There are many reasons for any sane person to regret the existence of Hamas, the savage Sunni Muslim militia that controls the Gaza Strip in Southern Israel. Founded in 1987, the group has specialized in terror attacks against Israelis while maintaining vigorous side-concessions fomenting anti-Western sentiment and keeping their own populace in a state of wretched poverty.
Such are the convoluted workings of providence, however, that the world may eventually find itself grimly grateful for what one percipient observer called “the Sabbath Massacres”: the barbaric slaughter perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which left some 1,400 dead, thousands wounded, and more than 200 kidnapped and held hostage in Gaza.
The main reason to be grateful for this horrific carnage follows from the revelation it afforded. In the first place, by acting with such savage and sanguinary abandon—deliberately targeting the young and helpless, the old and infirm, raping, mutilating, beheading—Hamas in effect signed its own death warrant.
We’ve seen all the usual suspects fulminating against Israel, “the Zionists,” “the Jews.” A prominent Hamas spokesman called Ghazi Hamad said in an interview that the Sabbath Massacre of October 7 was only the start, that there would be many more and similar attacks “until Israel is annihilated.”
But that is idle, impotent imprecation, of a piece with King Lear’s aposiopetic rant against his daughters [I somehow wrote “sisters”: thanks to an alert reader for that correction]:
– No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall – I will do such things, –
What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth.
One of the most brilliant spokesman for the the Israeli Defense Force, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, was right when he described Hamad as a “rotten, vile, and cowardly terrorist.” Doubtless Hamad would slit the throat of any Israeli he chanced across. But he is likely to chance across very few, if any. As Conricus has explained in patient if steely detail, the IDF is going to dismantle Hamas piece by piece, tunnel by tunnel, terrorist by terrorist.
The Israelis will, as they have always done—and in sharp contrast with the procedure of Hamas—proceed deliberately and methodically, taking care to minimize civilian casualties wherever they can, but without bowing to the illegal emotional blackmail of using civilians a human shields, a regular practice of Hamas, which, in blatant contravention of the Geneva Conventions, builds command centers and rocket launchers under or adjacent to hospitals, schools, mosques, etc., and which employs ambulances as taxis across war zones, another violation of the rules of war.
But the main point is that, in sharp contradistinction to the many other times that Israel has responded militarily to Arab or Palestinian aggression, this time all signs are that they will finish the job. In the past, Israel has been cowed by “world opinion,” that marshy will-o’-the-wisp that emanates from such sinkholes as the United Nations and the news rooms of such discredited entities as The New York Times and CNN. But this time I predict, the extreme savagery of the October 7 attack—an attack that killed more Jews than any episode since the Holocaust—has put steel in the Israeli response. Hamas’s days are numbered, and the number is not large.
That is one real if paradoxical reason to be grateful for the attack by Hamas. They did not heed Gertrude Stein’s sage admonition to know how far to go in going too far. They went all the way, and they will pay the ultimate price for their horrible bloodletting.
The other chief reason that this grisly event may inspire gratitude alongside revulsion is that it seems to have shaken the world awake, disrupting the pathetic radical-chic infatuation with this species of violent, anti-Western guilt mongering. Yes, Western colleges and universities, especially the richest and most pampered of them, are full of anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian animus. From Harvard to Stanford, from Columbia and Cornell to Georgetown and the University of Pennsylvania, students and faculty are making fools of themselves by mouthing such goads to genocide as “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”
But these little eructations, along with the carefully coordinated mass rallies in major cities throughout the Western world, conceal an inexorable process of disenchantment. Much publicized has been the withdrawal of financial support by scores of major donors to the university industrial complex. The loss of money may sting at some few campuses. For most, it will be but a rounding error. What will matter much more is the loss of that much more precious form of spiritual currency, legitimacy.
Whatever else it accomplished, the murderous attacks perpetrated by Hamas tore the mask off the “poor, suffering Palestinians” and revealed the entire operation as the bloodthirsty, anti-civilizational impulse we have long known it to be. For that, at least, we must be grateful for this excruciating moment of clarity.
Respectfully, I must take issue with Mr. Kimball’s optimism regarding the fate of Hamas vs. Israel. Just this morning I read several articles detailing how the Xiden junta is trying to have it both ways by giving lip service in support of Israel, but doing everything it can diplomatically to force a cease-fire, thus allowing the Hamas monsters to regroup, re-supply and plan counter-attacks.
One article discussed the significant support for the “Palestinian cause” among young voters–a significant voting bloc for Democrats. Concurrent with that support is a complete lack of knowledge of Middle East politics, the brutal despotism and misogyny of Hamas and Hezbollah monsters, and the despicable way the terrorists use their own populations as shields and bait.
It is my fervent desire that Israel flatten Gaza and every living thing there. After all, the residents either support the terrorists, give aid to the terrorists, or who matriculate future terrorists. But of course, that will not happen, and neither will what Mr. Kimball expects.
This administration is run by Obama who is, if not a practicing Muslim, certainly a lover and supporter of radical Islam and the forces that oppose Israel. Whatever the American population might desire regarding Israel’s right and obligation to annihilate Hamas, our current government is solidly on the side of the terrorists.
I do not think there is any way that Israel will crumble in its resolve to destroy Hamas once and for all—despite all of the political pressure being brought against them. The world wide demonstrations supporting the Palestinians (and Hamas, and Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Authority, and Iran) have done a service by exposing the rampant anti-Semitism long held by the Marxists on the Left. The Marxists no longer pretend to hide behind the nuances. For whatever reason they now believe it is THE time to champion outright genocide. So, the ripping off of the mask allows Israel to take the necessary steps to eliminate a murderous criminal regime without being forced into a Tevia-like colloqui wherein they talk themselves into yet another surrender to outsider opinion.
I have listened to the other side. I have examined their historical claims. I have looked into their grievances and found all of them wanting. In the end I needed to do nothing more complicated than an Occam’s Razor application—by their fruits you shall know them.
What fruit has Hamas (et.al.) produced? Having full power in the Gaza strip since 2006 and after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from various entities, they have not lifted a single finger to improve the living conditions of the Gazan people. Rather than building a secure water supply, they have ripped up existing pipes to construct missiles. Rather than developing further the greenhouses left by the Israelis, their people rely on international handouts for food. Rather than providing educational opportunities to children, they indoctrinate them into Jew hatred.
Instead, the monies received have been used to build miles of tunnels in order to make war. They steal fuel from the citizens and hoard it for their own use—just as they do food supplies and medicine. The money has also been used to pay bounties for each Israeli killed.
This is their poisonous fruit. That college educated youths worldwide support these criminals says much about the lack of moral upbringing received by these ignorant children of the corn. And their teachers will soon find their necks adorned with a heavy millstone for the damage they have wrought.
Soon, the orgies of violence will commence. It is as inevitable as the rising of the sun. Mob frenzy is contagious and feeds on itself. Things are not going to get better. They are going to get far, far worse.
If anything good has come from this (other than the destruction of Hamas) is that American Jews and Jews worldwide now know friend from enemy. No longer feeling safe, many are now considering leaving countries they once believed a safe haven. Even more are re-examining their misplaced support for those that secretly held them in contempt.
It is a true awakening. And though I am saddened by the means with which this awakening has come, I am glad the scales have fallen from their eyes.
Max, I see no abatement in Israeli resolve. Joe may waffle, Blinken may shuffle, Kirby may equivocate, but the Israeli people now stand in the same place as did the American people immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor. They are pissed.
As for the developing Democrat schism, hooray. If this causes a permanent split in the Democrat Party we will all be better off. The Squad has called for all out war against any Democrat foolish enough to defend Israel and I’m happily eating popcorn while they do so.
Unfortunately, the Israeli military is dependent on the US military. While Israelis may support total war against Hamas (and I saw an article the other day that indicates Israelis may be cooling toward such a war), the Xiden junta is NOT supportive–and they have two carrier groups in the Mediterranean to enforce that resolve.
Everett, I urge you to read this article. The statistic is shocking but also quite sad.