EU condemns rescue of 4 Israelis from Hamas

EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell appears to be increasingly out of touch with reality.

And morality.

On the afternoon of June 8th 2024 Israeli special forces rescued four of the remaining 120 Israeli hostages illegally held by Hamas in Gaza.

According to Hamas, several dozen people were killed in the course of the rescue mission. Also according to Hamas, every single one of them was either a woman or a child. There are apparently no men in Gaza, and certainly none of military age. Because again according to Hamas, men are never killed, only women and children, all of them civilians.

There are any number of interesting points to make on the daring and highly successful rescue operation. Probably the most important is that these particular hostages were not held in underground dungeons or tunnels but in regular civilian apartments, guarded by regular civilian Gaza families. 21 year old Noa Argamani, for instance, was held by a Gaza family who told her she “was blessed by God” for being with them.

The salient point here is that despite all the oh-so-predictable protestations of the terrorist-enablers in the EU and UN, the documented fact is that regular civilian Gaza families are part of the disgusting, amoral and utterly illegal policy of abducting and imprisoning Jewish civilians for subsequent barter.

Yes, Josep Borrell – human trafficking is illegal – even in your beloved EU
Bearing in mind the official position Borrell holds, he ought to be knowledgeable enough to know that human trafficking is illegal. And that all those involved in human trafficking, from kidnappers to transporters, holders and other enablers of this gruesome illicit trade in human flesh, are breaking the law. Borrell refers to the rescue mission as “another massacre of Gazans”, without acknowledging that the people killed were abductors, transporters, guards and holders of kidnap victims. Either he is wilfully deaf and blind to documented fact, or he is woefully ignorant of what is happening around him. Either way, he is abysmally incompetent for the important position he holds and should be immediately sacked.

Yes, Israel takes all possible steps to ensure minimal casualties among non-combatants in the war that Hamas started and that it vows to repeat time and time again until every last Jew has been driven from Israel.

Civilians who abduct, transport, hold or feed abducted hostages are part of the Hamas war machine
No, Hamas cannot either morally or legally continue firing rockets from among Gaza civilians, targeting Israeli civilians, and then hiding among its own civilians for protection. Doing so deliberately and cold-bloodedly puts those civilians at harm. Which is illegal. All of which EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell ignores.

And no, as today’s events have proven once and for all, it would appear there are few genuine “civilians” in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The hostages were “hosted” by civilians, in civilian apartments, in civilian sections of civilian towns and cities. They were guarded by civilians. They were fed by civilians.

Josep Borrell’s moral compass is seriously askew

Gaza civilians doing the bidding of the Hamas military are regarded as a paramilitary force. As such, they are a perfectly legitimate military target. Especially when the Israeli mission is not aggression but a humanitarian rescue of illegally abducted civilians.

Josep Borrell’s moral compass is seriously askew. So is the EU’s, if it does not respond to his grossly inhumane comments by removing him from his post immediately and without ceremony.

But this is the EU, so we won’t hold our breath.

Hamas is outraged over the abduction of its kidnap victims…
Hamas, meantime, has responded with predictable outrage over the removal of so many of its valuable “bargaining chips”. Hamas has said that in revenge it is going to immeasurably worsen the living conditions of the remaining captives, because Hamas’s honour has been offended by Jews daring to rescue other Jews from Islamist captivity – the insult to their honour demands retribution.

Curiously, Josep Borrell has absolutely nothing to say about that either.

As a spokesperson for Hamas, Josep Borrell does an admirable job

As a spokesperson for Hamas, Josep Borrell does an admirable job. As a representative of European morals, ethics, principles and rule of law, he is totally out of touch with reality.

Nobody would be one bit surprised if he is not already drafting a resolution condemning the four hostages for leaving without paying for their food and accommodation while with the civilian families in Gaza who offered them eight long months of their kind hospitality.

But yes, there ARE civilians in Gaza
Israel’s daring daylight rescue mission followed more than a month of intelligence-gathering and meticulous planning and training. Crucially, that initial and ongoing intelligence came from within Gaza. There are many civilian Gazans who are keen to see an end to Hamas’s brutal rule. These Gazans may not be best buddies with the Jewish state, and they are by no means traitors or collaborators as Hamas would want us to believe. They are people who want a decent future for their children and themselves. A future without religious oppression, political suppression, gender segregation, crushing, mind-numbingly repressive Islamist practices. THESE are the sources of Israel’s accurate and frequent intelligence.

So yes, there ARE civilians in Gaza. But don’t confuse abductors and enablers in the trade in human flesh with civilians. They are part of a brutal militia engaged in an utterly illegal and amoral activity.

Israel’s mission is to safeguard the true civilians fighting for a civic society in Gaza, from the far more numerous militiamen who don’t wear a uniform but who do the bidding of the Hamas military rulers of Gaza.

It’s a distinction that is utterly uninteresting to Josep Borrell.