In the Book of Samuel, the story of the Philistine giant Goliath’s defeat by a young David – a shepherd boy armed with only a sling and a few stones – is a story that has reverberated throughout the centuries in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The timeless victory of good triumphing over evil against overwhelming odds has excited generations.
Yet critics of Israel would have you believe in a reversal of the biblical story: that the modern-day State of Israel is Goliath, while David is the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On October 7, as Israeli Jews were celebrating Simchat Torah – one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar – Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip launched a sudden attack against Israel by land, sea, and air. Terrorists went from house to house in Israeli villages close to the border killing, raping, and torturing men, women, and children
Mothers were shot to death as their babies were decapitated. Non-Israeli nationals from the US, France, Germany, Thailand, Mexico, Spain, and elsewhere, were not spared. We now know that not since the Holocaust have more Jews been murdered in a single day.
“Since this terrorist attack […] took place, we have seen it described as Israel’s 9/11. But for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9/11s,” President Joe Biden said of the attack. This would make the number of those murdered in Israel on October 7 equivalent to 48,300 in US terms.
Goliath's strength is not what made him evil
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers found on the body of a dead Hamas terrorist a manual published by Al Qaeda on how to produce a chemical weapon.
In this type of asymmetric war when a sovereign country defends itself against a terrorist organization, a common view is that the country itself is Goliath, while the terrorist organization is David because of the capability of its army. People tend to forget that Goliath was not evil because he was strong. He was evil because he used his strength to lead murderous killing sprees against the ancient Israelites.
Israel is a democratic country that uses its army to keep its citizens safe.
Hamas uses civilians to safeguard its organization.
Because Israel needs to follow humanitarian law while trying to minimize collateral damage on the Palestinian side, Hamas deliberately tries to cause damage to Israeli civilians while risking the lives of Palestinian civilians.
In an asymmetric war, Israel is not facing a battle between the country’s armies. The citizens are part of the front. Because Hamas possesses no moral integrity and seeks to destroy the State of Israel by any means necessary – even at the expense of Palestinian lives – Israel faces a significant disadvantage when it tries to maintain its moral standards.
Hamas uses citizens to protect its army, not the other way around
Hamas deliberately uses Palestinian civilians as human shields.
They place their munitions and launch rockets against Israeli population centers from civilian infrastructures such as mosques, schools, hospitals, and ambulances. While Israel asked the Palestinians to temporarily evacuate to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, in order to destroy Hamas’s infrastructure, the terrorist group urged Palestinian residents to stay at home in anticipation of an Israeli ground offensive.
Hamas does this to maximize civilian casualties and manipulate world sympathy. While Israel uses the IDF to protect the lives of their citizens, Hamas uses its civilians to protect the terror organization.
By contrast, the Israeli military has done everything in its power to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties such as sending advance warnings before an attack and employing new innovative technologies such as the Iron Sting precision mortar that uses GPS and laser guidance to target Hamas rocket launchers while minimizing Palestinian casualties. Israel has also asked residents of Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip (and northern Israel) to evacuate.
When Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, it evacuated over 9,000 Israeli citizens living in 25 Jewish villages with the hope of encouraging the creation of an independent Palestinian state that would live in peace alongside Israel. The Israeli government left behind a highly developed area that could have served as the backbone of a prosperous Palestinian economy.
Since taking over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has terrorized the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians. We now understand that it is unacceptable that a terrorist group should be allowed to govern a civilian population.
If we want Israeli and Palestinian civilians to live in safety and peace, the world must now help Israel free Gaza from Hamas once and for all.
Bradley Martin is the executive director of the Near East Center for Strategic Studies. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter @ByBradleyMartin.
Dr. Liram Koblentz-Stenzler is a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University, Herzliya, and a visiting lecturer at Yale University.