Hamas celebrated its twentieth anniversary by assuring Israel that Hamas will never, ever recognize the Jewish State, and also, Hamas will never stop trying to destroy it.
Large pictures of Hamas leaders, both in Gaza and in exile, were draped across the speakers’ podium. A black banner hanging from a nearby building read, in Arabic, English and French: “We will not recognize Israel.”
In the crowd were dozens of members of the Hamas military wing, among them armed men carrying replicas of home-made Qassam rockets. Some 50 female members of military wing also marched, dressed in long robes and sporting military-style ammunition vests. Some covered their faces with veils, others with ski masks. Several took to the stage, waving green Hamas flags.
In an anniversary message to Hamas TV, the group’s top leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, said Hamas will not abandon violence. “This is our real choice, our trump card, which causes the enemy to succumb to us,” he said.
He said moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who controls the West Bank, does not have the mandate to negotiate with Israel. “Our people are able to launch a third and fourth uprising until the dawn of victory arrives,” he warned.
Please note that Hamas says, over and over again, that they will never recognize Israel, that they are actively working to destroy Israel and replace her with an Islamic state, and yet, people still think that Israel should talk to Hamas. Because Hamas would offer a ten-year truce, you see. And a truce is better than nothing, right?
Wrong. They want the truce to arm themselves without opposition, so they can then come after Israel with stronger, more deadly weapons and explosives.
By the way, anyone want to take a guess where in the story the information quoted above started?
It’s in the sixth paragraph. One paragraph below the longest of your local paper’s “World News” section, which generally takes 2-5 paragraphs of the AP world stories. These are the first five grafs, the ones that make it into the largest number of newspapers:
Hamas marked the 20th anniversary of its founding with a huge rally Saturday, sending a message of strength and defiance even as it is struggling to keep Gaza the Strip from sinking deeper into poverty.
Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters gathered in a sandy lot and nearby streets, waving green Islamic flags. The crowd appeared to be at least equal in size to a march last month in support of Hamas’ rival, Fatah. That rally drew 250,000 in a major challenge to Hamas.
A large turnout Saturday was seen as critical for the increasingly embattled Hamas, which seized control of Gaza by force in June. Since then, the coastal strip has been virtually cut off from the world, with Israel and Egypt sharply restricting access, and 1.5 million Gazans have been driven deeper into poverty.
“This is the real referendum on the popularity of resistance, the people converging behind Hamas,” said Zayed Herzallah, a 28-year old merchant, who brought a van full of young relatives.
Hamas was founded in Gaza in December 1987, after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt and is seen as the mother of all fundamentalist factions in the Arab Sunni world.
Do you see a difference in tone and content? In the lede, which will be in the majority of newspapers, Hamas is seen as the romantic, “defiant” resistance organization. The popular organization that “resists” Israeli occupation. The fact that Hamas is a terrorist group, and that “resistance” includes suicide bombings, gunning down civilians, murdering children, and sending rockets into schoolyards doesn’t appear at all. The fact that Hamas has murdered and wounded thousands of Israeli civilians since its founding is not mentioned at all. This is a puff piece on the Palestinian “resistance” movement—as if “resistance” is a legitimate struggle, just as the Palestinians have designated it. Their PR effort has paid off handsomely, as the world media continues to put murdering tyrants in the softest possible light while demonizing all Israeli reactions to the thugs.
Next up: The Reuters take on the same rally.
If Hamas wants to make war on Israel Israel should by all means make war back. All those people who gleefully advocate “asymmetrical warfare” do not seem to consider what will happen to them if Israel (or America for that matter) decides to get really asymmetrical on their asses. All that spares them from a hideous fate is Jewish self-restraint, which I suspect is eroding at a fairly rapid rate. If all the Arabs are driven out of the Gaza Strip there would be a lot less terrorism and rocket attacks and a lot of people in Judea and Samaria impressed with what their fate could be if they continued to practice terrorism.
Either the Arabs will live at peace with Jewish neighbors or they must go where they can find other neighbors with whom they are willing to live at peace. Hamas threatens Israel with destruction and Israel’s Jews with genocide. These loud-mouths should be much more wary of doing that than they are, but those whom Allah would destroy He first makes extraordinarily stupid.
“Because Hamas would offer a ten-year truce, you see. And a truce is better than nothing, right? Wrong. They want the truce to arm themselves without opposition, so they can then come after Israel with stronger, more deadly weapons and explosives.”
The concept of a truce is controversial within Hamas itself. A lot of Hamas supporters evidently consider a truce to be equivalent to Hamas simply giving up while claiming that the new situation is temporary to save face.
Meryl also assumes that Hamas would still be in power in a few years, which is far from certain.
But even if Hamas used a truce only to rearm and later attack Israel, Israel would still be better off. Like Lebanon, the conflict would be reduced to a more straight-forward military conflict in which Israel would inevitably prevail. And in the meantime Israel would have a few years peace and quiet.
And more optimistically, it’s possible that once the Israelis and Palestinians were out of other’s hair the Palestinians would reconcile themselves to the semi-peaceful status quo.
Lefty, you are assuming that Hamas would actually keep a truce. But they don’t. Their definition of truce and the Israeli definition of truce are two different things.
When Israel arrests terrorists, even if they’re in the planning phase of a suicide attack, Hamas deems these arrests a violation of the truce.
Kassam rockets are made from a volatile mix of chemicals that has a short shelf life. When the shelf life is near the end, Hamas passes along their unfired kassam rockets to PIJ and other terrorist groups to fire. This is also not considered breaking the truce.
There is also the subject of Hamas absolutely refusing to recognize Israel. It’s right there in the picture, in plain English. Hamas will NEVER recognize Israel. Not ever.
And last, you claim that Israel would be better off waiting for Hamas to arm itself like Hezbullah. Really? Because Hamas will be firing thousands of rockets into Israel, quite probably also from the West Bank. Thousands of civilians and soldiers will be killed or wounded in an all-out war, as will thousands of Palestinians.
And the world opinion will be, as always, against Israel for defending herself.
There is no “semi-peaceful status quo.” Israel is at war. It is an undeclared war, and it is supported by much of the Arab and Muslim world. Syria, Iran, formerly Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon—all these nations have given or are giving money to terrorists who murder Israelis, and funded the armed groups building up against Israel.
You really ought to shed those rose-colored glasses for ones that reflect reality. I would love to be able to agree with you about the situation. But history has proven you wrong time and again. The Palestinians don’t want peace. They want Israel.
When someone says he intends to kill you, believe him.
That, Lefty, is the lesson of the 20th Century for Jews. Hamas, and the rest of the Palestinian Arabs for that matter, say they intend to kill the Jews and destroy Israel. Believe them.