Douglas Murray: Israel can’t afford to leave Hamas in Gaza
Despite mounting international pressure and war costs, Israel cannot afford to end it war “with Hamas in power in any form,” British public intellectual Douglas Murray told JNS last week.Israeli legal experts Shurat HaDin call for global reckoning in fight against Hamas
A prominent author, associate editor of the British magazine The Spectator and regular contributor to The Times and The Daily Telegraph, Murray in an interview with JNS justified Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to keep fighting until Hamas’s dismantlement, and downplayed concerns that it would leave Israel isolated.
“Anything short of victory is defeat,” Murray told JNS at a conference organized by the European Jewish Association in Madrid on combating antisemitism.
Israel’s decision this month to intensify the fighting until Hamas is removed from power in Gaza has triggered a coordinated effort within the European Union and beyond to punish the Jewish state for what its critics call war crimes.
On Monday, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada published a joint statement threatening “concrete actions in response” to the war. The European Commission on Tuesday decided to review its trade agreement with Israel, citing concerns of human rights abuses.
According to some reports, the war is also straining the U.S.-Israeli alliance, though officials from both countries have denied this. Pressure to end the war short of achieving its main goal is mounting, also internally in Israel. Yair Golan, the leader of the far-left The Democrats party, on Tuesday implied that Israel was insane, as “a sane country does not kill babies as a hobby.”
But “the reality is that Israel must see this war through. Anything less invites the next one,” Murray said in Madrid, where the director of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, presented him with an award honoring his fact-finding missions in Israel and his support of the Jewish state.
Murray had covered the war in Ukraine intensively when, on Oct. 7, 2023, war broke out between Israel, Hamas and several other Iranian proxies. The British journalist subsequently spent weeks in Israel, where he documented atrocities committed by Hamas.
On April 10, Murray defended Israel on the podcast of Joe Rogan, where he challenged Rogan, the world’s most listened-to pundit, on perceived unfairness and laziness in discussing Israel’s war. That exchange had more than four million listeners.
Murray does not believe in continuing the war regardless of its cost, but rather that this cost is still manageable, despite attempts to raise it for Israel.
“Not at any cost,” Murray told JNS about the terms for continuing the war. As it appears now, the cost of not dismantling Hamas may end up exceeding that of terminating its reign, he argued. “Keeping Hamas means another war at some point. So anything short of victory is defeat—and we can’t afford a defeat. It’s unaffordable,” Murray said.
A pivotal panel during the Jerusalem Post’s 2025 Annual Conference, moderated by diplomatic correspondent Amichai Stein, convened three prominent figures on the legal frontlines of Israel’s ongoing struggle against terrorism and global prejudice: attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, MK Simcha Rothman, and Adv. Yael Yativ.Seth Frantzman: Has the Era of Extremism Ended in the Middle East?
Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin, emphasized the need to fight Hamas not only on the battlefield but also in the courtroom. “For Israel to win the war over Hamas and to bring back the hostages… we have to dismantle the terror organization by going after their financial infrastructure,” she said. “Follow the money, target the money, kill the money.”
Since October 7, Shurat HaDin has intensified legal campaigns against entities aiding terror, including the Palestinian Authority, Qatari charities, and cryptocurrency platforms. Darshan-Leitner vowed to hold international organizations accountable for betrayal and complicity. “We went after the Red Cross that abandoned the hostages… and after UNRWA, which helped Hamas by hiding launchers and missiles,” she stated. “They think they have immunity, but they do not.”
Rothman concentrated on Israel’s internal legal framework, advocating for a significant change in how the justice system handles terrorism. “We’re still prosecuting terrorists like we are on October 6,” he said.
The MK also highlighted a legal discrepancy in prosecuting incitement for genocide, noting that while it’s punishable by death under Israeli law, it is almost never enforced. “If the United States starts prosecuting incitement for genocide, Qatar-funded mosques five kilometers from here will have a lot to answer for,” he said.
Yativ shared the emotional survival story of a soldier treated at Assuta Ashdod Hospital. “We do not cry – we are resilient,” a soldier’s mother told her. The panelists conveyed a strong message: Israel’s legal and moral struggle goes well beyond the battlefield, requiring courage, innovation, and global accountability.”
Today these groups are weakened or close to collapse. For instance, the PKK has said it will dissolve itself, ending 40 years of fighting against Turkey. PKK-linked groups may not follow suit in Iran or Syria, but they will likely morph into something else. The Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria are linked to the PKK, but they have moved far from their roots and are now prepared to integrate with the new government in Damascus. The PKK’s decision could also end a simmering conflict in northern Iraq, where Turkey maintains bases to fight the PKK.
ISIS cells are still active in Syria and Iraq, but the group is much weaker than when it was claiming territory and committing atrocities in 2015-2017. One of the clearest examples of the withering of extremist groups, though, is illustrated by the transition of Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS). The group was linked to al Qaeda but moderated while in control of Idlib in northern Syria. On Dec. 8, 2024, when the Assad regime fell, HTS became the new de-facto rulers in Damascus. Its leader, al Sharaa, became the transitional president. Now it is trying both to govern and to step away from its past extremism. Trump’s decision to meet with Sharaa, and the European Union’s decision on May 20 to end sanctions on Syria, show outside players are embracing the new reformists in Damascus.
Not all the Islamist groups in the region who use terrorism as a policy tool have disappeared. The Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas shows how deadly extremists can still be. However, Hamas has been weakened by Israel’s 19-month war in Gaza. The group’s leadership has been decimated. It still has support from Iran and receives a welcome mat in Turkey and Qatar, but its aging leaders may not be able to inspire the next generation.
Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq are all part of the Iranian-backed nexus of armed groups in the region, and these groups are also changing. Hezbollah was badly beaten by Israel in 2024. The fall of the Assad regime swept aside Iranian-backed militias in Syria. The PMF continue to be powerful but face some attempts to rein in their power; they could ossify and become less relevant over time. The Houthis pose a threat and have shown they can confront Israel and the U.S. However, it is possible that the Houthis have also reached the peak of their power.
What does this mean for the Middle East? Extremist groups have hollowed out states and sowed chaos across the region. For instance, Iranian-backed groups weakened Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, all of which became semi-failed states. Hamas took over Gaza in a coup in 2007 and brought ruin to the area with a decade and a half of wars on Israel. ISIS committed genocide in Iraq. The PKK not only tried to ignite a war in Turkey in 2015, but its affiliates and cadres also created chaos in northern Iraq. In Syria and Iran, the role of groups linked to the PKK has been different, but overall the dissolution of the group will likely help bring peace to Kurdish regions in four countries.
For decades, images of terrorism came to define the way people from other parts of the world viewed the Middle East. Historic cities such as Baghdad and Damascus became more well known for war than arts and culture. Gaza, once an important stop on trade routes, has been a scene of unending war. Extremist groups fought ceaselessly to seize power, hollow out states, and use countries as bases to spread conflict. As these groups are weakened and the state system returns to the region, a new future may emerge. This new future is on display as Trump meets Sharaa, the PKK dissolves, and Iran sees its proxies cut off and isolated.
