With a genocidal enemy, diplomacy is not an option

Then come the instant legal verdicts. Politicians, pundits, and even Foreign Secretary David Lammy rushed to declare Israel’s actions—especially its blockade of aid—illegal, dispensing with the formality of waiting for the inevitable rubber-stamp ruling from a politicised international court.

And, of course, Israel was accused of breaking the ceasefire agreement—when, in reality, Hamas breached it from the start: The terror group moved thousands of armed fighters into northern Gaza, paraded hostages before jeering crowds, “mistakenly” returned the wrong body instead of Shiri Bibas, and threatened to call off a hostage release.

The belief that Hamas would ever relinquish all its hostages without pressure was always just wishful thinking. See Jake Wallis Simons here for more. Hostages are the Gaza terrorists’ last remaining assets after Israel decimated their rocket stockpiles and tunnels. They will hold on to at least some unless forced otherwise.

Let’s remember that the first hostage deal didn’t spring from some brilliant European diplomacy; it came about only due to relentless military pressure. The long period that followed without further releases coincided with the West’s growing abandonment of Israel and an avalanche of baseless accusations, fuelling the not unreasonable hope among Hamas leaders that international pressure would save them from the IDF.

The latest hostage deal materialised only after President Trump crushed those hopes, warning that there would be “all hell to pay” if the hostages aren’t freed.

During those negotiations, Israel made concerted efforts to reach a second phase for a permanent ceasefire, even offering Hamas leaders a chance to go into exile instead of facing justice for their atrocities. Yet the Islamist terrorists spurned any reasonable compromise, insisting on terms that would guarantee its grip on power.

Not even the European governments now berating Israel would accept such an outcome—at least not in theory. In practice, though, their calls for “diplomacy” would make Hamas’s continued rule inevitable.

Which brings us to the biggest untruth of all: the delusion that diplomacy could actually resolve this conflict. Britain’s ambassador to Israel, Simon Walters, expressed this fiction best (or worst). “I have worked in and around conflicts for thirty years, and grew up in Northern Ireland during the height of the terrorist campaigns. One of the main lessons I take from that experience is that at some point the fighting has to stop and diplomacy begin. That point is now,” Walters posted on social media. The facile comparisons between the IRA and Hamas distort the realities of both conflicts.

Even evil exists on a spectrum. As Andrew Roberts argues, the IRA, for all its bloodshed, never committed the barbarism Hamas unleashed on October 7 or sought the destruction of Britain. It demanded territorial change, which made a political solution possible.

Hamas, by contrast, is explicit in its genocidal intentions. So what's the diplomatic solution–meet them halfway?

The UK’s and Europe’s illusions about what Israel should do about Hamas are especially striking given their newfound, and welcome, realism toward Russia. No number of deaths in the war in Ukraine, as many as one million casualties by now, seems too high when Europe’s security hangs in the balance. Even with thousands of miles (and, in Britain’s case, a waterway) between them and Russia, the governments of the UK and Europe hawkishly dismiss meek diplomacy in favour of war and military deterrence.

These same governments, though, insist Israel abandon its military advantage against mortal threats right at its borders. Unlike Ukraine, Israel clearly can defeat its enemies—whether in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, or Iran. And yet, Western leaders insist that for the Jewish state, war–let alone victory–is not the answer. Instead, Israel must be dragged back from the brink of victory and condemned to the purgatory of endless “diplomacy” and conflict with an unyielding foe.

Israelis are themselves divided about the best strategy to free the hostages. See Amelie Botbol’s piece here. But they are united in understanding that Hamas must be eliminated.

In Europe, ‘Never Again’ may be just an empty slogan. In Israel, it’s policy.