Mideast showdown: Israelis fight to defend a refuge from Jew-hatred – The Militant

Mideast showdown: Israelis fight to defend a refuge from Jew-hatred – The Militant

The Israeli government has released documents its forces captured in Gaza that provide further proof Iran’s capitalist rulers and the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon — despite their denials — were centrally involved in the yearslong preparations for Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, murderous pogrom against Jews in Israel....

[....] Hamas’ goal: Kill the Jews

Improving the life of Gazans has never been part of Hamas’ program. Its founding covenant states that “the Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews).” Hamas’ political continuity goes back to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, in the 1930s and ’40s. Al-Husseini, a close collaborator with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany, helped to set up a Muslim unit of the SS. He asked Nazi officials to prevent Jewish children in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria from going to Palestine, demanding they be deported to Poland, where the Nazis had set up death camps. 

Facts described in a new book by Ha’aretz reporter Lee Yaron, 10/7: 100 Human Stories help to answer those who still harbor illusions that Israel should negotiate with Hamas and its backers to find a “diplomatic” solution. While she says the Israeli government shares responsibility for today’s conflict, the facts she presents are telling. 

Hamas targeted ‘peace activists’

Before Oct. 7, Yaron notes, Kibbutz Be’eri members routinely “volunteered to transport Palestinian patients to Israeli hospitals and annually donated thousands of dollars to families in Gaza.” Many of its residents were “peace activists” and opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Hamas deliberately targeted them. One in 10 residents of Be’eri was murdered or kidnapped Oct. 7. That includes the killing of 74-year-old Vivian Silver, a leader of Women Wage Peace....