By Shiraz Maher
The Arab-Israeli conflict is a matter to which many great minds have frequently turned their attention, though such scrutiny is not always a good thing.
As increasing numbers of commentators, politicians, activists and journalists speculate on the way forward, simple and indisputable facts are often surrendered to the worst kinds of moral relativism. The last few weeks alone have been testament to this. Just consider how Israel has been likened to Nazism, and the Gazans to refugees living in the Warsaw ghetto.
This should not however invert what is indisputable – that Israel is responding to a barrage of Hamas rockets which threaten its citizens who live in the south. Indeed, around 10 per cent of the Israeli population now lives within striking distance of katyusha rockets.
All this follows the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements in Gaza in 2005, after which Hamas swept to power and turned "the Strip" into its own paramilitary playground, using it as a springboard to launch a campaign of sustained and indiscriminate attacks into southern Israel.
I am a Muslim and spent a large part of my childhood in Saudi Arabia – something which, in the eyes of many Muslims, means I should automatically defend the "Palestinian struggle". This is absurd and such support invariably means overlooking the vicious crimes being perpetrated by Hamas – against the Jews and, increasingly, its own population too.
Since the start of the conflict Hamas has carried out extra-judicial killings of – or, put bluntly, murdered – more than 30 of its citizens who it suspects of "colluding" with Israel.
And how has it responded to the death of Palestinian children? In a televised broadcast the Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, declared that Israel has "legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine. They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."
British Islamists have proved themselves only too willing to oblige. Reports this week suggest that some participants on Islamist chat forums have been drawing up "hit lists" of prominent British Jews.
One contributor writing on the discussion board of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) said, "lets hope that an unfortunate event happens and they end up being killed someway [sic]". The group later removed those comments, but such views are indicative of the hatred that is out there.
Hamas will now pay a heavy price for its bloodlust and innocent civilians will tragically die as a result. Of course, it is in their name that those who have staged loud and noisy demonstrations in recent weeks claim to be acting. But what message are they sending exactly?
Demonstrators outside the Israeli embassy in London have fought with police and tried to storm the building on at least three separate occasions. Meanwhile banners have been waved in Trafalgar Square which boast, "We are Hamas".
Such vociferous support from the streets of London will have come as great relief to Hamas leaders at a time when even Arab governments such as Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have blamed them for this latest outbreak of violence.
These self-righteous "friends of Palestine" obsess about Israel and the Jews, but turn a Nelsonian blind eye to everything Hamas does.
They undermine those who want to see an enduring peace in the region and, worse still, they bolster and galvanise Hamas by creating the moral imperatives for its terrorism.
Muslim leaders in Britain have so far – but cannot any longer – allow this to continue unabated. Those who claim to support and empathise with the Palestinians must recognise that it is the terrorists of Hamas who have so disastrously betrayed their own people.
At its core, this is the straightforward decision that British Muslims will have to make: between Hamas, a terrorist group committed to destroying a sovereign state and its people – and Israel, the region's only democracy which is responding to that threat.
It really is that simple.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is a matter to which many great minds have frequently turned their attention, though such scrutiny is not always a good thing.
As increasing numbers of commentators, politicians, activists and journalists speculate on the way forward, simple and indisputable facts are often surrendered to the worst kinds of moral relativism. The last few weeks alone have been testament to this. Just consider how Israel has been likened to Nazism, and the Gazans to refugees living in the Warsaw ghetto.
This should not however invert what is indisputable – that Israel is responding to a barrage of Hamas rockets which threaten its citizens who live in the south. Indeed, around 10 per cent of the Israeli population now lives within striking distance of katyusha rockets.
All this follows the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements in Gaza in 2005, after which Hamas swept to power and turned "the Strip" into its own paramilitary playground, using it as a springboard to launch a campaign of sustained and indiscriminate attacks into southern Israel.
I am a Muslim and spent a large part of my childhood in Saudi Arabia – something which, in the eyes of many Muslims, means I should automatically defend the "Palestinian struggle". This is absurd and such support invariably means overlooking the vicious crimes being perpetrated by Hamas – against the Jews and, increasingly, its own population too.
Since the start of the conflict Hamas has carried out extra-judicial killings of – or, put bluntly, murdered – more than 30 of its citizens who it suspects of "colluding" with Israel.
And how has it responded to the death of Palestinian children? In a televised broadcast the Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, declared that Israel has "legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine. They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."
British Islamists have proved themselves only too willing to oblige. Reports this week suggest that some participants on Islamist chat forums have been drawing up "hit lists" of prominent British Jews.
One contributor writing on the discussion board of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) said, "lets hope that an unfortunate event happens and they end up being killed someway [sic]". The group later removed those comments, but such views are indicative of the hatred that is out there.
Hamas will now pay a heavy price for its bloodlust and innocent civilians will tragically die as a result. Of course, it is in their name that those who have staged loud and noisy demonstrations in recent weeks claim to be acting. But what message are they sending exactly?
Demonstrators outside the Israeli embassy in London have fought with police and tried to storm the building on at least three separate occasions. Meanwhile banners have been waved in Trafalgar Square which boast, "We are Hamas".
Such vociferous support from the streets of London will have come as great relief to Hamas leaders at a time when even Arab governments such as Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have blamed them for this latest outbreak of violence.
These self-righteous "friends of Palestine" obsess about Israel and the Jews, but turn a Nelsonian blind eye to everything Hamas does.
They undermine those who want to see an enduring peace in the region and, worse still, they bolster and galvanise Hamas by creating the moral imperatives for its terrorism.
Muslim leaders in Britain have so far – but cannot any longer – allow this to continue unabated. Those who claim to support and empathise with the Palestinians must recognise that it is the terrorists of Hamas who have so disastrously betrayed their own people.
At its core, this is the straightforward decision that British Muslims will have to make: between Hamas, a terrorist group committed to destroying a sovereign state and its people – and Israel, the region's only democracy which is responding to that threat.
It really is that simple.
Source: The Telegraph
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