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Shimon Glick

An ethical imperative-ten compelling reasons to destroy Hamas

As international pressures mount for a “cease fire” in the current battle between Hamas and Israel, it is critical for an insistence on the continued military battle to destroy the Hamas terror organization in Gaza for a variety of reasons; Minimally there are ten.

Premeditation: the Hamas pogrom was a carefully orchestrated event with a clear, declared goal, expressed orally and in writing: the murder of civilians of all ages and the kidnapping of hostages.

The leadership of Hamas has expressly stated its goal to repeat such attacks over and over again in the future.

Barbarism: the extraordinary cruelty Hamas terrorists showed to infants, elderly individuals, pregnant women is unique in modern history, equaling, or perhaps even exceeding, that of ISIS.

Betrayal: a large majority of the victims came from villages populated by Israelis who have long been actively advocating peace with their Palestinian neighbors in Gaza. Several of the victims have been veteran volunteers in an organization, Road to Recovery, whose members personally (and on their own time) transport Palestinians to and from Gaza to hospitals in Israel for medical treatment.

Treachery: a number of Palestinians employed by the nearby kibbutzim for long periods of time prepared maps of their employer’s homes and neighborhoods for the planning of the Hamas attacks on their own employers.

War crimes: ever since Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza, well before the October 7 attack and ever since, Hamas has fired thousands of rockets daily into strictly civilian targets all over Israel. Each is war crime. Several hospitals have been hit.

Mendacity: infamously Hamas has falsely accused Israel of a bombing of a major health center in Gaza, the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, while routinely it continues daily attacks on civilian targets including hospitals and schools in Israel.

Cowardice: Hamas regularly uses civilians as human shields in its battles. It routinely places its military offices and equipment under and alongside of schools, hospitals and other civilian institutions. It blocks the evacuation of civilians from the battle areas in North Gaza to the South, as demanded by Israel.

Betrayal: its leaders have said that despite being the governing body in the strip they are not responsible for the welfare of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, but that responsibility is that of Israel and UNRWA. The tunnels, built with enormous human and financial cost, are strictly for attacking Israel.

Crimes against humanity: Hamas has not only pledged in writing and in public declarations to destroy Israel. It is also committed to a worldwide Jihad against other “infidels” including Christians and deviant Muslims.

Commitment: Israel has a commitment to the thousands of soldiers and civilians who have risked and sacrificed their lives daily in order to bring safety to the Israeli communities surrounding Gaza to eliminate the threat from Hamas.

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The loss of civilian lives on both sides is unbearably tragic, but Israel has traditionally taken repeated steps to minimize harming innocent civilians in Gaza. In contrast to Hamas, it targets military targets exclusively. But there are clearly situations in which no alternative exists during critical military operations in order to avoid civilian losses. Hamas is responsible for these needless deaths. Such was the situation in World War II in the extensive bombings of German and Japanese cities, not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Germans dropped 12,000 tons of bombs on the UK during the Blitz. The allies pummeled German cities with more than 2,000,000. Yes, a ratio of 166 to one.

Acceptance of a cease fire now will just repeat the lack of resolution following several previous battles with Hamas, which were followed just a few years later by repeated Hamas attacks on Israel.

The battle against Hamas must continue unabated until its total defeat or its unconditional surrender. Would any sane person have asked for a ceasefire after Pearl Harbor?

About the Author
Born 1932 in New Jersey. State U of Medicine MD 1955. Trained at Yale. Mount Sinai. Research in Nobel prize winning laboratory of Berson and Yalow.