This was Shani Louk. Kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7th, her body was only recovered today. Shani was tortured, raped, and beaten before being murdered and dragged round the streets half-naked as a “trophy” and an example of what would happen to other Israelis. They broke her legs. They shot her in the head. They brutalised and defiled her. All because she was Jewish. Hamas kept her body as a token and bargaining chip for months, denying her a proper burial and keeping her family in constant torment over their daughter’s resting place. Hamas even called her mother and pretended that she was alive, only to reveal that she had been killed along with over 1,200 other innocent Israelis. She was just 22 years old. The only way they were able to identify her was by a fragment of her skull. Shani didn’t need to die, and yet Hamas slaughtered her and hundreds of others for no other reason than that they view Jews — and anyone else who doesn’t subscribe to their ideology — as sub-human. Israel respected the ceasefire. Israel gave territory for Palestinian use. Israel wanted peace. Hamas didn’t. And, through the many previous instances of conflict involving Palestine, it was the Palestinian movement that served as aggressors. Even against third party states who took them in. Jordan remembers Black September. Kuwait remembers how the Palestine Liberation Organisation aligned with Saddam Hussein and assisted him in the 1990 Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait. Lebanon remembers how, when they took in the Palestinians, the PLO massacred Christian civilians, seized control of large areas of Lebanon, and started a civil war. Palestine’s history is a complex one. But there is a reason why so many Middle Eastern countries distrust Palestine, and their betrayal of the kindness offered by one-time allies has cast a dark shadow on their relations with much of the non-Islamic world. The Pro-Palestine crowd want to paint Israel as the villains in this war, but they conveniently “forget” how it started. So, to those in the West who support Hamas’ actions and believe that they are simply “fighting for Palestine” : They would do to you what they did to Shani, and they wouldn’t think twice. So, when you think of the Gaza War, try to look past the anti-Semitic propaganda and remember who really started this war. Because it wasn’t Shani. It wasn’t Israel. It was Hamas.