Brian Monteith: Hostage release proves calls for immediate ceasefire were wrong

The result of an immediate truce would have been to allow Hamas to regroup, ready to inflict terror once again, says Brian Monteith

The return of some innocent hostages by Hamas terrorists in exchange for Palestinians found guilty of crimes by the Israeli courts of justice should be welcomed as the gradual advance towards civilised behaviour it is. There is, however, a very long way to go before anything close to peace is established.

It is easy to be overcome by the emotion of the parents and families of those being released. While the Israeli Government has said it will extend the truce by another day for every further ten hostages set free (obviously in return for more of the Palestinian criminals it holds in its jails), it is more likely than not that hostilities will recommence within days.

A truce is just that. It is not a peace. It is not even a ceasefire; it is only a temporary ceasefire at best.

Without hostage release being offered there is no point in the Israeli Government extending the truce. Instead it will resume hunting down the Hamas captors and their hostages – and it is right and legal to continue to do so.

What this tells us – and should inform grandstanding politicians such as Scotland’s First Minister – is that arguing over the last four weeks for “an immediate cease fire” would – if it had been listened to by the Israelis – not have resulted in a single hostage being freed (nor in any of the convicted Palestinians being released either).

Humza Yousuf, Jeremy Corbyn, narcissistic celebrities looking for relevance – and other recruits of the Hamas International 67th Foot of Useful Idiots – have been shown to be wrong. Without the pursuit of the hostages by Israeli military forces entering Gaza they would still be held by Hamas terrorists. Why else would Hamas release them?

The result of an immediate cease fire would have been to allow Hamas to regroup, to refresh and to redeploy , ready to attack again. Instead the number of rockets being fired into Israel from Northern Gaza has come to a halt and it is to the south that Israeli forces will now turn.

Hamas expected war from Israel, goading its Government into military action was its wish. The barbarity of Hamas is not new. Remember Hamas trailing those dead fellow-Palestinian members of Fatah through the streets of Gaza; pulled on the end of ropes by motorbikes and cars joyously honking their horns? But its barbarity was raised to incontestably horrific levels to intentionally provoke. Israeli could not choose to do nothing, it had to respond with force.

But, just like Putin miscalculated about his Ukrainian opponent, so Hamas also miscalculated about the willingness of Israel to finally eliminate the threat Hamas presents. The repulsive treatment of innocent civilians watching immediate family and friends being murdered or raped (and then often murdered too) before being led off to their own fate – and the availability of the evidence on social media to confirm it happened – has not brought some limited air strikes or a brief skirmish. Instead it has resulted in a full-out war that through ground incursions reaching hospitals treated as sanctuaries by UN agencies, NGOs, charities and broadcasters like the BBC – the World now sees for itself the reality of hidden tunnels, arms caches and command facilities Hamas keeps behind human shields.

Be under no illusion, such hidden facilities are the consequence of Western appeasement towards the murder and violence of Palestinian people by Hamas and the indifferent acceptance of the corrupt Hamas leadership living a detached life of luxury in foreign hotel suites, be it in neighbouring or European states.

Just as the Hamas leadership is now being held to account, so too is the United Nations’ ambivalence to brutal treatment and repression of Palestinians by their own leaders being exposed and shamed.

Obtaining the release of hostages is only one of two objectives that Israel’s military operation set itself. The other, to eliminate the operational capabilities of Hamas – by destroying its military infrastructure and eliminating its leadership corps (wherever they reside) – is given greater priority. The cleansing of Hamas tunnels, and seizing of weapons supplies will no doubt resume this week – eventually moving further south where it will meet stiffer resistance than it has in Northern Gaza.

As the world looks on, our broadcast news continues to only scratch the surface of what is happening on the ground and fails to report with any seriousness or credibility the thinking behind the different military approaches taken by Hamas and the Israeli Defence Force. It is to the internet that one has to turn to find reasoned discussion that is sceptical of all sides’ figures (it is a war after all) and questions the combatants’ motives and strategies.

Thus far it is the Israeli’s who are demonstrating the validity of their past appeals about the repeated breaking of cease-fire agreements through the launching of rockets from Gaza into Israel, while Hamas has found that after the initial obligatory calls of Arab solidarity from neighbouring states their diplomatic pressure has added to IDF military force so hostages be freed.

That would be the same hostages pro-Palestinian protestors on Britain’s streets were not demanding be released. The same hostages whose faces on posters, when put up on lampposts and walls, were being peeled off by Antisemitic protestors. (What reason could people have for not wishing such innocents be released other than blind hate?)

The horror of war is always to be avoided – but when others do nothing else than use violence, murder, rape and see every human life as worthless then turning to force becomes justified.

It is why hostages have now been released. Are Humza Yousaf and his like blind to this distasteful reality?