During the second world war, Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan were correctly described as brutal, oppressive, evil regimes that desired world domination. Britain and the US saw themselves as defenders of democracy, freedom, and human dignity. And for the most part, the world agreed that the Allied powers were right, that the second world war was a moral one, that it was a war of good versus evil.

Today, that moral clarity has been inverted.

On 7, October 2023, Hamas committed the most barbaric massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. This sentence is written often but the power of the statement is being washed away as the Israel-Gaza war wages on and we see a humanitarian crisis unfolding that is solely the fault of Hamas.

To recap, on October 7, Israeli civilians at a music festival were gunned down, residents in homes and cars were burned alive, children were shot point blank, women were raped, and bodies were paraded as trophies through Gaza with crowds cheering. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped into Gaza including some 30 children, and on that day alone over 1,200 people were slaughtered by Palestinian gunmen who filmed and celebrated the massacre whilst echoing statements that they would do it over and over again given the chance. This is evil.

We cannot analyse wars in isolation. To understand the moral weight of this conflict, we must compare it to others. That’s why the second world war comparison is essential. I am reminded of stories from the islands of Okinawa and Saipan in the final stages of war when Japan was on the verge of defeat. Instead of surrender, Imperial Japan used relentless propaganda to distribute commands to civilian families and soldiers to commit mass suicides rather than be taken captive.

The military issued hand grenades to the civilian population as a means for them to commit suicide with their loved ones. As the US army approached, there were scenes of mothers with their children throwing themselves off cliffs. Others used blades, ropes, rocks, or guns to kill each other. These were termed suicide defensive battle strategies. They believed surrender meant rape and torture by US soldiers because that’s what the regime told them. Historians have commented that the mindset was one of obedience to the Japanese Emperor with a willingness to die for the nation at all costs.

This mentality is crucial to understanding why the Gaza war has continued for so long.

Hamas refuses to surrender despite Israel’s overwhelming military superiority over Gaza. 49 hostages remain in Gaza. Some are alive and others are presumed dead. Hamas could, at any time, release them as a humanitarian gesture in order to ease the suffering of the hostages and the hostages’ families, but also to open the door to significant international aid for Gazan civilians. But, like Imperial Japan, any deal or compromise is a form of surrender and would undermine Hamas’ authority over Gaza which it is desperately trying to maintain.

Hamas is willingly continuing this war with no care for what is happening to the civilian population it governs. Instead, it uses their suffering for its own political gain. This is evil.

To escalate its campaign of psychological warfare against Israel, Hamas has released a meticulously produced video of a hostage who is skeletal, broken, and barely recognisable from his 2023 photographs. The video is cut with music, cinematic pacing, and deliberate edits. This level of production should raise questions in the public mind and media about how Hamas is able to film such a high-quality video – the equipment, the editing, the skill – all whilst its people and the hostages are enduring the worst conditions. The hostage’s appearance evokes images from Nazi death camps, and Hamas is knowingly weaponising this trauma and turning both Israeli pain and Palestinian suffering into propaganda theatre. This is evil.

And yet, despite all this, there is no pressure placed on Hamas to surrender. The mainstream media continues to peddle the narrative of Israel as the aggressor, insisting it allow more aid into Gaza despite well-documented evidence of Hamas stealing, hoarding, and exploiting humanitarian supplies.

Palestinian protestors do not demand the release of hostages or call on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire deal.

Instead, the responsibility is placed solely on Israel to stop fighting, to keep absorbing attacks, and to solve a crisis engineered by a terror regime that thrives on civilian suffering.

During the second world war, the world knew who the enemy was and the Allied powers understood that complete and unconditional surrender was necessary to defeat fascism. Britain and the US showed moral courage. They recognised that peace would only come through the total defeat of tyranny and not through half-measures.

Today, that moral clarity has been replaced with moral relativism, or worse, immorality.