| Warning: I must share something horrifying here. |
I am writing these lines at the end of July 2025. The world is rightly looking on with deep sympathy at the suffering in Gaza. Israel is often held responsible for this. And, of course, Israel cannot be completely absolved of responsibility for the nature of its warfare. But the war was preceded by the massacre of October 7, 2023. Israel is fighting an unimaginably cruel enemy—terrorists who shoot at soldiers from behind their own wives and children.
Hamas’s brutality is often justified, in whole or in part, by reference to the Middle East conflict. So let’s take a look back: Can we identify a cause of this conflict?
The key to understanding has remained the same since the 1940s, according to Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf, authors of *The Struggle for Return*. I would like to briefly summarize here what they have documented using numerous contemporary historical sources, supplemented by some updated figures:
The Key to the Conflict According to Schwartz and Wilf
While Jews sought their own state early on, the Palestinians—according to Schwartz and Wilf—did not, for example, also want their own Palestinian state living in peaceful coexistence with the Jewish one. Instead, their goal was to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state and then—to this day—to destroy it.
But isn’t this assertion too sweeping? Hasn’t the Palestinian Authority long since recognized Israel’s right to exist and now calls only for a two-state solution?
Schwartz and Wilf have shown that when the Palestinian side recognized Israel’s right to exist—that is, when it agreed to the two-state solution—it did not mean one Jewish state and one Palestinian state, but rather two Palestinian states. This is because the representatives of the Palestinians have always linked—and continue to link—the two-state solution to the demand for what they call the “right of return for refugees”: that is, the demand that the descendants of Palestinian refugees—now numbering about six million—be granted the right to Israeli citizenship. Most of them are hostile toward the State of Israel. The Jews would then no longer have a majority in their own country—Israel as a Jewish state would be a thing of the past.
The West tends to downplay this demand. It is often claimed that only a small fraction of the Palestinian “refugees” would return anyway. The Jewish majority would thus remain intact. But this is pure speculation, and Israel cannot risk its security on such a basis.
The following facts demonstrate just how questionable and dangerous the so-called “right of return” is:
- The flight and expulsion of Palestinians in the 1940s was a consequence of the Arab states’ belligerent intent to either expel or murder all Jews in Israel.
- After the establishment of the State of Israel, a similar number of Jews had to flee from Arab and other predominantly Muslim countries as Palestinians had to flee from Israel.
- There is no mention of a right of return for the descendants of these displaced Jews.
- Today, with a total population of about ten million people, there are approximately two million Palestinians living in Israel. Their situation is not ideal, but they have the right to vote, are equal before the law, and enjoy the privilege of being exempt from military service.
- Conversely, in the surrounding Arab countries—with a total population of well over 400 million—only a few thousand Jews remain.
- In a future Palestine—as demanded even by the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority—there will be no Jews at all.
Against this backdrop, lasting peace can only be achieved if the Palestinian side recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state—which includes renouncing the so-called “right of return.” Only then would the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank also contribute to peace. For nothing would be gained if, after Gaza, Israel were now to hand over the West Bank to Hamas as well, serving as a launching pad for the next massacre of Jewish civilians.
October 7
To anyone who considers Israel’s response to the October 7 massacre “exaggerated,” I would most like to say: First, read Douglas Murray’s latest book. And then we’ll talk.
Douglas Murray had visited Israel repeatedly even before October 7. As soon as he learned of the massacre, he went there again, stayed for six months, and returned several times afterward. He spoke with victims of the massacre and their families, with politicians and military officials, accompanied the Israeli army on missions in Gaza and Lebanon, spoke with civilians in Gaza as well as with Israelis from the north, which was under threat from Hezbollah, met with captured Hamas terrorists, and saw what Hezbollah had already prepared—under the watchful eye of the UN peacekeeping mission—for the next massacre, October 7, 2.0, in northern Israel.
Murray’s account of October 7 haunts me. It was not just an inconceivably brutal act of violence by Hamas: Palestinian civilians swarmed out to loot, both in the raided settlements and in the parking lot of the Nova Festival. If they found an Israeli there, they reported him to the terrorists so they could shoot him.
In Gaza itself, Israeli soldiers later found weapons in every second or third home. The soldiers soon figured out where to find the weapons: They didn’t search the living room or the kitchen, but went straight to the children’s rooms, where the rockets were stored, hidden under children’s beds and cribs.
Solidarity with the Murderers
Meanwhile, in the West, demonstrations were not held against the perpetrators’ violence, but against the Israeli victims: their bereaved families were threatened, and pictures of the hostages were torn down from the walls. Feminists, who otherwise vehemently oppose sexual violence, remained stubbornly silent about the brutal rapes committed by Hamas terrorists. Female professors and students at elite universities in the U.S. showed solidarity not with the tortured, but with the torturers. And while the Palestinian keffiyeh is proudly worn everywhere, Jews no longer dare to display their identity in public—not even in Germany. Stunned, Murray has followed these developments worldwide and documented them in his book.
Hatred Without Measure or Purpose
After reading this, one thought weighed heavily on my mind for days: How terrible it must be to have to live next to neighbors who hate you so intensely. There is nothing the Israelis can do against this hatred. Even those who had stood up for the Palestinians—for example, those who, year in and year out, every weekend, had transported sick children from Gaza to specialized Israeli hospitals—were murdered on October 7.
I feel sorry for all the people—Jews, Palestinians, and everyone else—who have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the horrific massacre on October 7 and Israel’s military response. And yes: The people of Gaza must be guaranteed access to sufficient food, water, and medical care. In the West Bank, Palestinians must be protected from the violence of extremist settlers.
But those who, like Hamas, burn children alive; those who rape women so brutally that their bones break, shoot them while doing so, and continue to rape their corpses; those who torture entire families so that parents and children are forced to watch each other endure the most horrific agony of death; those who are determined to commit these monstrous crimes again and again: For such people, what applied to the Nazis during World War II must apply: Anything necessary to eliminate this threat is justified.
Bibliography
- Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf (2020): The War of Return. How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace. Hentrich und Hentrich, Berlin
- Douglas Murray (2025): On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization. Harper Collins (US)