Our lives are currently divided into two time periods: The time proceeding the 7^th of October and the time following that date. Israel is brimming with shock, pain and horror in the wake of the outrageous massacre perpetrated by Hamas on innocent civilians on the Sabbath morning, which was also a religious holiday. My hand trembles as I write these words describing just a fraction of this brutal assault. But we cannot look away. We must face this absolute evil to understand why Israel is determined to defeat this murder machine. Beginning at 06:30 on Saturday morning, over two thousand armed terrorists broke into homes and gunned down whole families while they slept. They fired RPGs into bedrooms. Mothers hid their children in closets, desperately trying to keep their babies from crying, but Hamas spared neither women nor children. Using iron wire, they bound mother to daughter, grandmother to grandson, and burned them alive. Do not look away from this evil. You must know what happened. They decapitated babies with knives, they raped young girls, they cut open a pregnant woman’s belly. They set fire to buildings, burning them to the ground while people were hiding inside. They attacked young men and women celebrating at a music festival in a forest clearing. They chased the fleeing revelers, shooting and killing them with indescribable cruelty. A few hundred young men and women were slaughtered right there, in the forest. Using unspeakable violence, they abducted entire families, including six-month-old babies and terrified children whose parents had just been murdered in front of them. Some 1400 Israelis were murdered in a brutal act of mass slaughter, minute by minute, over many hours. Were the murderers ashamed of their actions? Absolutely not. They enthusiastically documented the atrocities and broadcast them live. And during the mass slaughter, about 200 people were violently abducted from their homes to Hamas' dens of darkness, including an 85-year-old woman and small suckling babies seeking their mothers. The father of one of the murdered children, a sweet 8-year-old girl called Emily, said: “I was relieved when I heard that my little girl was murdered and not taken captive by Hamas.”

There are those who describe these actions as ‘animal behavior.’ This is incorrect. Animals do not behave in this manner. People who cold-bloodedly tortured entire families to death are not animals. They are human monsters. The horrific acts of October 7 awakened in the minds of many Israelis emotions of horror and helplessness reminiscent of the cellars of the collective memory of the Holocaust. The State of Israel was established to serve as a home for the Jewish people. To ensure that Jews are never led to their death simply because they are Jews. Hence the terrible shock now prevailing in Israel. There are no smiles, only profound misery and trauma. But there is also a strong feeling of ‘togetherness’ and a deep inner conviction that we must fight against this organization of terror and defeat it. To eradicate the threat of annihilation hanging over our children. We are fighting for our home. For our right to live!

For many years, the belief that a pragmatic way must be found to live alongside Hamas, while maintaining a certain status quo based on rational considerations, prevailed in Israel and in Western capitals, even though its ideology of violence and anti-Semitism was well-known. We always knew who and what Hamas is, its doctrine familiar. We read the Hamas Charter: Hamas’ founding document authored by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1988—the most dangerous anti-Semitic document written in the world since the Holocaust. The Hamas Charter blames the Jews for all the ills throughout history, dehumanizes Jews and rejects any political solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In many of its clauses, such as clause 13, it states that "there is no solution to the Palestinian problem except through Jihad,” meaning a holy war. But the Hamas Charter also explicitly speaks of a new genocide for the Jewish people. Clause 7 calls for the murder of Jews in every corner of the world, quoting as follows: “...the stones and trees will say: ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding [behind] me, come and kill him.’”

And that is exactly what happened. They came to kill.

For many years, leaders of the international community have demanded from Israel: Do not listen to what Hamas writes and what Hamas says. Ignore its ideology and terrible rhetoric. Despite the threats, Hamas wishes to improve the living conditions of the two million Palestinians who live under its bleak dictatorship, to guarantee them a livelihood, to allow them to fish and build an infrastructure. The well-planned attack on Israel on October 7th proved this concept wrong. Hamas is not interested in coexistence or peace. It is not interested in a better life for the two million Gazans, but in the elimination of the Jewish state and the murder of its citizens. This is not only its jihadist ideological goal, but also its only course of action. Hamas is ISIS, a Palestinian ISIS that unfortunately enjoys public relations and very troubling compassion from some of the world's major populations, including some of the media.

Is there a more profound act of self-defense than when Israel attacks the Hamas terror organization to defend itself? Israel is not attacking the Palestinian people. In fact, Israel poses no threat to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, as long as it does not join the attack on Israel. Hamas is not interested in establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but solely in the destruction of the State of Israel.

On the contrary: the establishment of a Palestinian state is directly opposed to Hamas’ conception of its ultimate goal—the establishment of an Islamic state in the entire territory, including the territory of Israel. It is not interested in creation but in total destruction. Not in peace but in eternal war until extreme Islam assumes power. The only solution, according to Hamas, is the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of its inhabitants.

Hamas does not hesitate to sacrifice Palestinians in its attempt to achieve this monstrous goal. There is no freedom in Gaza, no freedom of speech and no freedom of religion. But the situation is far more desperate: Hamas establishes its military bases within civilian population concentrations in Gaza, fully aware that photographs of dead Palestinian civilians are its most powerful weapon. The organization conceals missiles beneath hospitals and UNRWA schools, and fires at Israel from these sites in anticipation of live broadcasts on television networks. Indeed, many reporters—not only those of the Qatar-based "Al Jazeera" channel that spreads false Hamas propaganda, but also reporters from Western media outlets, rush to automatically broadcast Hamas propaganda without any verification whatsoever. Do not fall into the human shield trap! The only entities that should be blamed for the deaths of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip are Hamas and the other extremist organizations in Gaza who hide among women and children, their own people. Acting with willful and deliberate malice, it is they—not Israel—who are responsible for these tragic victims. Israel is defending itself and fighting for its life, and as a true democracy is doing everything in its power to avoid harming the innocent. It exercises its tremendous military power in a careful and controlled manner, acting within the constraints of international law, while Hamas proudly documents its acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Do not be mistaken: The war against Hamas is not Israel's private war. This is a campaign not only about the future of the entire Middle East, but about the future of the world in which we live. Your time is now divided into two as well. On one side of the world, a valuable and important alliance is forming between the United States, many European countries, and Israel, while on the other, an evil coalition of several very problematic countries and barbaric terror groups, of which Hamas and Hezbollah are the most prominent, is also forming.

“You are not alone, we stand by you,” President Biden said on his recent visit to Israel. We were filled with pride when we saw and heard the President of the United States express his full support for Israel's right to exist in security and its duty to eradicate Hamas.

Other world leaders expressed their solidarity as well, including the leaders of Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy. In contrast, however, there are other countries who continue to hesitate in the face of this murderous terrorist organization, refusing to condemn it while continuing to host some of its leaders on their soil.

We wish to thank Georgia for its clear condemnation of terror and for not supporting a one sided, detached from reality, resolution.

The time has come to designate Hamas as a terror organization, the same way ISIS is designated in Georgia, to join the many countries, including the EU, in the designation Hamas.

Your time is now also divided into two. October 7 obliges you to take immediate action. To do everything in your power to expedite the return of the abductees, some of whom may also be citizens of your own country, to their homes. These are women whose children were murdered before their eyes, children who were left without parents. An 85-year-old woman. All of them were abducted by force and are being held by a murderous organization.

Defense of Hamas is defense ISIS and al-Qaeda, and anyone who follows this policy inevitably bring the murderers into his own house. Where do you stand on this moral map?

Hadas Meitzad

The Ambassador of Israel to Georgia