A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

In the early days of the October 7th war, those of us who stood with Israel began using the phrase #HamasIsISIS.

It wasn’t a slogan, it was a warning. We had seen it before: the same depravity, the same religious fanaticism disguised as resistance, the same thirst for blood. The scenes coming out of southern Israel that day — families burned alive, children executed, women mutilated — were not a new phenomenon. They were the continuation of a long line of radical Islamist terror, stretching from Raqqa to Gaza, bound together by one ideology: the destruction of life in the name of faith.

Now, in October 2025, Israel has finally brought home the few remaining living hostages. The deal, brokered by President Trump, marks a moment of relief for many families. But even this small victory carries unbearable sorrow. Hamas still refuses to return the bodies of all the murdered hostages, clinging to death as if it were their only leverage.

Meanwhile, reports and videos flood in proving that Hamas is once again turning its guns inward, executing dissenters, killing civilians, and creating fresh mass graves inside Gaza. What kind of movement slaughters the very people it claims to protect? The answer is simple: the same kind that ISIS was.

And yet, the world looks away.

When the Same Crimes Are Judged Differently

It is astonishing how quickly moral clarity disappears when the victims are Israeli and the perpetrators are Palestinian. When ISIS conquered Mosul, enslaved Yazidi women, and lined up thousands of Muslims for execution, the entire international community declared war on terror.

When Al-Qaeda murdered innocents from New York to Nairobi, the world united under one banner: “Never again.”

But when Israel defends itself against a terror organization that shares the exact same ideology, the world changes its tone. Suddenly, restraint is demanded. Suddenly, the victims are accused of “disproportionate response.” Suddenly, the terrorists are “militants” and the killers are “freedom fighters.”

Why is terror under one flag universally condemned, while terror under another is excused?

This double standard is not just hypocrisy, it’s moral suicide.

The Silence That Speaks Volumes

At this very moment, Hamas has unleashed another wave of violence inside Gaza. Reports describe mass executions of civilians accused of collaboration, and videos prove this. Aid convoys are being hijacked. Food and fuel meant for hospitals and children are once again being diverted, likely to fuel more violence.

Where are the international protests? Where are the “Free Gaza” marches now that Gazans are being murdered by Hamas, not Israel?

The answer is chilling: silence.

The same activists who once cried “human rights” now avert their eyes. The same media outlets that broadcast every Israeli airstrike in slow motion now fall silent when the killers are Palestinian. The world’s outrage seems to depend on who holds the gun.

This silence is not neutrality. It is complicity.

The War on Truth

The tragedy is no longer just physical, it is informational. The war against Hamas has become a war for truth itself. Every bomb Israel drops is broadcast without context; every massacre by Hamas is buried beneath euphemisms. Social media has turned lies into weapons, and too many have chosen ignorance over integrity.

Today’s world no longer asks, “Who started the war?” It asks only, “How bad does the response look on camera?”

That’s not justice. That’s theater.

And in this theater of moral blindness, Hamas thrives. Because its victory does not depend on defeating Israel militarily, it depends on convincing the world that evil is resistance and self-defense is oppression.

History Repeats Itself

History is repeating itself, only this time, the victims are once again Jewish.

When the West fought ISIS, it understood the stakes. It knew that civilization itself was at risk. It spoke of the “war against barbarism.” It called it “a fight for humanity.”

But now, when Israel stands on the same front line, the world looks away. It prefers comfortable narratives over hard truths. It chooses moral relativism over moral courage.

This is the greatest betrayal of all, not of Israel alone, but of every principle the civilized world once claimed to uphold.

Standing With Israel Is Standing for Civilization

Israel stands on the front line, not because it wants to, but because it has no choice.

If Israel falls, the same terror will not stop at her borders. It never does. It will find new cities, new victims, new excuses.

That is why standing with Israel is not about politics. It is about defending all of us.

It is about understanding that terrorism, no matter its flag or accent, is still terrorism.

It is about reclaiming the moral clarity the world once had, before fear, hypocrisy, and convenience buried it.

And above all, it is about refusing to let the world forget what it once swore after 9/11, after ISIS’ massacres, after every act of terror that tore through innocent lives: Never again means never again for anyone.

And Israel still means it.

Sabine Sterk is the CEO of Time To Stand Up For Israel