OPINION:
A cease-fire is not a realistic option after what took place on Oct. 7 in Israel. The United States would not have agreed to a cease-fire following the attacks on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, or the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — and neither should Israel. It is not a sensible argument.
There was a cease-fire in Israel on Oct. 6, the day before coldblooded killers in Hamas broke it with horrific crimes against innocent men, women and children.
Now, these gutless terrorists are hiding behind and even under their own people. For years, many of us have warned of the extensive system of tunnels under Gaza. In addition, we point to the intelligence showing how Hamas and Hezbollah hide their military equipment in hospitals, schools, and places of worship.
Hamas tried to claim that an Israeli rocket hit a hospital. President Biden later said the opposite was true — it was a Hamas rocket misfiring that landed in the parking lot next to the hospital.
After the gruesome attacks on Oct. 7, Israel warned Palestinians in Gaza to leave certain areas that were identified as the locations of Hamas terrorists and weapons. The Israel Defense Forces repeated these warnings multiple times. After exhausting efforts to get civilians out of the area, Israel took action. Then, the Hamas propaganda machine kicked in.
Many of the media outlets and political leaders who condemned the attacks on Israel are buying into the cease-fire argument from Hamas based on civilian casualties.
Social media is flooded with images of people who are injured or dead. Some are real. Others are not. One social media post included horrific images it claimed were from Israeli weapons but were really from past attacks by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Many in the Western world calling for a cease-fire were largely silent when pro-Assad forces within the Syrian military conducted chemical attacks against the people of his own country. One attack on Aug. 21, 2013, caused the deaths of more than 1,100 civilians. Where were the global protests then?
Not surprisingly, these are some of the same people who allowed Iran to chair the Human Rights Council Social Forum for the United Nations. It’s as if the rest of the world forgot about the death of Mahsa Amini. She was the young woman who died in Tehran while in police custody after her arrest for failing to correctly wear a hijab.
Earlier this year, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights critiqued the response by the government of Iran. He suggested they had committed crimes against humanity, including killing hundreds of protesters (children among them) since the demonstrations started last fall.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian forces helped plan the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps worked with Hamas to devise the air, land and sea assaults. Details were ironed out at meetings with Revolutionary Guard Corps officers and several other militant groups supported by Iran, which include Hamas and Hezbollah. Hundreds of terrorists were involved, with training led by the officers of an element of the corps called the Quds Force.
How can the largest state sponsor of terrorism — which was directly involved in the planning of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel — be leading anything to do with human rights? The United Nations is a joke, and we should not give the U.N. one penny of support.
Hamas is responsible for the kidnapping and killing of innocent Israelis.
Hamas is also responsible for the deaths of Palestinian civilians, as they continue to use them as human shields to protect their military and political leaders and assets.
Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, appeared on Lebanese television recently saying that Hamas is willing to repeat the massacre as many times as it takes to annihilate Israel, and that it is willing to sacrifice lives in Gaza to achieve this sadistic goal.
“Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.” When asked by the news anchor if he wanted the annihilation of Israel, Mr. Hamad said, “Yes, of course.”
The message is clear: Hamas wants to eliminate the state of Israel, no matter the cost — including sacrificing its own people in Gaza to do it.
Under these conditions, agreeing to a cease-fire is tantamount to suicide — both as a nation and as a person. Once we were attacked in World War II, we fought until we won. Israel faces a very real existential threat. Anything short of total victory will likely be the end of Israel — which is why it must win.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
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