The philosopher Karl Popper stated that for liberal democracies to survive, they must not tolerate the intolerant. Boundaries, therefore, are essential. Cultural relativists, such as the post-modern philosopher Michel Foucault and the feminist thinker Judith Butler, undermine the notion of boundaries by citing the diverse cultural and social practices of groups throughout history. Ironically, their arguments about different ways of understanding the world – given that many societies have been bloodthirsty tyrannies – actually reinforce the idea, central to liberalism, that we must protect, sometimes with violence, the tolerance that is a hallmark of liberalism. It should be evident, then, that in a war against Nazi totalitarianism, communist despotism, or Islamic fundamentalism, innocents, including women and children, will be injured and killed, simply because no society in history has managed to survive without defending itself against internal and external enemies. The unique decency of liberalism, however, unlike regimes based on ideology, is that liberalism only defends itself against those who, coming back to Popper, are intolerant of its intellectual, cultural and social tolerance.

Some observers, however, fail to grasp this obvious truth, and their actions create a greater evil than their good intentions were meant to alleviate. War, as John Stuart Mill argued, is not the greatest of evils.

In the current climate, it is clear that democratic Israel is a paradigmatic example of tolerance, while Hamas and the ‘moderate’ Palestinian Authority are definitive paragons of intolerance. How, from the perspective of tolerance, can a democracy defend itself against a people steeped in a culture that celebrates the murder, torture, and rape of Jews? A society that teaches its children that their most noble aspiration should be to kill and become a martyr, and which pays the families of martyrs – ‘pay to slay’ – for murder.

Some people believe that the tolerant do not have a right to defend themselves and that we should listen to, and believe, politically motivated propaganda from the intolerant, who mask their extremism in the language and emotion of human rights. In other words, the bully can hit me, but how dare I respond in kind? This is the victory of emotion over reason.

A perfect example of how propaganda fosters this type of irrationalism was recently provided by ‘Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Gaza’, in which, on their GoFundMe page, whether they are aware of it or not, they repeat Palestinian propaganda. Remember, to be clear, no person or organisation in Gaza is allowed a voice unless they parrot views favourable to Hamas.

‘Journalists’ in Gaza are no more free to speak the truth than writers in Nazi Germany or communist Russia. To put it bluntly, one would have to be credulous beyond absurdity to accept without suspicion any idea coming from Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza. And even if what was reported is true, one needs to evaluate the story in the broader context of open societies versus closed societies. We also need to remember that Israel is fighting a multi-front war against Islamic fundamentalism. It’s not just Israel versus Palestine.

The anti-Israeli propaganda that is ubiquitous at the moment is both malicious and simplistic and it is aimed at people’s most decent moral impulses, which unfortunately bypass the rational part of our minds. The much-cited Palestinian poet, Refaat Alareer, for example, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, claimed that the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel was akin to the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, however, did not burn babies alive or cut off the breasts of the women they had raped. A nice poem does not negate Alareer’s support for disgraceful acts of barbarism. Hitler once wrote a nice poem about his mother.

Do the Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Gaza, who, on a generous reading, are innocents abroad, know that the Red Crescent and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) are complicit in Palestinian terrorism? The Red Crescent hides Palestinian terrorists in ambulances, and many Unrwa staff participated in the atrocities on 7 October. Unrwa has been teaching hatred of Jews to Palestinian children for generations. The result of that indoctrination manifested itself in the stomach-churning atrocities of October 2023. Also, how can an ostensibly non-political organisation pose on their GoFundMe page in front of a photo of a pro-Palestinian television documentary, while one of its members wears a keffiyeh?

The problem with this type of political activism is that it makes claims that are untrue. Two months ago, there was a four-month supply of food in Gaza. The UN states that 1.4 million tonnes of food have entered Gaza since October 2023, which is 50 per cent more food than is needed. The problem is that Hamas are stealing food and medical supplies and are threatening hungry Palestinians who criticise Hamas’s misuse of medical and food supplies with death. A criminal organisation, with a history of sacrificing its own people to further its stated aim of destroying Israel, is believed over a democracy.

Hamas’s contempt for its own people follows a pattern. Building terror tunnels instead of investing in medical facilities and infrastructure is an indication of its priorities. There is, for Hamas, however, a simple solution to any purported lack of food or medical supplies: release the hostages, surrender your arms, and ask Egypt to open its border with Gaza. (The Israelis are currently using facial recognition technology to bypass Hamas and deliver aid to ordinary Palestinians).

In 1943, the Allies demanded the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. At the same time, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was broadcasting from Berlin the idea that Nazism and Islam are similar philosophies. Al-Husseini is a Palestinian hero. The only place on Earth where Nazi propaganda is a potent force is in Islamic societies. It is especially rancid among Palestinians. No liberal democracy can tolerate such a philosophy festering next door. The Israelis are dealing with the intolerable Hamas, after endless provocations, the same way the Allies dealt with the intolerable Nazi Germany.

Here are two questions for critics of Israel: how can a democracy defend itself without causing unintentional casualties, including those of women and children? And which political system do you support: the tolerable democratic Israel or the intolerable Nazi-like, atrocity-loving, torturing, murdering, genocidal, Hamas dictatorship?