Shock at article in Campbeltown Courier
After the horrific terrorist attack on Israel, I was personally quite shocked to read in the Campbeltown Courier an article that in my personal opinion was blaming Israel for the terrorist attack against it rather than the perpetrators of the attack.
To publish such an article so soon after the terrorist attacks was wrong. I felt a duty to write a detailed response to that article.
The events of Saturday October 7 were truly shocking. The internationally-recognised terrorist organisation Hamas attacked Israel unprovoked, by land, sea and air.
Thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel on foot and targeted small towns and villages. Hamas terrorists went door to door, killing innocent Israelis indiscriminately: babies murdered in their cribs, children murdered in front of parents; and parents in front of children. Grandparents brutally murdered. Holocaust survivors were killed.
These are the actions of terrorists. The October 7 massacre (over 1,400 Israelis killed) will be tragically remembered as the day when the most amount of Jewish people were murdered in any single day since the end of the Holocaust.
Some 222 people, including 30 babies and children, were kidnapped from Israel and are being held hostage in Gaza; 80 per cent of those murdered in Kfar Aza and Be’eri were tortured.
Hamas stole 24,000 litres of fuel from the UN in Gaza earlier this week. Enough fuel to power a hospital for four days.
Ninety per cent of Gaza’s water supply comes from aquifers within Gaza. Hamas uses electricity in Gaza to manufacture and launch rockets instead of using it to pump water for the benefit of Gazans.
It is clear that Israel cannot afford to allow Hamas to continue to exist. Provided Hamas continues to have any military capability, the threat of October 7 looms.
Israel has a duty and responsibility to protect its own people, the only scenario in which this can thus be achieved is by getting rid of Hamas.
Hamas is not interested in peace. We have seen that in recent days. Even in its founding charter it openly calls for the genocide of Jewish people.
Israel, by contrast, has regularly had its hand outstretched for peace (Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE, Morocco and more).
Israel is a force for good in the region and must be supported to promote peace, stability and humanity in the region.
Councillor Alastair Redman, Kintyre and the Islands ward. Proud member of Friends of Israel.