Examine the Full Context

I have been reticent to comment on the war between Israel and Hamas because I am not an expert on the Middle East. However, I am qualified to comment on the faulty thinking that underlies some of the claims and demands being made by Palestinian supporters. Critics of Israel’s war against Hamas frequently claim that Israel is conducting genocide against Palestinians. In addition, many supporters of Palestinians are demanding a ceasefire. While these claims and demands are repeated often, if one examines the full context, it is easy to see the absurdity therein.

If Isarael is engaged in genocide, it would not have waited to be attacked to kill Palestinians. They would have been doing it all along, and they would have been killing indiscriminately. Israel done neither. In contrast, Hamas has called for the elimination of Isarael and all Jews. It is Hamas and its Islamist brethren who want to commit genocide, and they have acted accordingly.

Consider The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), adopted in 1988. The second paragraph of the document states: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” The document goes on to state in Article Seven:

The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.If this isn’t a call for genocide, then nothing is.

The covenant is more than just a statement of Hamas’ goals and beliefs. It is an operations manual. As evidence, on October 7 Hamas brutally murdered more than 1,300 civilians. Those civilians were not hiding behind stones and trees. They were engaged in the normal activities of living, including attending a music festival.Those calling for a cease fire conveniently ignore the fact that there was a ceasefire until Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Hamas broke the ceasefire, and Isarael has responded with overwhelming force, as it should. Even Bernie Sanders recognizes the futility of seeking a ceasefire, saying

I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, (a) permanent ceasefire, with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel.

Ostensibly, many of the calls for a ceasefire are motivated by the death and destruction that Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing. The blood of Palestinian civilians killed in the war is on the hands of Hamas. More importantly, few of those civilians are innocent victims of war. Most Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas or similar organizations. Indeed, Hamas was elected to govern the Gaza Strip in 2006.

If we want to objectively and rationally evaluate the Israel-Hamas war, then we must consider all of the relevant facts, not just those that support our position. We must examine the full context.