What happened to ‘Never Again’?

For Jews everywhere, there was an eery familiarity about the terrible violence unleashed on Israel during Saturday’s attack by Hamas. This was no simple act of terrorism. It was a pogrom.

Pogroms were violent attacks against Jews living in the Russian empire in the 19th and early 20th century. They, much like the atrocity this weekend, included homes being torched, the abuse and execution of civilians and the rape of women. In the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, close to the Gaza border and scene of the most depraved Hamas violence, no-one was spared, whether they were female, young or old. All suffered the same fate. All were targeted for being Jewish.

Hamas’s pogroms included bodies being set alight and the casual, sadistic murder of children. This is reminiscent of Isis, or the Nazis. Decades of dehumanising not only Israelis, but Jews in general, opened the door for Hamas’s savage indiscriminate violence. Similar to the Nazis, Hamas has been comparing Jews to animals and vermin, something to be exterminated. This attitude explains the bloodthirsty disregard for Jewish lives we saw when Hamas fighters crossed the border into Israel.

Terrorism has political aims. However, Hamas – as is made clear in its founding principles – has never advocated for a political, peaceful solution with Israel. Their ideology is deeply rooted in antisemitism. They have, for years, been using age old antisemitic tropes, including claims that Jews control and manipulate the West, the media and international financial institutions. Most crucially, they believe that Jews have waged a war on Islam. They do not distinguish between Israelis and Jews living outside of Israel, nor between Zionism and Judaism. To them, ‘the Jew’ is an enemy that must be extinguished.

Article 15 of the organisation’s charter declares a Jihad, or a war against the enemies of Islam, against Jews. The charter argues that ‘the Palestinian cause is a religious cause.’

Article 4 of the chapter reads:

‘[Hamas] looks forward to fulfill the promise of Allah […] because the Prophet of Allah (saas) says: The Last Hour would not come until the Muslims fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them, and until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say. Muslim or Servant of Allah there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree of Gharqad would not say it, for it is the tree of the Jew.’

Hamas has been waging a war of religion against Jews, and it is time we recognise it as such.

Iran, Hamas’s closest ally, is believed to be the mastermind behind the recent attack. For years, they have provided training, funding and other forms of support to Hamas.

Iran’s belligerent policy towards Israel goes far beyond politics. Its leadership holds deeply antisemitic views. These come across in speeches, textbooks in schools, and in planning or supporting terror attacks against Jewish targets globally. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; Iran’s international arm that reports directly to the supreme leader) has targeted Jews everywhere.

Both Iran and Hamas have never hidden the fact that their ultimate goal is the eradication of Israel because of their hatred of Jews. Finding a peaceful solution for Palestinians has never been their desired outcome.

The terrible tragedy unleashed on Israel must serve as a wake-up call. The world, and indeed Israel too, need to change how they view this conflict. It is, of course, legitimate of the Palestinians to seek independence and establish a nation. Yet it is unfortunate that the organisations fighting on their behalf are waging a religious war rather than working towards a realistic and peaceful political cause.

After the Holocaust, the civilised world made a vow to Jews. ‘Never Again.’ But, 80 years on, it has happened again – this time in the Jewish state itself.

Israel must recognise that the conflict it is fighting is greater than a regional conflict. A war of religion, as history shows, can last centuries. A Treaty of Westphalia-type solution will only be possible when Palestinian leaders forgo the goal of annihilating Judaism and adopt a pragmatic approach of co-existence with Jews and a Jewish State. Hamas will never adopt this position. For Israel, this means that Hamas should exist no more. The problem is that, currently, no such viable Palestinian leadership exists that can take over and hold a more moderate approach.

Former Israeli PM Golda Meir famously said that ‘if the Palestinians lay down their weapons, there will be peace. If the Israelis lay down their weapons, there will be a massacre.’ How right she was.