Mick Hartley

Yasmine Mohammed, author of Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam and co-founder and co-director of the CLARITy Coalition, writes today in the Jewish Chronicle

Hamas likes to act as if it is a product of the Palestinian people, the Gazan resistance (against a government that has not occupied their land in almost 20 years). However, it is nothing but another terrorist organisation draped in a different flag. It stands alongside Islamic State in its ethos and actions. Raheel Raza, from an organisation called Council for Muslims Against Antisemitism, has this to say about the group: “Hamas, as an evil terrorist entity, has no regard for human life whether it be Palestinian or Israeli, not sparing the elderly, women, children and innocent civilians. Their first PR act was to change the narrative from Hamas v Israel to the Palestinians v Israel and now, in order to get support from other terrorist organisations like the Taliban and Hezbollah while further confusing the Muslims, they are fast and furiously turning this into a religious war, ie Muslims v Jews.”…

As another member, Helayne Kushner, puts it: “The ideology that has killed and entrapped our Middle Eastern, North African and south-west Asian brothers and sisters has infiltrated our own Western shores and is vying desperately for the obedience and hearts of the common man.

“This is not just a Jewish problem that can be solved by eliminating Israel and my people.”

Helayne is absolutely correct, of course. As usual, Jews are the canaries in the coal mine. Islamists and Islamic terrorists are raping and slaughtering Jewish people today, but their thirst for blood will not end there. Top Hamas official Sheikh Ahmad Bahar has made this clear in one of his sermons that he delivered in a mosque: “Oh, Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters, the Americans and their supporters. Oh, Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one.” That includes you.

Clearly, their cult of death sees the world as us vs them. They have that division correct. It is us, those who value freedom and humanity, vs them, those who value violence and death. They play a lot of duplicitous games and speak with a forked tongue to obfuscate and confuse the masses. But the sight of a young woman grotesquely sprawled on the back of a truck while vile men spit on her should bring everything into sharp focus. We all need to recognise our common enemy, come together, and push back against it once and for all.

The Hamas pogrom has been called Israel's 9/11, and once again we find ourselves face-to-face with radical Islam.

Interestingly, in David Patrikarakos's article yesterday on the IDF presentation of the Hamas atrocity footage, he notes how the presenters stressed that "it’s nothing to do with Islam". Surrounded by Muslim countries, and keen to keep possible allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE onside, the Israelis have little choice but to say this. They're not about to play into their enemies' hands by calling this a Jew vs. Muslim war. Those of us outside Israel needn't be so constrained. No, it's not Islam, but it is radical Islam. How do they differ? We've been round this block so many times in the wake of 9/11, and here we are again. Whatever it is, we see it now in Hamas, and we see it in Tehran – and we see it on the streets of London in the form of groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir.