Opinion: Media watchdog takes challenge with name for "diplomatic answer"

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Courtney Walcott’s Nov. 8 column in The Calgary Herald entitled: “Add your voice to the requires a ceasefire within the Mideast,” is a crash course in how even (presumably) good intentions can result in harmful conclusions.

Walcott, who serves as a metropolis councillor in Calgary’s Ward 8, framed the present conflict between Hamas and Israel as a two-sided battle with two seemingly comparable events, writing that “Simply as we should name out acts of violent terror that focus on civilians, so, too, should we name out the outrageous ravenous and bombing of civilians.”

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This comparability will not be solely rife with falsehoods, it is usually a shocking false equivalence between Hamas, a genocidal Islamic terrorist group that seeks the destruction of Israel and to switch it with an Islamic theocracy, and Israel, a liberal democracy that, regardless of its many flaws, has a proper and certainly a accountability to guard itself towards Hamas’ heinous genocidal makes an attempt.

Walcott is true to sentence Hamas’ “violent terror that focus on civilians,” however incorrectly writes that Israel is “ravenous and bombing civilians.”

Israel will not be ravenous civilians. Though Israel has focused Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, many tons of of humanitarian support vehicles have entered the enclave, offering meals, drugs and different wanted provisions to civilians.

Israel is bombing Hamas terrorist targets, doing its utmost to keep away from harming civilians. Hamas, which hides its terrorists and rocket launchers inside densely-packed civilian neighbourhoods inside Gaza, operates a serious headquarters beneath Gaza’s Shefa Hospital and forcibly prevents many civilians in Gaza from discovering refuge from areas the place energetic combating is happening, is completely liable for all struggling of Gazan civilians when it declared conflict on Israel simply over a month in the past, massacring 1,400 harmless individuals and taking tons of extra individuals hostage.

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Hamas doesn’t simply hurt civilians; it massacres them, deliberately and gleefully, as demonstrated within the video footage taken from Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7.

Regardless of this harmful menace from Hamas, Israel has taken extraordinary measures to guard Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The nation gave civilians in Gaza weeks to go away areas the place combating was more likely to happen, dropped leaflets and made telephone calls to warn civilians earlier than a bombing happened.

Walcott concludes his column with a requirement for a ceasefire, and wrote that “It bears repeating: solely with fast steps to finish the violence, a launch of all captives, and a diplomatic answer anchored in worldwide human rights and worldwide regulation will we start to unpack the battle and plot a path towards an enduring peace.”

To borrow Walcott’s language: it bears repeating that towards Hamas, which can by no means cease its genocidal conflict towards Israel, there isn’t a “diplomatic answer.” This isn’t an opinion, however reality. Ghazi Hamad, a senior official with Hamas, advised Lebanese tv in October that the group won’t cease till Israel is annihilated, and it’ll perform extra massacres.

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There is no such thing as a choice or coverage selection that Israel might probably make that will make Hamas stop its conflict towards Israel. To Hamas, each sq. inch of Israel is “occupied” territory, and each single Jew in Israel, regardless of how younger, is a professional goal for torture and homicide.

Previous to Hamas’ bloodbath on Oct. 7, there was a ceasefire in place between Hamas and Israel, which Hamas broke. Israel doesn’t have the posh of minimizing Hamas’ lethal menace to the nation, as Walcott has carried out, and consequently has no selection however to maintain combating the Islamic terrorist group till it could possibly now not pose a hazard to Israeli civilians.

Towards Hamas, a ceasefire will not be a plea for peace. It will be a capitulation on Israel’s half and a serious victory for Hamas. Fortuitously, most Canadians perceive this menace and, in a current ballot, assist Israel’s invasion of Gaza to defeat this medieval genocidal terror group.

Mike Fegelman is govt director of HonestReporting Canada, a non-profit group guaranteeing honest and correct Canadian media protection of Israel. www.HonestReporting.ca

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