(Spectator-UK) Qanta Ahmed - By painting itself as a plucky victim, Hamas is trying to convince the Arab world - and Muslims in the West, like me - that we should be on its side. But the reality is that the terror group's ever escalating appetite for conflict does nothing to serve the Palestinian cause. Hamas has evolved into a much more formidable and aggressive force. The enormous numbers and range of Hamas' missiles confirm this. Funding from Iran has allowed Hamas' structure and ranks to start resembling the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' combat units. It is time for the Arab world to stand in defense of human values by repudiating Hamas' shameful use of Palestinian people as human shields. The moment Hamas, hiding in its tunnels, elected to bombard a civilian population in a sovereign state, they abandoned any semblance of ethics, any remnant of Geneva conventions, and any right to decry Israel's actions. Hamas violates all of Islam's codes of just war which expressly forbid the targeting of unarmed civilians, women, children, the elderly and the disabled. If the conflict is ever to end, Hamas must not only be muzzled, but fully defanged. Israel deserves support from the Arab world in its legitimate efforts to safeguard all peoples in its sovereign territory. It is time the Arab world demanded the disarmament and neutering of Hamas. The writer, a British-American physician, is Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Health.
2021-05-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive