The families of the eight Israeli boys who were tragically, brutally and callously slain in Jerusalem last Thursday are still in the process of mourning their sons. The victims were mostly teenagers.
They were Torah students, gunned down as they clung to their holy texts - the books their ancestors have studied in this holy city for time immemorial. The Mercaz Harav is a house of learning where young men discuss, debate and reflect on the words of the Bible. After last week's carnage eight of those men were in body bags and their Bibles were strewn with blood.
There can be no excuse for this atrocity. The world cannot make allowances for such an act. It was cold-blooded murder and must be condemned, unconditionally and with no excuses. The international community must not be manipulated into arming murderers with credibility. Any attempt to justify terrorism of this kind is disingenuous, counter-productive and morally reprehensible. At best, it is extremely naïve and demonstrates a failure to identify the political dynamics of our fragile region.
Israel, as a democracy under fire, is facing a daily terrorist threat from extremists who celebrate death, despise democracy and seek Israel's destruction. These extremists target Israeli civilians as a strategy, the product of a mindset that values death at all costs. It is the mindset that leads a man to unload an AK-47 at point blank range into children studying in a library. It is a disturbed mindset that allows a Hamas spokesman to describe that massacre as "the heroic operation in Jerusalem".
These were words of hatred from an organisation that has been waging a terrorist war against Israeli civilians for years. They are words uttered by an organisation that has tyrannised the citizens of Sderot and Ashkelon with a bombardment of rockets that has made life unbearable. Those rockets are aimed at hospitals, schools and homes. They are aimed to kill as many Israelis as possible.
They are fired with the same indiscriminate intent as the Jerusalem gunman. Hamas has fired 900 rockets so far in 2008 and more than 4,500 since Israel disengaged from Gaza more than two and a half years ago. Israel has a duty, an obligation and a right to take whatever steps are necessary to protect its citizens.
We are facing a daily terrorist threat that is unique in its intensity to that faced by any other democracy in the world. As a result, we face unique dilemmas. How do we find a balance between our duty to fight terror and the need to act in keeping with our democratic values, at the heart of which lies a belief in the sanctity of human life?
This is a difficult balancing act. Unfortunately there has been a blurring of realities and a new mythology created that misses key points about Hamas's reign of terror. For the world to play a part in promoting peace, we need to demythologise the situation.
While Hamas has been waging war on Israel, its illegal rule within Gaza has been characterised by tyranny, zealotry and managerial incompetence. It seized power from the Palestinian Authority in June 2007 in a violent coup d'etat, brutalising its Fatah rivals and condemning ordinary Palestinians to the status of pawns in a destructive, ideologically driven war.
Hamas must be isolated. They are part of a threat that faces not just Israel but the entire region and beyond. An extremist terrorist bloc has emerged in the Middle East. It is encouraged, funded and armed by Iran and includes Hamas and Hezbollah. It is a threat to all those in the region who are pragmatic in their search for peace. The threat is felt by Egypt, Jordan and of course the pragmatic leadership of the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas does not recognise Israel. There are, however, Palestinians who do. Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad have demonstrated their commitment to the fragile peace process. To talk to Hamas would pull the rug from under Abbas's feet.
It would disenfranchise the forces of moderation in our region. Israel is pursuing peace with those who have made it clear that they can be a sincere partner in negotiations. Within moments of the atrocity in Jerusalem, our Foreign Minister announced that we will continue to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, which swiftly condemned the terrorist killings. The forces of pragmatism, moderation and compromise must unite against the extremists.
To make that possible, the international community must wake up to the reality that Israel is a democracy under fire, threatened by extremists who wish to destabilise the entire region.
We will not allow those extremists who sanctify death to derail us from our quest for peace. In the Jewish scriptures that last Thursday lay drenched in blood, we are commanded to sanctify life. We will continue to do just that.
Ron Prosor is Israel's ambassador to the UK
