Page 83 - October 7 - Teresa Pirola

defensive war according to the rules of military engagement, and organisations of terror who provoke war and who fight without any moral parameters to contain their barbarous actions?
In the case of Hamas and its collaborators, such barbarous actions include murder, rape, torture and abduction of unarmed civilians; recruitment and use of children as militants; unprovoked rocket attacks into Israeli sovereign land; the use of civilians as shields in battle; embedded military installations in civilian structures, including Palestinian homes, hospitals, refugee camps and schools; the stealing of humanitarian aid; and the ongoing incitement of antisemitic violence among its population. Such actions also include the years of building a sophisticated tunnel network under Gaza at the expense of nation-building infrastructure that was never built above ground, and used for the purposes of terrorism against Israelis.
Given this lengthy list of crimes and longstanding human rights abuses, any implied critique of the IDF on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is unjust if it does not also hold Hamas accountable. At the very least, could not the Pope have observed that ‘Terrorism is always a crime against human beings’ as well as saying ‘War is always a defeat’?
On this one occasion at least, could not Pope Francis have paused long enough to honour Jewish victims of Hitler’s systematic mass murder machine, without leaving the door ajar for present-day criticisms of the descendants of those victims—criticisms that can be, and are, robustly debated? Was it really the time to imply or pass judgement on a present- day war where Jews are fighting for the right of their people to simply live?
I am not suggesting that the Pope’s comments were explicitly
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