Root them out

IGNORE any phony concern from Hamas over the plight of innocent Palestinians.

If they really cared, the terrorists could emerge from their tunnels, hand back their 199 hostages and surrender.

Gaza might then stand a chance of installing rulers not bent on racist genocide. A peaceful two-state solution might become reality.

As it stands that cannot happen.

Hamas exists only to annihilate Jews, with Palestinians as cannon fodder.

There is no negotiating with that. Unless Israel roots this evil out, the mass atrocity ten days ago will be the first of many.

Hamas and its sponsor Iran are horrified by warming relations between Israel and the Arab states. Their attempt to undermine it must fail.

So there is a political imperative for Israel to minimise civilian casualties among Palestinians as well as a moral one.

Yes, this is a war, and Hamas began it. But for the prospects of long-term peace Israel must show the Saudis and others the gulf between it and the fanatics.

Hamas’s rabid fans across the West will go to any lengths to paint Israel as the aggressor. To do so they defend the slaughter, rape and kidnapping of Jews.

Some are dangerous Islamist anti-Semites. Some are idiotic left-wingers.

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All have thrown in their lot with baby-murderers — and deserve every ounce of our revulsion and contempt.

Light and wrong

SECOND chances don’t come often but our football chiefs have one tonight.

They can do the right thing and light up Wembley in Israel’s colours. Or ­continue their moral cowardice.

We don’t want the FA again airbrushing the racist savagery of Nazi-style assassins as “devastating events” with victims on both sides.

We want Hamas’s evil condemned. And solidarity with Israel, the region’s sole liberal democracy.

Less buckling to the “Free Palestine” mob. More thought for the many Jews who watch football and whose community is yet again living in fear.

Jails debacle

THE shoplifting epidemic is the result of feeble punishments and the police’s ­consequent indifference.

How will commuting all jail terms of less than a year to cushy community sentences not expand that lawlessness to an array of other crimes?

We know Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is desperate to free up prison space. We welcome land being bought for new jails. But they’re a decade late.

It was always blindingly obvious that banging up more offenders would require several more prisons. But, like the new homes, nuclear plants and reservoirs, they didn’t get built.

So now villains who should be off our streets will be on them instead.

What a dismal fiasco.