Hamas was formed in 1987 during the first Intifada (uprising) against Israel. Over time, they’ve gone from being somewhat a political organization to being a militant group with the sole goal of ridding Palestine and Israel of every Jewish person.

Those who reside in the West and spend a single breath defending Hamas should be excised from polite company. Consequences should not stop at ignoring what Islamist sympathizers say but extend to losing job offers, leadership positions, and whatever else can be lost except their physical ability to speak.

Parallels between the Nazi “Final Solution” and Hamas’ charter are strong. In their charter’s preamble, they declare, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” When the Allies were closing in on Berlin, Hitler at least attempted to cover up the atrocities he committed instead of glorifying and documenting his violence.

Hamas does the opposite. They celebrate the murder of innocent Jews. They take grandmothers hostage. They rape girls. The worst part is not that they do this — the worst is that we, in Western society, have not learned our lesson, mainly because we rightfully learned the lesson when it came to Hitler’s brand of antisemitism. We condemn the Holocaust, but when history rhymes itself, and there’s a modern-day Holocaust, many are quick to sidestep the issue or offer no condemnations.

Sexual mutilation, rape, and murder are a part of Hamas’ arsenal. But, no, in the West, we hilariously believe all groups, even Hamas, deserve the same respect. This is why, time and time again, we’re slapped with reality checks that do nothing to change our outlook.

Palestinians call the Gaza Strip an open-air prison. In that case, the media and pseudo-sophisticates sit back, parse their language for nuance, and nod, ignoring Israel’s many generous peace offers from which Hamas walked away. I would not be writing this piece if we had not excused the erratic and unsafe conditions on Israel’s doorstep countless times. Thousands of lives on either side would not have been lost, and innocent sons and daughters of Palestinians and Israelis would be alive and well.

Take the case of Mor Bayder, whose grandmother lived in Nir Oz, a commune in southern Israel. Islamist terrorists working with Hamas, on the morning of Oct. 7, blazed into Nir Oz with guns and grenades, looking to murder as many people as possible. 

Bayder took shelter over the weekend as Hamas fired rockets into Israel. When she and her family deemed it safe to leave the shelter, they received a call from Bayder’s aunt, yelling at her to check Facebook. She opened her phone, and she saw nothing short of evil.

“My grandmother on the ground, in her own home — murdered — in a video,” she said in Hebrew to Israel Channel 13 News. “The floor was all bloody. My grandmother, laying there.” 

The terrorist posted the horrifying scene to Bayder’s grandmother’s phone by using the dead woman’s phone.

Some may argue killing young women and children must be part of some larger scheme to win a war. This is absurd. There is absolutely no reason to assume that the Hamas’ calculus was to cause civilian deaths and genocide of the Jewish people. However, the reality could not be further from the truth. The truth is that these barbarians murdered 260 people here because they were “frustrated” with Israel’s reluctance to hand over what Hamas believes to be Palestinian land. These militants’ orders plainly stated, “Kill as many people as possible.”

Where we go from here is what matters. But before discussing that, I propose one foundational premise upon which all must agree — the moral high ground in this conflict is on the side of Israel. Article 8 of Hamas’ covenant states, “…Jihad is its path, and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.”Any individual who directly or indirectly supports these people is enabling a terror campaign that values death the way I think we should value life. Those not siding with Hamas feel deep sorrow for every death in this conflict, civilian or not.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are known to drop leaflets or low-yield bombs on buildings to warn inhabitants to evacuate before their attacks on Hamas equipment flatten buildings. You may rightfully wonder why there would be military equipment in residential neighborhoods. The answer takes you right back to Hamas’ priorities. They care not for their people but solely for jihad.

These jihadis urge the innocent Palestinian people to stay in their buildings and not give up their land, and when the IDF inevitably follows through on their warning, Hamas’ propaganda wing plasters the civilian casualties in everyone’s faces.

All in all, the fault for all deaths falls squarely on the shoulders of Hamas. Hence, for the good of all Palestinians and Israelis, the IDF should bomb, shoot and punch Hamas back into the stone age once and for all.

The views expressed in all opinion columns represent those of the article’s author, not the opinions of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Board.