The Palestinians have forfeited their right to self-determination.

Their national identity is based solely on hating Jews and destroying Israel. That is their mission statement. If they accomplished their goal, they would have no other purpose.

Gazans cheer on Hamas, and then blame Israel when the terror group brings destruction to the Strip. (photo: Mohammed Ibrahim/Unsplash)

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This is a guest essay written by Dena Tauber, a New York-based attorney who discovered a passion for Israel and Zionism following October 7th.

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

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The Book of Genesis in the Bible recounts the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose citizens were so evil that God decided to destroy them, despite Abraham’s entreaties for mercy on their behalf.

To no avail, not even 10 good men could be found in these cities, so God wiped them off the earth with “sulfur and fire.”

There was nothing they would not do, no person they were not willing to violate, and no chance to repent they wanted to take. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah not only as punishment for their wickedness, but also to stop their evil from spreading further.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other terrorists — joined by thousands of Palestinian civilians — invaded Israel, where they proceeded to murder, torture, burn alive, behead, rape, and kidnap innocent people. They murdered upwards of 1,200 innocents and kidnapped 250 people into Gaza. Their brutality shocked the civilized world.

Hostages have been held in dungeons for more than 500 days, where Hamas rapes men and women, chains them, starves them, and tortures them. Agreement was finally reached to permit Israel to ransom hostages from Hamas, in exchange for releasing hundreds of terrorists in Israeli jails and a temporary cessation of the war.

The terror continued, as Hamas orchestrated a grotesque spectacle to accompany the handover of the hostages that gutted even the most desensitized among us. The world watched as they conducted bizarre ceremonies involving parading hostages on a podium before jeering crowds of civilians, where they were joined by representatives of the International Red Cross and handed certificates and gift bags, while being forced to smile and wave.

As the weeks passed, these displays became increasingly frightening. Hostages Gadi Moses and Arbel Yehud, as they struggled to make their way from Hamas captivity to Red Cross vehicles, were rushed by an out-of-control mob who made clear what they would do to them if they could. The following week saw another sick demonstration with the release of Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami, and Eli Sharabi looking cadaverous.

But nothing could have prepared us for the presentation of the bodies of 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, what was purported to be Shiri Bibas, and her sons Ariel and Kfir, who were ages 4 years and 9 months, respectively, when they were kidnapped. The so-called “Palestinian people” looked on as the coffins were displayed on a podium with the pictures of the victims displayed on their coffins, including their “date of arrest” beneath a caricature of a befanged Netanyahu dripping blood.

Hamas once again accompanied the release of the hostages' bodies with an orchestrated ceremony, including taunts and provocative slogans, which, this time, included a threat to murder the remaining hostages.

What was accomplished by holding and torturing for 10 years Avera Mengistu and Hisham al Sayed, an Israeli Bedouin, both with a history of mental health problems?

Is this what the terror supporters mean by “resistance”?

The terrorists have insisted since November of 2023 that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were killed in an Israeli airstrike. That lie was exposed on Friday after a forensic analysis determined that the children were strangled to death.

Only sociopaths kidnap and murder babies. They had already committed such horrendous crimes and accomplished their goal of utterly terrifying the people of Israel. There was nothing more to gain by killing those children anymore than there was to gain by starving and torturing their adult hostages. This was gratuitous cruelty.

There is nothing they will not do, no person they are not willing to violate, and no chance to repent they want to take.

Palestinian civilians came with their children on a family outing to cheer at the death of an old peace activist, a mother, and her babies. It was a celebration of death.

Western apologists insist, without evidence, that there is a material distinction between Hamas and ordinary Gazans (and it’s tempting to believe that despite all evidence to the contrary) because how can a society be so rotten to its core?

It took this — strangulation of babies and battering their bodies — to wake us out of our stupor brought on by our insistence that there is a bottom to the depths of Palestinian evil. We hoped that deep down they were like us. But I have never seen reality more clearly in all its ugliness.

The most recent horrors have resulted in calls to wipe the Palestinians off the face of the earth. But there is a less drastic solution available: relocation. Israeli ministers branded as “Far-Right” have suggested it before but no one took the idea seriously — until it became clear that the Palestinians, even with a barrier, pose an unacceptable risk to Israelis on their border.

U.S. President Donald Trump was the first Western leader to suggest that the Palestinians be relocated, perhaps temporarily, because the Strip is apparently uninhabitable and there is no place for them to live while the area is being rebuilt.

The idea was rejected out of hand by Arab leaders.

But Trump has not backed down and he has some leverage, mainly the withholding of U.S. aid. Even if his idea for the U.S. to turn Gaza into some kind of paradise is not practical (or desirable), he opened a door that had previously been closed. Relocation may be the best option available. If at some point the population becomes de-Nazified, we can talk about return.

It took 30 years of suicide bombings, kidnappings, stabbings, car rammings, and more that left thousands of Israelis dead and more wounded before the adults in the room acknowledged the futility of pursuing a “two-state solution,” even though it had been enshrined in global consciousness as the only path forward. Israel cannot afford to waste another 30 years pursuing fantastical solutions that fail to acknowledge the reality of Palestinian society.

Before anyone starts howling about “ethnic cleansing,” consider the following:

1. Thousands of Palestinian civilians joined Hamas in their invasion of Israel on October 7th to plunder the property of the Israelis as they were being killed. There is footage of them entering Israeli communities through the broken gates. I saw film of one elderly man limping in with a cane. This alone is not normative behavior; being an Arab is not an excuse for joining in a killing spree.
   

2. Palestinians celebrated the savagery of October 7th. The film of Palestinian men driving through Gaza in a pick-up truck while spitting on Israeli hostage Shani Louk’s broken body in the truck bed is now iconic. It boggles the mind that any decent human being could accept this kind of behavior. Please remember the West is funding this society. Our tax dollars paid for their terror tunnels and gave them the wherewithal to commit the atrocities on October 7th.
   

3. Surveys show that a majority of Palestinians remain committed to the so-called “right of return” and living according to shariah law.
   

4. Gazan “civilians” kept Israeli hostages in their homes and used them as slaves.
   

5. It was Palestinian civilians who kidnapped Shiri Bibas and her sons. No doubt they were paid handsomely for this prize.

Of course, not every Palestinian in Gaza is complicit in the heinous crimes of Hamas. There have to be some civilians in Gaza who really are innocent bystanders. There are even a handful of sincere Palestinian peace activists who have denounced Hamas time and again, and have begged Western supporters to see these vicious terrorists for the sadists they are.

But these people are few and far between.

The hostages who were held in civilian homes report that the Palestinians of Gaza are a society of terrorists. Hundreds of private homes contained entrances to underground tunnels, weapons, and copies of “Mein Kampf.” It is not surprising to see how they indoctrinate their children in a culture of hatred and train them to be murderers from early childhood. They have normalized violence and believe it is their God-given right to murder Jews.

The Palestinians were provided with every opportunity to create an independent state, where the people could live in dignity that Western politicians claim is their due. However, the Palestinians have utterly failed in that endeavor.

In fact, the past 16-plus months have shown that not only do they lack the skills to build an independent, self-sustaining polity capable of living in a civilized society; they don’t want these things at all. Their national identity is based solely on hating Jews and destroying Israel. That is their mission statement. If they accomplished their goal, they would have no other purpose.

After 76 years, Israel does not have to continue to tolerate the intolerable. The Palestinians have forfeited their right to self-determination. At the same time that they were engaged in their gruesome celebration of having murdered two children and their mother and an elderly peace activist, their brothers in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) planted bombs in 15 Israeli public transport buses designed to detonate together when the buses were full of passengers.

Their assault is unrelenting and their time is up.

They need to go.

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