Israel-Hamas

I have been criticised previously for being slow to comment on natural disasters and acts of wanton criminality, both in Crawley and further afield. Sometimes this delay has been due to the fact that while the police were still dealing with a local incident it was important not to say anything which might interfere with their work, but beyond that the comments made by minor public figures have often felt garish acts of self-importance to me at a time when people were still trying to process deeply traumatic events.

However, as there are cynical people who for party-political gain are now trying to contort silence on the horrific events in Israel into a suggestion that it indicates support for the actions of Hamas, I want to be clear on where I stand.

There can be no justification of any kind for the actions of Hamas, they are a terrorist organisation whose existence does nothing to support or further the cause of the Palestinian people and the murder and abduction of hundreds of Israeli citizens will only bring untold new miseries upon all those living in the region.

This attack was about Hamas and only Hamas. The loss of support the terrorist organisation has suffered within the Gaza Strip over recent years posed a risk to the power of its leadership and in triggering new air strikes and causing yet more suffering for Palestinians they hope to radicalise a new generation so they may gorge themselves upon the blood loss of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

All the peoples of the region deserve a future in which they can be free from the fear of violence, where they can live securely in a homeland of their own, and where as individuals and as a society they have the chance to grow and prosper. Like many, I have long-hoped that this may be realised through a two-state solution. This is a hope which has been hard to hold onto as Israeli Governments have become increasingly right-wing over recent years and yet I fear that it the actions of Hamas which may now have finally buried any chance of the peaceful solution the peoples of the Levant desperately need and deserve.