It is a pity that is not known by more people.

Israel quotes the atrocities of Hamas as the reason for its current genocidal activities in Gaza. however, considering that Hamas is a creature created by Israel, that justification is hypocritical.

Now that South Africa has applied to the UN’s International Court of Justice to institute proceedings against Israel for its genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s  persistent defenders are challenged to say where they stand.

The USA , UK and Israel have declared Hamas to be a terrorist organisation and during October the BBC was under persistent pressure from the Tory government to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation every time it was mentioned. After Jeremy Corbyn supported the BBCs position, Keir Starmer declared he could no longer be a labour MP. Neither the niceties of precise definition nor the facts of history can be allowed to stand in the way of Starmer’s disciplinary sledgehammer.

In 1995, as a step towards  a peaceful settlement in Palestine/Israel, the Oslo Accords were agreed between Israeli Premier, Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Rabin was promptly assassinated by an Israeli extremist and Netanyahu became Premier.

The PLOs political party is Fatah and its power-base is the West Bank and Jerusalem. In Gaza the controlling political party is Hamas, which considers Fatah to be too lenient towards Israel.

Netanyahu  embarked on a policy of divide and rule, driving a wedge between Hamas and Fatah., in order to undermine Palestine’s struggle for recognised statehood. Israel funded and encouraged the growth of Hamas as a counter-force to Fatah, the aim being to keep the Palestinians divided and thereby weakened.

The ideology of Hamas is nihilistic religious bigotry. Its leaders  consider the appalling loss of Palestinian lives in Gaza to be  worthwhile in their struggle to destroy Israel.  Similarly, Netanyahu is less concerned about the lives of Israeli hostages, IDF soldiers and Palestinian civilians than the achievement of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank.

Between the bigotry  and fanaticism of Hamas and the bigotry and fanaticism of Netanyahu there is nothing to choose.