We need to put our own house in order

It is now unequivocally accepted in the western world that Hamas is a terrorist organisation which murdered and raped Israeli women, beheaded many of them in front of their children, set fire to their bodies and then took approximately 1,300 hostages, some as young as nine months old. Over 150 of the hostages still remain in captivity with further gruesome details of their treatment emerging on a daily basis, a fact which is sometimes glossed over by those calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. So let’s not have any spurious denials or attempts to whitewash or minimise the savagery which took place that day.

It is worth remembering that when General Eisenhower, supreme commander of the allied forces during WWII, entered Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany in 1945 to liberate the prisoners of war, he was unprepared for the horrors he witnessed as a result of Nazi brutality. As he rightly foresaw, someday people would deny that these atrocities ever occurred, so he wisely invited journalists and civilians to document the scene to witness it for themselves.

It is important to understand that Hamas is financed and sponsored by Iran, which makes no apology in its desire to see Israel – with its Jewish inhabitants – wiped off the face of the earth. Some media bodies prefer not to fully acknowledge this reality which only encourages more pointless Palestinian marches, fuelling more anti-Jewish feeling and hate crimes throughout Britain. It does absolutely nothing whatsoever to achieve a peaceful settlement in Gaza.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the war in Gaza, no civilised human beings in the western world wish to see innocent civilians killed in the latest Arab/Israel war, but as long as Hamas is effectively using Palestinian civilians as human shields by constructing military tunnels under hospitals and other civilian buildings (but interestingly no bomb shelters), there can never be a peace settlement in the Middle East until Hamas is destroyed. There can be no equivalence in the war on terror. If Hamas genuinely wanted peace for the Palestinian people it purports to represent (there have been no elections since 2006) why didn’t it agree to release all innocent civilians being held hostage so that a permanent ceasefire could be negotiated? I suggest that this is the last thing that Hamas and Iran would wish for. They support terrorism. They do not support the wellbeing of their civilian population. Please think very carefully before marching for something which will ultimately only play into the hands of the terrorist organisations by stirring up hatred and fear within our peaceful island community. We must not be coerced into inadvertently fuelling any form of anti-Semitism. We must not play into the hands of Hamas and Tehran by becoming their useful idiots.

Ultimately we must all ask ourselves a very honest and straightforward question. What effect can supporting Guernsey for Gaza actually have on the outcome of the war in the Middle East? I would respectfully suggest that other than potentially stoking up fear, hatred and anti-Semitism on our streets, it could prove counter-productive as we have witnessed in towns and cities across the UK. I can see absolutely no purpose whatsoever in promoting future marches in Guernsey. All that will be achieved, other than clearing the High Street of badly needed shoppers and frightening residents off the streets, is to provide some States members with a platform whereby they can indulge in virtue-signalling and showboat their support for a ceasefire. A noble but empty gesture which will only deflect them further from the job which they are paid to do. Their time would be better spent sorting out the mess which they are now in, which has resulted in the indefinite postponement of building new schools for our children as opposed to trying to make political gain out of the tragic war in Gaza.

We need to put our own house in order before indulging in sanctimonious preaching to other countries.

P A and A Lewis

St Peter Port