- FACTS AND LOGIC ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST - STAFF - MAY 2022 -
Hamas attacks on Israel fulfill a terrorist mission to kill Jews and destroy Israel—they don’t support a two-state solution or any form of Israel-Palestinian peace.
Those who oppose Israel’s response to Hamas’s unprovoked attack on Israel usually base their feelings on lies and unsupported assumptions. They ignore Hamas’ true mission and massive, Iran-backed firepower, and embrace false myths about Israel’s regard for Palestinians.
Facts about six false myths
Self-determination for Palestinian Arabs is an admirable goal—one that has always been embraced by Israel. But it’s a mistake to believe that Hamas’s launch of some 4,300 missiles against Israel in the May 2020 war is connected to any quest for peace or to a future Palestinian state. Indeed, sympathy for Hamas’s attacks on Israel is generally based on six false myths about the conflict and a profound misunderstanding of the terror group itself.
1) Hamas is the underdog: In truth, Hamas is supported by heavyweights in the radical Islamist world—Iran, Turkey and Qatar—who send Hamas hundreds of millions of dollars and weapons. Hamas has amassed 14,000 deadly missiles to bomb Israel. This is no weakling.
2) Israel occupies Palestinian territory: Israel retreated entirely from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Hamas exclusively rules that land and its two million people. However, because of attacks on Israeli civilians, Israel imposed a blockade on the territory in 2007, and Egypt later followed suit.
3) Israel won’t let the Palestinians have a state: Israel has made three offers of land and a state for peace to the Palestinian Authority in the last 21 years, but the PA rebuked them all. Hamas could have built a flourishing state in Gaza, but they have chosen to squander their resources to create terror against Israeli civilians.
4) Hamas is fighting for the Palestinian people: Hamas is a brutal dictatorship that has no functioning relationship or cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (and its two million people) in the West Bank—indeed, the two groups are bitter enemies. Nor does Hamas “represent” Palestinians in Gaza—the people under its rule have not voted for 15 years.
5) Israel is stealing private Palestinian land in Jerusalem: The issue in Jerusalem is a property dispute based upon non-payment of rent on property agreed by its Palestinian residents to be owned by Jews. The case now rests with Israel’s Supreme Court.
6) Israel wants to take over the Al Aqsa mosque: Israel allows Muslims to manage the Temple Mount, and hundreds of thousands of Muslims regularly pray there. Israel has no plans to change this. Jews, however, are forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.
In addition to these misconceptions, some mainstream media and other Hamas supporters fail to accurately describe the group. Above all, the media rarely mention that dozens of governments worldwide—including the U.S., European Union and Arab nations—classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Hamas’s founding charter bluntly communicates its goals. The charter starts: “Israel . . . will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” Thus, Hamas is dedicated to the utter destruction of Israel.
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