Dear Editor,
On Saturday morning of October 7, more than 1500 Palestinian terrorists swarmed from the Gaza Strip in a killing spree throughout Israeli towns, villages and kibbutzim along the border. While some squads started massacring hundreds of peaceful young people at a rave party festival, dozens of gangs went on their murderous rampage from house to house, slaughtering indiscriminately children, parents, grandparents, torturing, beheading, burning down and looting, kidnapping civilians, sowing devastation and grief in a whole region in only a few hours. These dreadful events are clearly war crimes and crimes against humanity. They evoke for many the tragic pictures of the ISIS eradication of the Yazidis in the Sinjar area of northern Iraq in 2014. ISIS and Hamas share indeed the same radical terrorist ideology, the same despise for human life and the same extremely violent and barbarous means to achieve their goals.
Most of the terrorists invaded Israel on a suicidal mission, and most of them are indeed dead by now. They perpetuated their crimes knowingly, assuming that they would not come back alive, but convinced that the brutal murder of Jews would open them the gates to paradise. Noticeably, the founding Hamas charter emphasizes explicitly its anti-Semitic agenda aimed at the extermination of Jews. What we saw on Saturday was the clear implementation of what Hamas supporters strive for. The terrorists who attacked Israelis on the weekend represent only a small portion of the active members of Hamas, who built up a full-fledged army of terrorists, recruited in their huge majority from within the Gaza population, who has mostly displayed support for the Hamas leadership. Where did these bestial killers originate from? Who are the mothers and fathers who raised these monsters? What is the process enabling the Gaza Strip to produce so much hatred and violence?
Back in 2005, Israel fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip, handing over the keys to the Palestinian Authority. In the elections held in the Palestinian territories in 2006, Gaza citizens voted overwhelmingly for Hamas, thus enabling its violent full takeover of the Gaza strip in 2007. In the past 18 years, the people of Gaza grew and fed the Hamas monster, that in turn channelized all resources to the military effort aimed at destroying Israel, instead of developing the Strip and caring for its welfare and prosperity. The supporters of Hamas in the Gaza Strip do not believe in Democracy and Civil Liberties. Their credo is not dialogue and compromise, but imposing their obscurant way through violence and terror.
Most of Saturday’s terrorists where in their early twenties, having grown up during the past 18 years, in which Hamas governed the Gaza Strip. They received their education in its schools, and social institutions. The terrorists were raised with constant exposure to incessant incitement to murder Jews and Israelis, including the encouragement of terrorism, the glorification of terrorists, and the financial reward of assailants and their families. Pictures from Gaza often show the citizens chanting their joy and distributing candies after attacks against Israelis. Even in the past days, many Gazans showed off rejoicing at the barbaric crimes and participating in the humiliation of captive Jews in the streets of Gaza. At the end of the war, the people of Gaza will have to choose if they want to be Hamas and go on providing the breeding ground for terrorists, or if they stop supporting Hamas and put an end to suffering on both sides. Hamas initiated this war with the backing of the Ayatollah regime in Iran and imposed it upon Israel.
Israel is fully legitimate to react in self-defense and to protect its citizens in face of this barbaric aggression by enemies who openly thrive to annihilate us. We have no other choice but to win this war by fighting the monster and dealing with it in the same uncompromising manner in which the free world fought and vanquished ISIS.
Sincerely,
Ambassador Itai Bardov
Ambassador of Israel to Guyana
