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"All of Israeli Society Understands that There Can Be No Compromise with Hamas"
(Wall Street Journal) Natan Sharansky interviewed by Tunku Varadarajan - Israeli politician and human-rights advocate Natan Sharansky, who spent nine years in Soviet prisons, served as a cabinet minister in every Israeli government from 1996 to 2005. He said Hamas' atrocities eclipse "even the worst Russian pogroms" of the 19th century. This was also "the first pogrom in history which was all on the Internet....Even the Nazis tried to hide their killing from the world. Here they tried to show to all the world what they were doing to these Jews." They believed it would "win sympathy and support" from the Islamic world - including Muslim populations in Europe - and "understanding" from parts of the West. Sharansky finds the reaction on American campuses "mind-boggling." "A pogrom occurs, and the first reaction is that Israel is to be blamed. They see the most barbaric pogrom since the Holocaust as the beginning of Palestinian liberation." Intellectuals, academics and college leaders "refuse to call the most primitive act of anti-Semitism by its name," and instead dignify the Hamas murders as a form of "anticolonial" struggle. "Palestinian people are oppressed by the ruthless dictators and terrorists who rule over them. And the free world...are accomplices." "I'm not against compromises with the Palestinians. I've said I'm for a two-state solution from the moment I came to Israel. I want Palestinians to have the same rights as me, but they should never have an opportunity to destroy me." The Oslo Agreement - the peace accord Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed in 1993 - handed control to Yasser Arafat, "a ruthless dictator." "We told them, 'Like it or not, he will be your leader.'...We gave Arafat the power to destroy all the beginnings of freedom of the Palestinian people and helped build a generation of haters." It's "absolutely ridiculous" that a "fifth generation" of Palestinians lives in refugee camps, but "their leaders are to blame. And the free world, that gives money to these leaders - a lot of money." After the atrocities of Oct. 7, "all of Israeli society understands that there can be no compromise with Hamas - or we will survive or they will survive."