The United Kingdom has created or sponsored programs to bring young Muslims deemed at risk of radicalization into contact with Muslim “anti-extremists” who will help them toward a more peaceable vision of their religion. While these anti-extremists are genuinely opposed to Islamic State and al-Qaeda, writes John Ware, their views about Israel are far from moderate. One of them, the government-approved mentor Hanif Qadir, refers to Palestinians who stab Jewish civilians as “resistance fighters”:

A first stage in the development of extremist ideas can be, as Prime Minister David Cameron has said, a belief in conspiracy theories about Jews exercising malevolent power. So what about this tweet from Qadir when Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, its 50-day military assault on Gaza to stop rocket fire into Israel in the summer of 2014? “A whole nation is being radicalized to exterminate the Palestinians. Where are the interventionists? Who is going to prevent this terrorism?” “Exterminate”? There could be no more serious, nor tendentious, charge against Jews. . . .

At the height of operation Protective Edge, Qadir also tweeted a picture showing Israelis supposedly playing badminton inside the al-Aqsa mosque. . . . The picture was captioned: “One of the most disturbing images of today. This is inside al-Aqsa mosque!! Palestinians were not allowed to pray inside but these people are allowed to play!” Attached to it were pictures of what look like smoldering Qurans and a woman defiling a Quran by standing on it with her bare feet and painted toenails.

The picture . . . appears to have come from Turkish media reports in July 2013 showing badminton (and karate and soccer) being played—not in Jerusalem but in the Milas mosque in the Mugla province of Turkey. A simple Google search would have alerted Qadir to his error.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.