Rupert Murdoch: Struggle Against Hamas Is ‘Our Fight’

News Corp. chairman executive Rupert Murdoch says the free world is making a “terrible mistake” in thinking the clash between Hamas and Israel is not “our fight.”

In a speech to the American Jewish Committee, Murdoch said: “In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States . Tonight I say to you: Maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel .”

Murdoch, who received the organization’s National Human Relations Award, said the assault on the “legitimacy and security” of Israel “comes from people who make it clear they have no intention of ever living side-by-side in peace with a Jewish state, no matter how many concessions Israel might make.

“The reason for this is also clear: These are men who cannot abide the idea of freedom, tolerance and democracy. They hate Israel for the same reasons they hate us.”

Murdoch cited the relentless rocket attacks Hamas has launched on Israel from Gaza, and Israel’s need to respond. But the Jewish state faces two handicaps, he explained.

The first is military. “It’s true that Israel ’s conventional superiority means it could flatten Gaza if it wanted,” he said in his speech, which was adapted for an article in the Jerusalem Post.

“But the Israel Defense Forces � unlike Hamas � are accountable to a democratically chosen government . . . Every Israeli government knows it will be held accountable by its people and by the world for the lives that are lost because of its decisions. That’s true for lives of innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire” and the lives of Israeli soldiers.

The second handicap is the “global media war,” with news outlets continually focusing on images of Palestinian suffering, observed Murdoch, whose media empire includes the Fox News Channel, Fox Broadcasting Co., and the Wall Street Journal.

“In this, Israel finds itself in much the same position the United States found itself in Iraq before the surge. There, al-Qaida realized that it was in its interests to provoke sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni � no matter what the cost to innocent Iraqis. That is the nature of terror. And what we are seeing in Gaza is just one front in this much larger war.”

He concluded: “I do not pretend to have all the answers to Gaza this evening. But I do know this: The free world makes a terrible mistake if we deceive ourselves into thinking this is not our fight.”