On Wednesday (1st November) IndiaToday journalist Rajdeep Sardesai attempted to draw parallels between Israel’s retaliatory action in Gaza with Hamas’s terrorist attack in Israel on the 7th of October. Boaz Bismuth, an Israeli MP blasted Sardesai for drawing parallels between a terrorist attack and a country’s military action against terrorism.
During his program on IndiaToday discussing Israel’s bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on Wednesday Rajdeep asked, “There seems to be a dehumanisation taking place on both sides..”
To this, the Israeli MP raised strong objection saying that he would not allow anyone to make parallels between Hamas’s terror attacks and Israeli war against terrorism. “A..If I (Israel) didn’t care about their lives, I wouldn’t send my planes and soldiers. B. I tell civilians to get out of the buildings (controlled by terrorists). C… terrorists are going under the hospitals because they know that I won’t attack a hospital. You interviewed the person who spoke about the hostages…she said also in Israel they have got thousands of people in their jails. Yes, we have terrorists, what do they have…six months babies,” the Israeli lawmaker said.
After a failed attempt at guilt-tripping the Israeli representative, Rajdeep Sardesai asked him if the Hamas terrorists release the hostages, will there be a ceasefire from the Israeli side. In response to this, Boaz Bismuth made it clear that it is Israel’s duty to protect its people and thus the country is entitled to end terrorism.
When asked if the same morality applies to the Palestinian children and if they too have the same rights as Israeli children, Bismuth reminded Sardesai that, unlike Hamas terrorists, Israeli forces are not entering Palestine and killing children. “Did you see my soldiers going and slaughtering Palestinian children…what are you talking about?”
Sardesai was somehow trying to establish that in the war between Hamas and Israel, the Palestinian people are suffering. However, he conveniently forgot that it was the same Palestinian people who elected Hamas to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the 2006 elections giving them 74 out of 132 seats despite knowing that it was a terrorist group in the barb of a ‘political party’. The Israeli lawmaker reminded Sardesai of the same and said, “In 2006 when they had elections, knowing that Hamas is a terrorist group, knowing that Hamas wants to eliminate Israel as a nation, knowing that Hamas wants to renew this Islamic Jihad…70 per cent of Gaza people voted for them. And although they did that Israel is not attacking civilians. Israel has nothing against civilians but has everything against terrorism.”
Responding to Sardesai’s claims that over 5000 people have died in Palestine since the country declared war on Hamas, Boaz Bismuth called out the hypocrisy of how the world sees it when the West, the “civilised world” attacks terrorism and Israel does the same. He went on to explain how Israel’s war on Hamas is also a war of India, the US and any country that cares for the Palestinian people as he said: “If you really care for Palestinian people, you should eliminate a terrorist group like Hamas because who is behind what is happening in Gaza right now. Its Hamas! If they hadn’t come inside our villages, our houses and then we would never have responded like that..”
Despite the Israeli lawmaker emphasising the necessity to uproot Hamas completely, Rajdeep Sardesai seemed keen on pushing for a ceasefire. In response, Bismuth reiterated that as not only an MP but also as a citizen he would not want his government to declare a ceasefire until Hamas is eliminated. He also reminded Sardesai that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has not yet condemned Hamas’s terrorist attacks that left 1400 Israelis including children and the elderly dead, and women raped. Highlighting the difference between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists, Boaz Bismuth said that when Hamas kills Israeli children, they celebrate, on the other hand, if somehow Palestinian children suffer due to Israeli action by mistake, the Israeli soldiers cry for those children.
Sardesai wrapped the Gaza debate as the Israeli lawmaker and former journalist pointed out that Jews after getting their promised land focused on their welfare, technology medicines and other aspects while Hamas focused on terrorism.
Interestingly, liberals, Islamists and Palestine sympathisers in general across the world have been pushing this narrative that Hamas is an armed ‘resistance’ group and that it is the innocent Palestinian civilians who are suffering atrocities while Hamas and Israel clash. However, several surveys conducted over the last few years, suggest that the Palestinian people overwhelmingly support the Islamist terrorist group Hamas. As per a survey released in 2021, Palestinian support for Hamas surged dramatically following the Gaza war in May of that year. As reported earlier, the scientific poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that around three-quarters of Palestinians viewed Hamas terrorists as victors in a battle against Israel.
Similarly, in the 2019 PCPSR survey, it was found that if Palestinian presidential elections were to be held between President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, 41 per cent of Palestinians would vote for Haniyeh. 48 per cent of Palestinians expressed support for a two-state solution. In the 2018 PCPSR survey, 49 per cent of Palestinians said they would vote for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh for President. A Washington Institute survey this year showed that 57 per cent of Gazans had a positive opinion of Hamas with similar percentages of Palestinians in the West Bank (52%) and East Jerusalem (64%).
It is worth noting that while Palestine sympathisers like Rajdeep Sardesai and Hamas supporting Islamists globally are demanding a ‘ceasefire’, a top Hamas terrorist Ghazi Hamad not only justified the brutal terror attack in Israel on October 7 killing thousands of civilians including children and the elderly and raping women parading them naked but also announced to repeat it until Israel is annihilated completely.