By the time I sat down to write this week’s column the process of moral equivocation had begun. Instead of Israel being seen as the victim of a wicked, barbaric terrorist attack by a wicked barbaric terrorist group, people were beginning to talk about the hapless, terrified civilians in Gaza. References to Gaza being the world’s largest open-air prison were made and images of women and children wandering the streets with their belongings in their hands showed up on our TV screens.
Human rights activists who said nothing as Muslim groups in western cities and university campuses celebrated what Hamas did suddenly popped up to weep for the women and children of Gaza. What is happening to them is tragic but is it really Israel’s fault or the fault of Hamas? In my book when it comes to jihadi terrorism everything is black and white. Shades of grey disappear the moment I see yet another act of barbarism by men shouting ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ as they behead babies, rape women, and murder anyone they believe has insulted the Prophet.
It is because India has suffered these jihadi terrorist attacks too many times that ordinary Indians fully support Israel. In the more than thirty years this column has existed I have never seen a story about a foreign country become the only subject that the Indian media has discussed for more than a week. I must add that I am happy that this time so far, we have not seen angry Muslim mobs descend on the streets of our cities to condemn Israel and all Jews. Hopefully this is because they know that jihadi terrorists have defiled Islam more effectively than anyone else has. Or maybe our Muslim communities find it difficult to forget the Islamic State and its sickening violence even when it no longer exists as a country. And now jihadi terrorists rule Afghanistan and forbid women the right to education, jobs, and normal lives.
Savagery of the kind Hamas unleashed in Israel is something we have seen on a smaller scale in Mumbai. As someone who lives in this city, believe me when I say that memories remain fresh still of that awful last week of November 2008, when ordinary people in hotels, restaurants, railway stations, hospitals and Jewish centres were attacked by jihadi terrorists. Like the Hamas killers who came to Israel, they also shouted that Allah was great as they mowed down innocent people with their machine guns.
They came from the Islamist republic next door and to this day I wish that the Congress government of Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had done more to punish Pakistan’s military rulers for what they did. There was enough proof that they were responsible. Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-services Intelligence) shares the same evil ideology as Hamas and ISIS. And, into this group must be added the Ayotollahs of Iran, the highest of whom said after the attack on Israel that he ‘kissed the hands’ of the Hamas men who did this.
Having said this I would like to say that I am sensitive to the pain and suffering that the Palestinian people have endured for far too long. But, with a caveat. If they continue to support leaders who believe that the only solution is for Israel to be erased from the face of the planet, then there can be no solution. Israel exists and however unfair its creation was in Palestinian eyes, it is also true that Jews lived on these lands long before Islam. After the whole horror of the Holocaust was revealed the very least that the world could do was assist the birth of Israel.
India’s leaders chose not to at the time and nearly every Congress prime minister has supported the Palestine cause so totally that Yasser Arafat was often an honoured state guest in Delhi. This is why those who lead the Congress Party today took more than twenty-four hours to condemn Hamas for its savage, sadistic attack. And when they did, it was with a reference to Palestine as a counterweight. Narendra Modi deserves praise for openly condemning Hamas within hours of its barbarism coming to light. Sadly, when the Ministry of External Affairs spoke its statement sounded much like what Congress said. Old habits die hard and old bureaucrats leave legacies that never die.
I shall end by saying that if civilians in Gaza are killed in the war that Israel hopes will finish Hamas once and for all, it will be Hamas that is to blame. If it returns the Israeli hostages that it has taken to use as human shields, there is some hope for peace. It is in their hands to do this, and it is in their hands to stop putting the lives of Palestinian civilians in danger. If there is to ever be lasting peace, a few other things need to happen. Palestinians need to accept that they have been betrayed time and time again by their own leaders. And Palestinian school children must stop being fed a relentless diet of hatred and violence.
Sympathisers of Israel are warning it not to act in retribution. But if Hamas is not punished for what it did there is every chance there will be more terrorism in Allah’s name, more support for this from countries like Iran. Does Israel have a choice but to fight for its right to exist?