The echoes of October 7 were unmistakable and horrifying. For several days last week, the Druze of Suweida in southern Syria were subjected to a barbaric onslaught by government troops controlled by the new Syrian president, Abu Mohammed al Jolani, as well as attacks by Bedouins and other jihadists. An estimated 1,000 Druze as well as Christians were slaughtered. Men were beheaded, women raped, children shot in front of their parents. An elderly Druze man was burned alive in his wheelchair.

From all those who over the past 21 months have posed as driven by conscience to support the “oppressed” Arabs of Gaza, there was now only silence. There was no condemnation from the likes of Amnesty or – until several days after the massacres – Human Rights Watch that constantly flay Israel over fabricated crimes against humanity. There was muted protest from church bodies, even though a Christian pastor and his entire family of 20 were slaughtered.

Instead, there was outrage over the accidental damage done by the IDF to a Catholic church in Gaza, when shrapnel from a strike on a nearby terrorist target hit part of the church and tragically killed three people.