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Israel's War Is Just, Hamas Must Be Eliminated
(National Post-Canada) Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper - The systemic nature of the killing in Israel on Oct. 7 and the evident glee with which it was being undertaken by its participants betrayed something darker. These were acts of extermination - the killing of those who, in the killers' eyes, were less than human. It was the urge to commit genocide at its most evil. Nor can this be regarded as some isolated episode of anti-Israeli violence. It was the consequence of decades of institutionalized antisemitic indoctrination of a population - to the point where such murderous acts become regarded as necessary and praiseworthy. Israel's war objective - the elimination of Gaza's Hamas regime - is essential. Leaving the job unfinished, with Hamas tolerated and its actions contained, has been tried, and it has failed. The Israeli people cannot be reasonably asked to return to the pre-war status quo. I say to Israel's friends, stop asking it to stop short of victory. Instead, bring pressure to bear on Hamas, directly and through its allies and partners, to force its capitulation. Yes, we helped Germany to re-build after the Second World War. But we also insisted it de-construct the ideologies that led to its aggression. And we demanded it fully embrace the ethics of peaceful coexistence. By that standard alone, suggestions that a victorious Israeli army should simply walk out of Gaza and assume some harmonious "two-state solution" will emerge out of thin air is beyond foolish. A two-state solution will not magically take root now for the same reason it has not happened since 1947 - it is rejected by way too many Palestinians. The core problem is not Israel. Generations of Palestinians have been inculcated to reject the right of a Jewish state to exist on any piece of the land of the former Mandate for Palestine. We must stop pretending that a two-state solution can be pursued in the face of the continued propagation of such a view.