determination to defeat Hamas, whose stated aim is to annihilate the Jewish people. In the global war against barbarism, Israel is a major ally of the UK and the broader Western world. Just recently, Israel has offered to transfer Russian-made weapons, seized from Hezbollah, its northern adversary, to Ukraine to aid its war efforts. This represents an attempt by Israel to build a united front against the forces of evil and we must support them in doing that. Much like Britain and its allies fought to eliminate Nazism in World War Two, we must be resolute in supporting Israel in its fight against the present-day Nazis.

Many on the anti-Israel side will argue that Israel is itself to blame for the war with Hamas. They will blame the blockade of Gaza for October 7^th, or Jewish settlements. Yet, these excuses for the worst antisemitic pogrom in living memory both have a strong whiff of victim blaming to them. “The Jews deserved it” essentially. These arguments also ignore that the blockade existed solely to stop attacks like October 7^th from happening in the first place. If anything, the blockade didn’t go far enough and was a necessity after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 to stop the smuggling of weapons and military-grade materials, and to protect Israeli citizens.

Some of the more extreme Israel-haters will claim that the October 7^th attack was essentially fabricated by Israel, which is ridiculous considering the vast amount of video evidence recorded by both Hamas and Israeli victims on that horrific day. Others, such as George Galloway will instead attempt to justify it the atrocity, arguing that “an occupying power has no right to self-defence”. In his view, the Jews should just allow themselves to be killed.

In the face of such horrific violence, it is more important than ever that we stand up to the Hamas apologists and back Israel to the hilt.