In an op-ed for Spanish speaking outlet Iton Gadol, B’nai B’rith Special Advisor on Latin American and U.N. Affairs Adriana Camisar discusses Israel’s war with Hamas, highlighting how the atrocities of October 7 have unveiled Hamas’s true nature, it explains Israel’s predicament, and discusses Israel’s fight against an enemy whose final purpose is to destroy the basic values of our civilization.

Read in Iton Gadol and Agencia de Noticia (AJN) in Spanish.

On October 7, Israel suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history. Members of Hamas, infiltrating from the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of unspeakable proportions against Israeli civilians. I don’t like to be so graphic, but I think that in this case it is necessary to emphasize the atrocities committed. These “animals” burned and beheaded babies, killed parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents, raped women in the most violent way imaginable, burned houses with families inside, and the list of atrocities is so long that It would be impossible to finish describing it here. In addition to this, they kidnapped approximately 200 people (including babies, children and the elderly).

This level of anti-Jewish cruelty and savagery has not been seen since World War II. And, in fact, it can be said that the intention of the Hamas terrorists was (and is) clearly genocidal. Analysts in the United States noted that, taking into account the size of Israel’s population, what occurred would be equivalent to 15 attacks like 9/11.

At first, and as the details of the massacre became known, Israel received a lot of support from the international community. But as Israel began its offensive against Hamas, this support began to weaken. Naturally, fighting Hamas terrorists in an area as densely populated as Gaza is very difficult. And even though the Israeli military strives (perhaps more than any other military in the world) to comply with international humanitarian law, distinguishing between civilians and terrorists, civilian casualties are inevitable, especially as Hamas hides behind its civilians. , using them as human shields.

Israel is currently facing a great challenge, which can be classified as existential. Because not only must it secure its borders, decapitate the Hamas regime so that something like this never happens again, and try to rescue the hostages, whose whereabouts and state of health are unknown. It must also foresee that other fronts could be opened. Hezbollah terrorists could decide to enter the conflict from Lebanon, other terrorist groups could attack from Syria, and there could even be insurgencies both in the West Bank and within Israel. There is no doubt that both Hamas and Hezbollah respond to Iran, so the potential for this to escalate into a regional war is enormous, especially if Hezbollah decides to attack.

President Biden has shown his strong support for Israel, not only by sending two large aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean (which has been clearly interpreted as a warning to other states and terrorist groups not to dare enter the conflict), but also by paying a visit unprecedented to Israel (as it is the first time that an American president visits Israel in times of war). However, despite great American support, the situation is alarming.

Israel has to wage this war against terrorists who have no moral code and who answer to no one, while being harassed by the international press and subjected to fierce scrutiny. And when it comes to Israel, the public seems willing to believe anything, even when the information comes from very uncredible sources.

The recent dramatic incident at the Gaza hospital perfectly illustrates what happens when anti-Israeli prejudices interfere with proper professional work. Both the international press and many leaders around the world decided to believe Hamas leaders when, just minutes after an explosion occurred in a Gaza hospital, they blamed Israel.

Any specialist in the field knows that it is impossible to establish the origin of an explosion in just a few minutes. But, furthermore, it is very difficult to understand that professionals with extensive experience covering the Middle East, and who know perfectly how these terrorist organizations operate, could have considered that Hamas was a reliable source of information.

Hours later, as expected, Israel provided reliable and irrefutable evidence that demonstrated that the explosion was due to the failure of a missile that the Islamic Jihad had launched “with the aim of killing Israeli civilians,” and that it landed by mistake in the parking lot of the Gaza hospital. This evidence was also corroborated by the Pentagon. But who cares about the facts! The damage has already been done. The rulers of Egypt and Jordan canceled their meeting with President Biden, who was already on his way to the region; and there were many anti-Israel protests around the world, as well as threats against Israeli and Jewish targets, and horrific anti-Semitic incidents, such as the attacks on synagogues in Tunisia and Berlin.

Hamas, cruelly, continues not to hand over the hostages, in the face of the growing desperation of their families and of the entire Israeli society, which knows that with each passing day the hopes of finding them alive are reduced (it should be remembered that the smallest of the hostages She is only 9 months old and the oldest is 85 years old). And this inhumane terrorist organization continues to launch missiles against the Israeli population, while getting the international community to demand that Israel provide services and humanitarian aid to the population that inhabits the territory from which it is being attacked. At the same time, practically no one demands that Egypt, an Arab and Muslim country that was not attacked by Hamas, have solidarity with its brothers and open a humanitarian corridor on its border. And so, as happens again and again, Israel is held to a standard to which no other nation faced with such a challenge would be held.

It is common, unfortunately, to hear these days voices that relativize or even justify the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. And they do so by referring to Israeli policies, the so-called Israeli “occupation,” or the lack of resources that Gaza has. But the truth is that Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005, so there is no occupation there. And the millions that were needed to obtain missiles and weapons and to build such an infrastructure of terror belie the fact that there is a lack of resources. Gaza, for example, has extensive water reserves, but Hamas decided to use pipes donated by the international community to build missiles.

Israel had recently authorized tens of thousands of Gazans to work in Israel. And in many of the kibbutzim near the strip, there were people who were dedicated to helping the population of Gaza. This is what Israelis of good will received in return.

It is time for the world to wake up and stop calling these terrorists “militants” or “freedom fighters.” Here we are facing a radical Islamist organization, clearly totalitarian and fiercely anti-Semitic. Its objective is not the establishment of a Palestinian State but the annihilation of the State of Israel and its population. Their own charter says it, and they shout it out loud. It’s time to believe them.

And all those who think that this is only a problem of Israel or the Jews, must understand that Israel is only the first line of defense against this monstrous ideology, whose ultimate goal is the total destruction of the most basic values ​​of our civilization.