In 2017 I stood with United Nations observers in Northern Israel as they recorded details of explosions that we could hear and see across the border, even without binoculars.
The Syrian war had, at that time, claimed nearly half a million lives, had displaced millions, leaving them as part of the “forgotten millions.” Since then, over 100,000 more people have been killed and there are now 13,000,000 refugees (about half internally displaced and half having fled the country).
Watching plumes of smoke rise as gunfire echoed, our guide – a retired Israeli army major – explained that these were clashes between Syrian government forces and rebels, with ISIL battling for control just over the horizon. These distant explosions made the conflict more real, shattering the abstraction of war’s grim statistics. I was fortunate not to have witnessed the violence any closer.
Yet, war is not confined to Syria. Currently at least 39 countries – one fifth of all the member states of the UN – are embroiled in violent conflict. The Russia-Ukraine war has displaced 12,000,000 Ukranians and killed more than 200,000 people. In Sudan, more than 8,600,000 people have fled their homes and 17,700,000 face acute hunger. And the ongoing conflict between Iranian-backed terror groups – principally Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis – and Israel continues to claim lives and leave scores of thousands displaced.
Of all the ongoing conflicts, the war between Israel and Hamas has garnered the most media and political attention. The world watched in horror on October 7, 2023, when over 4,000 Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s security fence from Gaza during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. Their rampage resulted in the murder of over 1,200 civilians, the rape and torture of innocents, and the kidnapping of 251 hostages. Children and the elderly were among those taken. The sheer brutality of these acts was unimaginable, yet disturbingly, not everyone condemned them.
The actions of Israel in response to 07 Oct and thousands of ongoing rocket attacks dominate news headlines. The images of destruction in Gaza have been compared to what was broadcast in the aftermath of the fight to reclaim Mosul from ISIL. But unlike ISIL, which had only a few years to entrench itself, Hamas has spent 17 years building a vast network of tunnels and terror cells with Iranian backing. Western nations faced no widespread condemnation for their efforts to eradicate ISIL, yet Israel’s fight for survival has been met with protests and calls for its defeat.
The global response to Israel’s battle for survival has been uneven. While Hamas deliberately targets civilians, Israel’s actions are aimed at defending its citizens and rooting out terrorism. Why else would they put soldiers in harm’s way, call off strikes, or warn about impending operations, for example?
It is deeply troubling (and telling) that some of these protests began even before Israel launched its military campaign to rescue hostages and dismantle Hamas’s terror infrastructure. In some parts of the world, including New Zealand, protests against Israel have turned into open displays of support for Hamas, framing these atrocities as “resistance”. Chants for “intifada” (violence) have been heard across the motu, and none of the anti-Israel protests demand freedom for the hostages languishing in Hamas terror dungeons.
There has even been a shocking increase in attacks on Jews outside the protests. Posters of kidnapped Israelis have been torn down (an act that would be abhorrent if it were a missing pet poster), there have been assaults and threats and organised campaigns have been launched to exclude Jews from public life. These actions are a soft form of the genocidal intent of Hamas and harken back to darker periods of history when Jews were similarly ostracised.
This is not a war between two equal sides. It is a struggle between a democratic state fighting for its survival and a terrorist organisation recognized globally for its brutality. Critics of Israel’s military actions offer little in the way of alternative solutions: if there is a better way to protect Israel from terror, one would expect it to have been proposed to the Israeli Defense Forces or military experts like General Sir John McColl; Andrew Fox, or John Spencer.
Governments around the world, and people of good conscience, must stand unequivocally with Israel. The international community needs to prioritise the release of hostages held by Hamas and reject biassed resolutions at the UN that unfairly target Israel. In New Zealand, there also remains a loophole that allows for the material support of groups like Hezbollah, which should be closed immediately by designating such groups as terrorist organisations.
October 7 was a brutal reminder of the threats posed by Islamist extremism. From Paris to London, and from Israel to New Zealand, this ideology represents a growing danger to the civilised world. The global community must confront this threat now, or risk facing it again with even greater consequences in the future. It is time to stand with Israel and defend the values that all free nations cherish.
