Two articles were printed in Times of Malta recently on the Hamas-Israeli conflict. One by James Slater was titled ‘Israel’s brutal rules of the game’, and the second was titled ‘The sad plight of the innocent Palestinians’, authored by former ambassador John Vassallo.

Both articles are riddled with distortions by omission and inaccuracy, reflecting a deep anti-Israel bias.

Astonishingly, in the wake of a horrific terrorist attack against Israelis, murdering more than 1,400 people, they both somehow find reasons to accuse Israel of aggression and blame it for the plight of the Palestinians. It is beyond comprehension, at this moment, to find reasons to accuse the victims over the murders.

But I will focus on factual truths. 

Israel was attacked on October 7 by the barbarous terrorist group Hamas, who murdered, raped, beheaded and abducted Israeli civilians, men, women, children and elderly alike. The Hamas terrorists gouged out eyes, cut off limbs, beheaded babies and burnt people alive. This was ISIS style brutality.    

It is the full right and obligation of any country to act in self-defence to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, and to prevent the recurrence of such horrific brutal attacks.

On an ongoing basis, Hamas commits a double war crime, by targeting innocent Israeli civilians and embedding itself in dense Palestinian civilian populations, using Palestinians as human shields.

Israel, by contrast, exerts extreme efforts to avoid harm to civilians, including issuing pre-warning alerts to them, arranging safe evacuation areas and calling on the uninvolved civilians to temporarily evacuate the conflict area, in attempts to save innocent lives.

The IDF endangers its military operation and Israeli soldiers’ lives, even by disclosing their military targets, to save Palestinian lives. Hamas responds by preventing the evacuation of Palestinian civilians, again deliberately placing uninvolved Palestinians in harm’s way. The authors somehow omit these truths. 

The authors disingenuously link current events to the Arab-Israeli conflict, also known as the peace process, between Israel and the Palestinians. They omit the fact that Hamas opposes any peace with Israel, in any shape or form. One just needs to read the Hamas charger which calls for the murder of all Jews.

In relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict or the peace process with the Palestinians, both authors omit to state truths. We need to relate to the facts and correct distortions.

Israel has gone a long way in trying to achieve peaceful coexistence. The partition plan, which called for two states – a Jewish state alongside an additional Arab state – was accepted by Israel but rejected by the Palestinians.

Despite the fact that there never was a Palestinian state or entity, Israel recognised the Palestinian Authority, relinquished territory to the Palestinians, vacated the entire Gaza Strip, including dismantling all the Jewish settlements and communities in that territory, and time and again offered proposals for peaceful resolutions of the conflict, including handing over more than 90 per cent of the “disputed territory”.

All of these efforts were rejected by the Palestinians, who did not even offer a counterproposal.

The paradigm of “territories for peace”, adopted and implemented by Israel, failed due to the fact that Israel delivered territories over to the Palestinian Authority, time and time again, but was never rewarded with peace. Territories vacated by Israel, for peace, were then transformed into terrorist training camps and launching pads for terrorists. Thousands of rockets have been launched against Israeli citizens from territories vacated by Israel.

The blood of Jews and Israelis is not less red than the blood of Palestinians- Zeev Boker

If you do not overlook these facts, then it should be clear who the aggressor is and who it is that seeks peace.

Visitors to Israel encountering Israeli society will witness first-hand a society and government praying and aspiring for peace. Israeli culture cultivates an environment of coexistence.

In schools, Israelis do not preach aggression but teach peace and coexistence. In contrast, Palestinian society is riddled with extremism, negation of coexistence and hate material. In schools, it strikes Israel off the map and continues to reward terrorists with their “pay to slay” stipends.

The issue at hand is not Israel’s recognition of the Palestinians but the Palestinians’ recognition of Israel.

The obstacle to peace in the Middle East has always been the lack of will to accept the existence of Israel, in any borders. Israel, since its establishment, has extended its hand in peace and friendship to the entire Arab and Muslim world.

The Arab League rejected Israel’s extended hand with the infamous three nos resolution – no to recognition, no to peace and no to negotiation.

Any Arab state that has stepped forward, showing a will to rescind the past negative resolutions and accept Israel, has found peace with Israel. This is documented and evident in the peace accords with Egypt and Jordan, and the normalising of relations with additional Arab states under the Abraham Accords.  

The Palestinian cry “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” is a cry for the annihilation of Israel, not for a two-state solution or coexistence. Had the Palestinians accepted any of the compromises proposed, then they would have had a state long time ago. It is not the Israelis that need persuasion, but the Palestinians. 

Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir is famous for her immortal statement, “we will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”. This statement stands in truth and validity till today.

Both authors care greatly for the potential harm to innocent Palestinians. The blood of Jews and Israelis is not less red than the blood of Palestinians. Jews are not obligated to live under the threat of rockets and terrorist attacks. 

The two authors misread the entire geopolitical situation. The current battle between Israel and Hamas is not between Israel and the Arab world, or between Israel and the Palestinians. It is a battle between light and darkness, between civilisation and barbarism.

The world today is split between moderates, seeking peace, and extremists, instilling death and destruction. In this battle, many moderate Arab states are threatened just as much as Israel.

We would hope that a scholar of international relations and a former ambassador would support civilisation over barbarism, truth over falsehood.

Zeev Boker is the Israeli Ambassador to Malta.