The Cowardice of ‘But’: How Moral Abdication Enables Terror

The images presented in Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again are nothing short of apocalyptic—a brutal testament to the devastation wrought by terror. The ruins of cities, the hollowed eyes of those left behind, the sheer desolation inflicted upon civilian life—all of it laid bare for anyone with the courage to look. And yet, astonishingly, there are still those who find it within themselves to summon that most cowardly of words: but. With this word, they seek to equivocate, to hedge, to avoid the moral clarity that this situation demands.

It is here that they betray not just their intellectual dishonesty, but their own humanity. For what, after all, is the function of ‘but’ in this context, if not to throw a cloak of legitimacy over the indefensible? Those who wield such words offer cover to terror, hiding behind the language of “nuance” as though there is something complex or justified in the indiscriminate slaughter of innocents. They stand not on the side of righteousness but on the precipice of moral collapse, for they cannot summon the courage to speak the truth. And in doing so, they betray the very essence of what it means to live in a civilised society.

This is not simply intellectual cowardice—it is a wilful abdication of responsibility. Democracy, for all its flaws, rests upon the foundation of human dignity, upon the belief that all lives matter. To sit in the comfort of one’s Western home, throwing around words like ‘but’ as though it constitutes a sophisticated position, is nothing less than a betrayal of that foundation. These are the people who would have stood in the ashes of past atrocities and found a way to rationalise them. Their fear of being seen as politically incorrect outweighs their moral duty to defend the sanctity of life.

The documentary does more than recount a single day of horror—it holds a mirror up to the face of terror itself. Hamas, an organisation that glorifies death, has traded in the currency of fear and violence for decades. It seeks not only to extinguish the lives of Israelis but to crush the spirit of anyone who dares to live free. Yet, in the same breath that they denounce violence, these apologists for terror use their but to carve out an exemption for Hamas, wrapping their arguments in the sanctimonious language of “resistance” while excusing acts of barbarism.

This is the inversion of values that has become all too familiar in the modern world. We live in a time when the oppressor is often lionised and the victim vilified. When those who commit the most heinous acts are shielded by those who claim to be defenders of justice. This moral relativism, this cowardice masquerading as complexity, condemns not only the present but the future. We are actively choosing to abandon future generations to suffer the consequences of our apathy, to live in a world where terror is rationalised and freedom becomes a negotiable commodity.

If we are to speak of the Palestinian people, let us speak truthfully. They deserve better than Hamas. They deserve more than being used as pawns in a cynical game played by those who glorify death while crushing the hope of their own people. The Palestinian cause is not served by those who defend Hamas; it is betrayed by them. Hamas has done more to undermine the future of Palestine than any external force, and those who defend it are collaborators in that betrayal.

The road to peace does not run through the iron gates of Hamas’s tyranny. Those who claim to support the Palestinian cause while defending Hamas are nothing more than enablers of oppression. Their rhetoric, cloaked in the language of human rights, is hollow. They are not champions of freedom but cowards who cannot face the reality of what Hamas truly is—a death cult masquerading as a political movement.

Peace will never come while Hamas rules Gaza with iron and fire. Those who cannot bring themselves to say this aloud, who still grasp for excuses and qualifications, are as much a part of the problem as Hamas itself. Their but is an act of moral abdication, a retreat into the safety of false equivalence, and it is a crime against truth.

Let us be clear: peace, for both Israelis and Palestinians, will only come when Hamas is no longer able to wield power. Until then, the arguments of those who defend it are nothing more than sanctimonious lies. They are the handmaidens of terror, whether they admit it or not. They will say “but” as the rockets fall, as children are buried beneath the rubble, as the cycle of violence continues—too afraid to confront the truth because it might demand something of them.

This is the fight we face. Not merely against Hamas, but against the cowardice of those who would excuse it. Against the intellectual dishonesty of those who claim moral superiority while standing on the corpses of the innocent. Against the inversion of values that has allowed terror to be rationalised as resistance.

The time for but is over. We must reject the tyranny of hatred and violence, and stand firm in the belief that despite the darkness, we will rise, we will live, and yes—we will dance again. This is not just a battle for Israel; it is a battle for anyone who values freedom, dignity, and the sanctity of life. If we fail to confront it now, we will abandon the future to the forces of terror. And history will not forgive us for it.