Liberty Expose: Hamas and the Policy of Hatred
How often do we truly witness hatred? Not recreational hatred (“oh I hate the Yankees), or the hatred of dislike (“oh I just hate her”), rather the hatred that inspires one to suffer for the intrinsic value of seeing your enemy suffer. The kind of hatred that could lead to death just to bring misery to your enemy. It is a hatred most people never experience, but one that still exists. Those who want to understand this hatred should look no farther than Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, the U.S. opened its embassy in Jerusalem, cementing the declaration of that city as Israel’s capital. The historic significance of the occasion was overshadowed by rioting on the Gaza Strip border. The rioting was orchestrated by Hamas, a terrorist group that vows to destroy Israel. Under their command, Gazans have rushed the border fence separating Gaza from Israel.
The rioters have been breaching the fence in wave attacks reminiscent of the Western front. They have used incendiary devices such as flaming tires, Molotov cocktails, and flaming kites – the last of which is designed to set Israeli farmland ablaze. Dozens have died in the attacks, most of whom are members of Hamas. Hamas knows that breachers are shot at, but Hamas does not hesitate to sacrifice lives and inflict misery upon Gazans just so their enemy can suffer a little more.
Take a look at the actions at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. The crossing, which serves as a route in which medicine, food, and fuel is transported into the Gaza Strip has been set on fire by Gazans again. This is the third time in ten days the Kerem Shalom crossing has been attacked
Since Hamas overthrew the ruling Fata government in 2007, around 10,000 rockets have been launched into Israel. Hamas has built 32 tunnels in an attempt to kidnap and murder Israelis. Each tunnel requires 350 truckloads of construction supplies – enough to build “86 homes, seven mosques, six schools, or 19 medical clinics” as the Wall Street Journal reports. The estimated cost comes to around 90 million. But no, any resource not used to murder a Jewish occupier is a resource wasted.
In the 2014 Gaza War, Hamas hid weapons in hospital and schools knowing that Israel would be forced to destroy them. Hamas used children and the sick as human shields without hesitation because they knew it would lead to international condemnation of Israel.
The rioting did not occur in other Palestinian territories such as the West Banks, which borders Jerusalem. It only occurred in the area controlled by Hamas. Hamas is responsible for a multitude of terror attacks on Israel and is also an enemy of Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. One could be forgiven for not recognizing the attacks on the border as a terrorist assault. Western media, in their appalling tradition of purposeful incompetence on this issue, has reported the fatalities as simply “Palestinians” – as if Israel is randomly gunning down innocent Gazans.
This plays into the strategy of Hamas. They are willing to sacrifice the people they rule over so Israel can receive some bad press coverage. The lives of Gazans mean nothing to Hamas.
This is the frame in which we must understand the so-called Israel-Palestinian conflict. It is not like negotiating with North Korea, where it is a conflict with Totalitarian insanity. Nor is similar to negotiating with revanchist imperial powers, such as China and Russia.
We must understand that it is diplomacy with those who have nothing but are willing to give up everything; it is diplomacy with a side that does not consider victory until the other side stops breathing. The behavior of Hamas is nothing short of Hitlerian. They are willing to sacrifice their own people, including children, just so Israel can suffer. The Gaza Strip is a sacrificial authoritarian society because of Hamas, not because of the society it seeks to destroy. It is the essence of hatred.