In this column last week, I made clear that I stand with Israel. I still do. Despite the hate messages I have had from Muslims in distant countries and despite the flack that I have faced from ‘liberals’ in India. I stand with Israel because I cannot erase the images of the horrors inflicted by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7. I find it particularly hard to erase those images of dead babies. Images of injured Palestinian babies are equally heartbreaking, but I do not believe that they were deliberately targeted as Israeli babies were by sadistic, evil Hamas terrorists.
They say that public memory is short but how very short became clear last week. No sooner did the siege of Gaza begin than Israel transitioned instantly from being victim to villain. When that hospital was bombed, and before it was established by whom, the world seemed to forget in minutes that it was because Jews have faced the worst violence since the Holocaust that Gaza was under siege in the first place. Hamas, like other jihadi terrorist organisations, is skilled at turning truth into lies and lies into truth so the world seems also to have forgotten that Palestinians are victims of Hamas terrorism as much as Israelis are. And that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people or the Palestinian cause.
Personally, I see this as very frightening because if an act of terrorism so wicked and sickening can be forgotten so quickly then the lines between good and evil, right and wrong, have become dangerously blurred. In cities across the Islamic world, we have seen massive protests against Israel by people who never protested against Hamas. In Delhi, last Friday, Muslims congregated in the Jama Masjid to say funeral prayers, in absentia, for the Palestinians who have been killed in the bombing of Gaza. No prayers and no tears for the Jewish women and children brutally killed by Hamas or for the babies they still hold hostage in Gaza.
This newspaper published an interview last Friday with the Palestinian ambassador to India in which he said that Hamas was ready to release some of the hostages but could not do so until the bombing stopped. He said, “I heard from the Hamas spokesman that they will release all the civilians without any conditions… but, because of the war it’s not safe for them to release them just like that…” Has the ambassador not noticed that if the hostages had been released on day one it is possible that there would not have been a siege of Gaza? Israel may have been persuaded that in its determination to eliminate Hamas it did not have to punish women and children.
Here I need to make clear that I believe depriving the people of Gaza of food, water and electricity is inhuman and a war crime. Much as I remain totally on Israel’s side in this horrible conflict, I believe that if by the time you read this a ground war has begun, it would be a terrible mistake. One that would compound the mistake that has already been made by the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. President Biden was right to warn Israel not to make the mistakes that America made after 9/11, even if he supported Israel in pursuing Hamas to the very end.
Sadly, when this happens, there will be a new jihadist gang that will take its place and it will probably have the full support of those who see victimhood only on the Palestinian side. In my view, the worst jihadists of all were those who created the Islamic State and although that awful country no longer exists, the ideology that defined it is still around in almost every Muslim country. It may not have the support of the rulers of these countries, as it does in our neighbourhood, but it is hard to stamp out even in Muslim countries that are considered liberal and moderate. It would be interesting to find out why.
Next week in India we celebrate Dussehra to remind us of the triumph of good over evil and to remind us that this is a battle that has been fought from the beginning of time. There are ‘liberals’ in India who believe that jihadism is no different to Hindutva and that both need to be condemned in equal measure. I believe they are wrong. Hindutva fanatics are an ugly bunch, but they do not have support from ordinary Hindus in the same way that the jihadists seem to have from ordinary Muslims.
Since October 7, I have been horrified to discover that Muslim friends whom I considered moderate, liberal and irreligious have come out in passionate support of the besieged people of Gaza without examining why they are under siege. They have done this without expressing any horror at what Hamas did and without showing the smallest understanding of what Israel has just gone through. Next month, in the last week of November, will come another anniversary of 26/11 and it saddens me to say that when that happened, there were many Muslims (and Hindus) who believed that the attack on Mumbai had been planned and executed by Indian intelligence agencies. After 9/11, I met many Muslims who said that it was the CIA who was responsible. Muslims cannot do such things, they said, Islam is a religion of peace. Really?
