Civilization versus Barbarians

Civilization versus Barbarians. By Benjamin Netanyahu, PM of Israel. Netanyahu is a master communicator, and he makes some interesting points when framing the current conflict.

Until recently, many believed that the promise of progress in the 21st century would enable us to move beyond the barbaric horrors of the past toward a brilliant future — that we could go about our comfortable lives and that evil will simply pass us.

It will not. The horrors that Hamas perpetrated on Oct. 7 remind us that we won’t realise the promise of a better future unless we, the civilised world, are willing to fight the barbarians. The barbarians are willing to fight us, and their goal is clear: Shatter that promising future, destroy all that we cherish, and usher in a world of fear and darkness.

This is a turning point for leaders and nations. It is a time for all of us to decide if we are willing to fight for a future of hope and promise or surrender to tyranny and terror. …

Moral clarity:

Victory over these enemies begins with moral clarity. It begins with knowing the difference between good and evil, between right and wrong. It means making a moral distinction between the deliberate murder of the innocent and the unintentional casualties that are the inevitable result of even the most just war.

It means holding Hamas accountable for the double war crime it commits every day by deliberately targeting Israeli civilians and deliberately using Palestinian civilians as human shields. It means not only making clear that the use of human shields is an immoral tactic of war, but making certain it is an ineffective one.

As long as the international community blames Israel for Hamas’s use of Palestinian human shields, Hamas will continue to employ this tool of terror. Hamas will continue to use the basements in Gaza’s hospitals as the command posts of its vast terror tunnel network. It will continue to use mosques as fortified military outposts and weapons depots. It will continue to steal fuel and humanitarian assistance from United Nations facilities.

While Israel is doing everything to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way, Hamas is doing everything to keep Palestinian civilians in harm’s way. Israel urges Palestinian civilians to leave the areas of armed conflict, while Hamas prevents those civilians from leaving those areas at gunpoint. Hamas is preventing foreign nationals from leaving Gaza altogether.

Most despicably, Hamas is holding more than 200 Israeli hostages, including 33 children. Every civilised nation should stand with Israel in demanding that these hostages be freed immediately and unconditionally.

If Gaza wants the international aid they depend on to resume, and the Israeli attack to stop, they should start by handing back the hostages. Instead, we find out today that this hostage is definitely dead — invading Israeli soldiers found a piece of her skull, identified by DNA.

John Hinderaker:

The Foreign Ministry didn’t explain how it knows that Louk was tortured, but it has come out that the Arabs would gang-rape Jewish women, then break their legs, and then kill them. So that scenario is plausible based on what we know.

Shani Louk, RIP

UPDATE: Powerful message at the UN too: