Ambassador's Oren Anolik article, published in Phleleleftheros

Below is the English version of Ambassador's Oren Anolik article, published in Phleleleftheros Newspaper on 29/10/2023.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱𝘀: 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴, 𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘭, 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘣𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘖𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳 7𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦.

The people of Israel were confronted with an unimaginable carnage on 7/10. Hamas terrorists, with no regard to fundamental human values, slaughtered babies in their beds, murdered elderly, ravaged youngsters at a rave music festival. Whole families were erased, burned in their houses, decapitated. Women were raped brutally, children were dragged to Gaza, to be held as hostages. The terrorists even filmed these crimes and posted them online — this is how many families found out what happened to their loved ones. The horror is beyond words.

Hamas practices a 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵. Hamas terrorists want to kill others and can't wait to die themselves. They embraced the opportunity to become martyrs. When Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel on October 7th, they knew what would follow. They knew that Israel will be forced to defend its citizens and that people in Gaza will pay a price, on their account. Not only they didn’t care about Israel’s (rightful) response, they were looking forward to it. They knew very well that their own families and relatives will be put in harm’s way. Hamas does not care; not for the Palestinian civilians, nor for its own operatives. This is precisely a Culture of Death. And this is exactly the battle we are waging: it’s the civilized world fighting for life and prosperity against those who glorify fear and death.

People die in the war waged in Gaza. Most of them are very bad and dangerous people. Terrorists. People that chose the path of the culture of death. No one should pity them. Unfortunately, some of the people that die in Gaza are civilians. This is unfortunate and regrettable. But this is not deliberate. Unlike Hamas, who targets Israeli civilians on a daily basis, by indiscriminately firing rockets, Israel does not have a policy of targeting civilians. On the contrary, Israel is committed to the laws of war and to the international humanitarian law. It’s policy is to mitigate the number of civilian casualties. This is why the people of Gaza are called upon by the IDF to move to the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Hamas, on the other hand, is trying to prevent, also by force, these people from going south. They are more valuable to him as human shields. If these civilians get hurt, they become an asset for Hamas in the media war.

Too many people prefer to frame the massacre happened in Israel on 7/10 only within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They portray the war with Hamas and other terrorist groups, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as a political dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. But this massacre, this inconceivable bloodshed has nothing to do with finding a solution to a political problem. This is an attack by the barbarians on humanity. This is the moral choice the world is facing. All those who support peace between Israelis and Palestinians should support Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas. There is no peace with Hamas. There is no life with Hamas. Neither for Israelis nor for Palestinians.

There is simply no moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas; Israel is a free and democratic sovereign state that does everything it can to protect its own citizens and minimize collateral damage among the Palestinian population. Hamas deliberately puts Palestinian civilians in danger, actively seeks out Israeli civilians to murder or abduct and deliberately fires rockets on residential areas to cause as much fatalities as possible.

One does not have to choose sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to support Israel’s fight to eradicate this veil death cult. There is no negotiation with the barbarians and no compromising with them. The terrorists in Gaza are now faced with two options: either to surrender or to die. Only after this goal is achieved, a space can be created to speak again of co-existence and to look for political solutions.

Israel ought to and will protect its citizens against Hamas barbarity. Just like ISIS or the Nazi regime, Hamas cannot continue to rule Gaza. Its military and administrative capabilities have to be eradicated. This is crucial not only for Israel, but for the Palestinians as well. The defeat of Hamas will immediately make millions of innocent people more safe and secure. 

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 

𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵.