DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Sick glorification of a ruthless terror cult

While the civilised world recoils from the horror of the bloody Hamas incursion into Israel, on the streets of London and other British cities, people dance and wave flags in celebration.

Hundreds of civilians massacred including UK citizens; young Jewish women raped and then shot; families wiped out; naked bodies of the dead paraded through the streets of Gaza. Now Hamas is threatening to publicly execute hostages snatched during Saturday’s raid.

By any decent standard this is psychopathic and utterly indefensible conduct. But, for a significant number of anti-Semites in Britain, it was an act of heroism.

One Palestinian woman told a rally in Brighton that the mass slaughter had been ‘beautiful’ and ‘inspiring’.

An editor for Left-wing media outlet Novara said the rampage should be welcomed by ‘supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide’.

Smoke and flames rise following Israeli strikes in Gaza, October 9

Palestine protest outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington on Monday night

University students joined in the adulation, with Palestine societies at Warwick and London’s School of Oriental and African Studies praising the killers.

In any other context, this sick glorification of racially motivated murder would be viewed as a hate crime and cracked down on hard by the police.

But there was little sign of that happening last night as hard-Left demonstrators spewed bile against Israel outside the country’s embassy in London.

Quite rightly, Rishi Sunak has offered Israel Britain’s full support, having Israel’s flag projected on to Downing Street as a gesture of solidarity.

There are others, however, who are happy to give succour to Hamas. Sinn Fein blamed Saturday’s massacres on Israel’s supposed policy of ‘apartheid’ rather than the terrorists who committed them.

As the political wing of the IRA, it was used to making excuses for the murder of innocents, but it is now the joint largest party in the Irish Dail. Does Ireland really want its elected representatives to be apologists for this kind of savagery?

The United Nations Security Council shamefully ducked the issue, with Russia and China refusing to back a US motion condemning the ‘heinous terrorist attacks’. They called instead for negotiations.

But these terror groups are not interested in negotiating, or any form of shared ‘two-state’ solution. Their stated aim is to see Israel obliterated from the map of the Middle East. Like the monsters of Isis, they are driven by religious bigotry and implacable hatred.

A small group of protesters supporting Israel clash with supporters of Palestine in Kensington High Street tube station

Smoke rises over the buildings as the Israeli airstrikes continue in Al-Rimal Neighbourhood of Gaza City on Monday

A protester with a flare climbs a lamp post as part of a Palestine Solidarity Campaign near the Israeli Embassy in Kensington, West London

Israeli protesters and Palestinian protesters inside High Street Kensington tube station with police officers on Monday night

They are heavily funded by Iran, and there is speculation that Saturday’s raid may have been in response to Saudi Arabian moves to normalise relations with Israel.

We are already seeing Israel’s retaliation and, as ever, it is swift and brutal. Hundreds of targets in Gaza have been hit by rocket and artillery fire, with civilians inevitably being caught in the barrage.

The Palestinian enclave is now in a state of siege, with water, fuel and food supplies and electricity cut off. A full ground offensive has not been ruled out.

Hamas is holding around 100 Israeli hostages across Gaza, four of whom are said to have died in the bombardment, though they may have been killed by their captors.

Extracting the survivors is high on the Israeli list of priorities but will be ferociously difficult. Normally there might be a trade-off to be found. Right now, however, that seems improbable.

Some will say the Israeli onslaught is just as inhuman as the original Hamas attack. But there is no equivalence here.

Israel is a country which was created with the consent of the international community after the Second World War in the shadow of the Holocaust. It has an inalienable right to exist and to defend itself against those who seek to destroy it. It is engaged in a struggle for its very survival.

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