I write these strains from Jerusalem, after spending time with the households of a few of the 240 individuals kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. The hostages now held in Gaza embrace Jewish Israelis, Muslim Israelis and overseas residents of various ethnicities.
In all my years of public life, the conferences with these households had been essentially the most troublesome and fraught I’ve ever held. I’ve additionally spoken with households of a few of the greater than 1,400 of my individuals who had been killed that day, lots of them murdered of their dwelling rooms and kitchens or dancing at a music pageant. Once I returned from one kibbutz devastated within the assault, I needed to wash the blood off my footwear.
Tragedy is a part of Israeli life, and I knew it might be a part of my time as president. However none of us imagined a tragedy like this.
Towards our will, we in Israel discover ourselves at a tipping level for the Center East and for the world and on the middle of what’s nothing lower than an existential battle. This isn’t a battle between Jews and Muslims. And it’s not simply between Israel and Hamas. It’s between those that adhere to norms of humanity and people training a barbarism that has no place within the fashionable world.
Identical to ISIS and Al Qaeda, the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israeli houses and households had no qualms about burning infants. They tortured kids, raped ladies and destroyed peace-loving communities. They had been so pleased with their deeds that they made positive to seize them on video and even broadcast them dwell. These movies will perpetually stay a stain on these Palestinians and their supporters who celebrated that day and a testomony to the depravity of the terrorists and of the concepts that impressed them.
However virtually as disturbing for me is the conclusion that many on this planet, together with within the West, are prepared to rationalize these actions and even assist them outright. Within the capitals of Europe we’ve seen rallies supporting the overall destruction of Israel “from the river to the ocean.” Professors and college students at American schools make speeches and signal statements justifying terrorism, even glorifying it.
We’ve heard sure governments fail to denounce Hamas, as a substitute condemning Israel’s response and even in search of to supply justification for Hamas’s atrocities. It could have been unthinkable to listen to such ethical confusion uttered after the Sept. 11 assaults or after bombings in London, Barcelona and Baghdad. Once I spoke to a joint assembly of Congress this yr, I stated terrorism “contradicts humanity’s most elementary rules of peace.” It seems that not everybody agrees.
All of this reveals that this collision of values is going on not simply right here in Israel however all over the place and that the terrorist ideology threatens all first rate individuals, not solely Jews. Historical past has taught us that foul ideologies usually discover the Jewish individuals first — however have a tendency to not cease there. We discover ourselves on the entrance strains of this battle, however all nations face this risk, they usually should perceive that they could possibly be subsequent.
Since Hamas compelled this struggle on us, our army has been appearing to completely get rid of this insufferable risk and to allow the return of our hostages. This implies preventing within the battlefield that Hamas has created in Gaza over a few years — one during which terrorists cover behind and inside the civilian inhabitants. It is a battlefield with terrorist tunnels beneath civilian streets, one during which civilian casualties will not be prevented in any respect prices however slightly inspired by Hamas with a purpose to draw world sympathy and blunt Israel’s response. Not solely does Hamas retailer rockets beneath colleges and houses; our intelligence and the confessions of captured terrorists present that the Hamas command middle is hidden beneath Gaza’s central hospital.
The results of these sickening techniques is the civilian struggling we’re all watching unfold. Many stories of the humanitarian difficulties in elements of Gaza are unverifiable, however there’s actual struggling, and it considerations us, too. These are our neighbors, and our full withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 was meant to provide them free lives and open the door for peace. To our dismay, Hamas and its many Palestinian supporters selected in any other case.
Whilst Hamas fires tons of of rockets at our cities and as our troopers fall in battle, we’re making an effort to provide early warning to civilians with leaflets and telephone calls, to maneuver them out of the primary battle zones and to allow humanitarian assist via Gaza’s border with Egypt. Lots of of assist vans at the moment are arriving, with extra anticipated every day.
However anybody who thinks the cynical exploitation of civilian struggling will tie our arms and save Hamas this time is unsuitable. For us and for the Palestinians, the struggling will finish solely with the elimination of Hamas. Anybody attempting to tie our arms is, deliberately or not, undermining not solely Israel’s protection but in addition any hope for a world the place these atrocities can’t occur.
Within the months and years earlier than the Hamas bloodbath, we started to see indicators of the emergence of a greater Center East, from the Persian Gulf to North Africa — one impressed by progress and partnership, one during which Israel might lastly really feel at house amongst our neighbors. Will this be the world that emerges from this disaster? Or will or not it’s the world desired by the murderous fundamentalists of Hamas?
These questions can be key among the many strategic points on the agenda in our discussions with Secretary of State Antony Blinken throughout his go to to the area starting Friday — as they had been in the course of the go to to Israel of President Biden a couple of weeks in the past.
A lot is at stake at this second, not simply the way forward for Israel. On Oct. 7 we had been all jolted awake and offered with a stunning problem to our hopes and morals. How we meet this problem will form our future.
Isaac Herzog is the president of Israel.
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