After an initial delay on Saturday, another group of hostages was released by Hamas. As part of the deal, Israel then released an even larger group of terrorists who committed various violent acts, from stabbing to shooting attacks.
As my colleague Jeff Charles chronicled, the reactions in Gaza and the West Bank were sickening and disturbing. Videos began to emerge of the released terrorists draping themselves in Hamas flags and symbology, showing that exactly zero lessons were learned.
There was one video in particular that went viral later over the weekend not because of what the terrorist was wearing, but because of what she said. A female butcher named Roda Agamiya called for more Jewish blood. She was originally imprisoned for stabbing someone in Israel.
Isn’t she just a joy? Speaking in Arabic, Agamiya can be heard shouting, “We are the sword of Muhammad Daf.” For context, Muhammad Daf is the leader of the military wing of Hamas. In other words, a woman who tried to kill someone was let out of prison in order to secure the release of innocent children, and her first response was to re-dedicate herself to a terrorist group.
Western nations and those who reside in them live in a bubble. Many of them abide by the ridiculous notion that all cultures are created equal and that all human beings innately desire secular peace and prosperity. To be frank, that’s simply moronic. I wish that were the case, but it’s not.
Most of the people in Gaza and the West Bank (i.e. over 75 percent of them according to the most recent polling) not only support Hamas, but they support Hamas’ massacre of civilians on October 7th. The caricature of the “poor Palestinian” who doesn’t support terrorism and simply longs to live in a single-state utopia is not reality. It is a dangerous misrepresentation of the situation on the ground.
Blame it on brainwashing. Blame it on “settlements.” Blame it on whatever you’d like, but the fact is that Hamas and terrorism against innocent Jews are overwhelmingly popular among Palestinians. That’s exactly why Israel can’t stop at this point. There is no peace to be had with these people. The only way to stop the attacks is to end Hamas once and for all. Will that end the rabid ideology adopted by residents of Gaza and the West Bank? Almost certainly not, but all they understand is force.
Yeah, it doesn’t soothe the sensibilities of your average MSNBC or Sky News host to say that, but that is the world as it is. Israel can only react to what’s actually happening, not to some pie-in-the-sky idea of what Palestinians “really want.” They are telling you what they want, and it’s to continue to commit genocide against the Jews. There’s only one viable response to that.
