Mick Hartley

Jake Wallis Simons in the Spectator:

For some years, there has been speculation in security circles about what will replace Islamic State. The terror group was smashed by an American-led coalition five or so years ago – a campaign that incurred, by the way, a heavy civilian death toll but provoked no protests in the west. Although it remains active in Africa and the Middle East, it is no longer the threat that it was. Its absence left a vacuum. The question was what would fill it.

Now we may have the answer. Welcome to the era of Hamas International, a period which is likely only beginning. Yesterday, it was revealed that a plot by the terror group to kill Jews in Europe was foiled by German and Danish police, with Denmark’s prime minister saying it was ‘as serious as it gets’. Hamas, it seems, is going global….

Given the worldwide brand recognition that 7 October bestowed upon Hamas, this is hardly a surprise. Where once impressionable and disaffected young Muslims in the west became enchanted by the black banner of Isis, these days they are in danger of turning gooey over Hamas’s green flag. Both groups offer the same thing: the glamour of televised ultra-violence and social media savvy, combined with resistance against the decadent west and the allure of the eternal underdog. Jihadi John meets Che Guevara, if you will. Bin Laden meets James Dean. Heady stuff….

That charisma raises the spectre of an even more elusive threat: the lone wolf. It is easy, if deeply chilling, to envision a disenfranchised young man watching the endless BBC footage of death and destruction in Gaza – presented, of course, with lashings of sympathy, hatred for Israel and little criticism of Hamas – and reaching for a kitchen knife. We suffered such attacks at Fishmongers’ Hall and London Bridge, under the aegis of the Saudi terror group Al-Muhajiroun and Islamic State. I myself reported on those atrocities and the others across Europe, from the Bataclan onwards. They are extremely hard to stop. 

The possibility of a loosely-affiliated or entirely independent cell being inspired by Hamas and radicalised into action is a real one. On Tuesday, Matt Jukes, the head of Britain’s counter-terror operations, said there was a ‘real risk’ of a low-tech, freelance attack against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. Police analysts were seeing ‘red lights blinking everywhere’, he said….

I can’t believe I’m about to write this. But these are the times we live in, and one can’t shy away from the truth. Islamic State was viewed with widespread revulsion across the country. The Britain of 2023, by contrast, is flowing with degrees of sympathy for the same glamorous, misunderstood Hamas jihadis that are quietly demanding our heads. It is sheer idiocy. We are becoming the midwives of our own destruction.

Everyone outside the Islamist fringe viewed ISIS with horror. The same, alas, cannot be said for Hamas – lauded as freedom fighters by much of the hard left. ISIS were targeting other Muslims, and the Yazidi: Hamas, for the moment, are targeting Jews. That makes them much more palatable…