Israel is positioned at the junction of Jihad and the Free World, at the intersection between the industry of death and evil on the one hand and freedom, democracy, gender equality and human rights on the other. The Free World cannot lose this battle.
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"Progressive circles" embedded in the academic world and in the media provide justification to those who attack Israel and the West. Neither the West nor Israel are immune to criticism, and yet all the transgressions of the West and Israel pale in comparison to the threat posed by the Jihadi movement and its offshoots to the very existence of the Free World.
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Harvard student group in demonstration for solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel-Hamas war
The time has come for us to raise our heads and categorically declare: In this instance, there is no symmetry. Values of morality are opposed to values of immorality. This is the time for decisiveness: It is imperative we defeat the Iranian-led axis of evil, the Jihadist movement and its offshoots, from Hamas to the Islamic State, from Hezbollah to Boko Haram.
Israel cannot carry this burden alone. Every person, every organization and every country that still believes in the values of freedom and equality must participate in this struggle. Because if Israel's hands are tied, if the false narrative proclaiming Israel the "aggressor" and Hamas the "victim" gains the upper hand, this will signal the downfall of the Free World. This cannot happen.
In the 1930s, the Free World was incapable of recognizing the fact it was facing an existential threat. The price was devastating. Sixty million people died, among them six million Jews who perished in the most horrific death industry in history.
It’s worth remembering that in 1933 the Oxford Students’ Union resolved “That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country.” 275 students supported the motion, with 153 opposed. Winston Churchill understood the tragic ramifications of the motion, and several weeks after its approval labelled it “That abject, squalid, shameless avowal…It is a very disquieting and disgusting symptom...” Other universities followed Oxford’s lead and adopted similar motions.
Just this week, after the scale of Hamas atrocities was made public, Harvard University Student Unions declared their support for their heinous actions. Is history repeating itself?
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Adolf Hitler meets with Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini, in Berlin, 1941
(Photo: Heinrich Hoffmann)
There is, however, a difference between the past and present. In the 1930s it was not yet clear that Hitler was planning genocide and world conquest. Today it is obvious and apparent. The Islamic State is not alone. Hamas leaders have called in the past for “the conquest of Rome, and from there ... the two Americas and Eastern Europe,” and Hamas’ official television calls upon Allah to kill Christians and Jews "to the last one."
The Islamist Sunni leader Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi incites Muslims “to complete the job started by Adolf Hitler”, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah determined that “the Jews will gather from all parts of the world into occupied Palestine, not in order to bring about the anti-Christ and the end of the world, but rather that Allah the Glorified and Most High wants to save you from having to go to the ends of the world, for they have gathered in one place–and there the final and decisive battle will take place.”
Those Harvard students who support Hamas should be aware of this. Instead of teaching them about the past and the present, of the threat directed at the Free World, many of their professors portray Israel as a villainous monster and Hamas as an innocent victim.
Judith Butler has claimed in the past that Hamas and Hezbollah are “social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left.” In a similar manner, former British Labour Party leader Jeremey Corbyn just this week refused to condemn Hamas. Noam Chomsky, one of the world’s leading intellectuals, traveled to Lebanon to meet with Nasrallah.
The parade continues. Slavoj Žižek, a leading progressive philosopher, supports the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo has advocated the shooting of “Zionist bastards” and raising money for Hamas. He also wrote an article in support of the Iranian demand for the obliteration of Israel.
This is not an insubstantial parade of intellectuals. Even the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) recently passed a resolution to join the BDS movement, which supports the obliteration of the Jewish State. Hardly insubstantial, this trend progressed into an intellectuals’ Parade of Shame in support of Islamo-Nazism.
One of the most ridiculous claims, also published this week by Israeli daily Haaretz, titled "Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price," is simply false hyperbole. Firstly, Hamas is not short of money. The organization did not invest its funds in civilian welfare, education or healthcare. The organization chose instead to devote billions to the creation of a terror infrastructure, the establishment of a munitions industry and a strategic underground tunnel network.
Prior to the attack, over 20,000 Gazans left the Gaza Strip daily to work in Israel. Hundreds of trucks would arrive every day to supply food and other provisions. Utilities—water, gasoline and electricity—were supplied on a regular basis. Secondly, the blockade was partial, intended to prevent the smuggling of Iranian weapons into the Gaza Strip. No one wanted the blockade.
When Hamas won the 2006 elections and gained control of the Gaza Strip, the "Quartet" (The U.S., Russia, the EU and the UN) proposed that the Hamas government commit to non-violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept current Mideast peace agreements in exchange for crucial aid to the Palestinians.
A year later, in 2007, Hamas violently took control over the Gaza Strip, murdering hundreds, often by throwing opponents off rooftops. Indoctrination into the extermination of Jews begins at kindergarten age. Once again the international community again proposed support in return for changes in policy. And again Haniyah rejected the proposal.
Continued rocket launches from Gaza into Israel in 2014 escalated into Operation Protective Edge. European Union ministers proposed aid in return for “disarmament of all terrorist organizations.” In addition, they presented a detailed proposal for a special UN mission for Gaza. The European Council also presented an official plan, according to which aid was contingent upon disarmament.
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IDF soldier inspects ruins of Kibbutz Kfar Aza after Hamas assault
(Photo: GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
But in 2017, Hamas’ new leader, Yahya Sinwar made it clear that “Hamas would never recognize Israel.” The following year, in February 2018, on the backdrop of heightening border tensions, the EU once again proposed aid in return for disarmament. Prosperity or terror? Welfare or industries of death? Once again, Hamas chose terror.
Moshir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, clarified in the past how Hamas regards the term "ceasefire": “The resistance dictionary defines the term ‘calm’ as preparation for the next campaign. Our resistance will continue to stock its arsenal and develop and manufacture surprising new components for the new systems." And that is precisely what Hamas did.
Why did this happen? Because Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose principles of Industry of Death were defined by its founder, Hassan al-Banna, in 1938. Not welfare. Not prosperity. Not rehabilitation. Not education. Death. But Hamas’ ideology, its refusal of the proposals of the international community, its insistence on the continuation of the blockade despite the suffering of Gazan residents does not influence the media of the Free World. This self-deception is tantamount to self-destruction.
On the same day that Hamas massacred hundreds of young Israelis celebrating at the Nova festival, a Palestinian-British academic, Dr. Yara Hawari, wrote, "Decolonization is not a metaphor." She could not live a single day under Hamas' reign of terror. She admires Hamas' rule for one reason only. Academics only talk about "decolonization." Hamas provides a practical interpretation of the term because it deals with the slaughter of Jews.
Ben-Dror Yemini Photo: Avigail UziThe theory defining Zionism as colonialism is one of the foremost fabrications of that line of thought. Were my grandparents, who fled Yemen over a century ago, colonials? Or Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia? Or destitute Holocaust survivors who arrived after World War II? The problem is that this lie continues to prevail and provides a tailwind to Iran, to Jihad and to terrorists. It does not encompass all Western media or the entire academic world, yet the propaganda of lies is destroying the Free World from within.
In 2014, American intellectual Sam Harris published an article that concludes, “The truth is, we are all living in Israel. It’s just that some of us haven’t realized it yet.” I wonder what has to happen before the academic world, the media and the Free World realize this simple truth. Eventually, the Free World will understand. Only one question remains open: Will tens of millions of deaths be necessary, or can the axis of evil be stopped now, at a much lower price?