What Hamas has learned but shouldn't lean on for very long

Dr. Reuvan Berko..
Israel Hayom..
17 December '12..

Leaders of Islamist terrorist movements act according to an operational code comprised of their own interpretations of the Prophet Muhammad's biography.

Implementation of the code occurs in stages with the aim of creating a global Islamic caliphate. The Jews' realization of their dream to return to Zion, which also appears in the Quran, is a slap in the face of a worldview that considers Islam the only modern religion that is supposed to rule in the world.

The leaders of Hamas, who are the products of such a view, gave Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza the name "Operation Ibn Gewil." The term appears three times in the Quran and pertains to the mass extermination of infidels and evildoers. Two of these three events describe God's destruction of Sodom, when He rained down "Gewil stones" upon the city's residents

One doesn't need to have graduated from Al-Azhar University to understand that senior Hamas members equated the missiles and Qassam rockets they fired at Israel to those same stones hurled by God at the infidels of Sodom. Their application, however, was only partially successful: Instead of a heavenly barrage of stones the terrorist organizations in Gaza fired, with the grace of Allah, missiles at Israelis, and in contrast to the Quran's story of the Elephant, the Hamas terrorists cowardly used their civilian population, which elected them to power, as a human shield against the IDF's firepower.

The terrorist leaders have thus far called for destroying "the Jews," just like Muhammad did at Khaybar. However, in his latest speech in Gaza, Khaled Mashaal adopted the anti-Semitic manipulation prevalent in the West, which exhibits "tolerance" toward Jews but hatred toward the Zionists.


In his new version, Mashaal claims that Islam has nothing against the Jews, but the "Zionists" who have no rights to the land (some six million Jews living in Israel) will be destroyed.

With his generosity, Mashaal turned to Western nations, asking them to evacuate the Jews to save them from destruction. With a flattering wink to Europe, he declared that in the Islamic state of Palestine to be created, Muslims and Christians would live side by side. Mashaal forgot to mention the persecution of Christians (the infidels and crusaders who will convert to Islam by threat of the sword), and the incidents of rape, robbery and church burnings that have led to Christian emigration from the region. He didn't mention the status of "dhimmi," stipulating that under Islamic law all Christians would be designated as second-class citizens.

The West's recognition of Palestine as an observer state in the United Nations, against Israel's wishes, was hasty. This recognition provided Islamist terrorists from across the globe an al-Qaida-type base in Gaza and the West Bank, because Mashaal's precondition for Palestinian unification lies in the continuation of the armed struggle.

The demonstration of missiles and Hamas flags in the West Bank are harbingers of a Third Intifada, which will include, of course, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' collapse and Hamas "Gewil stone" missile fire toward the center of Israel.

Hamas has learned that Israel will continue to find itself in a judgmental stranglehold forcing it to use "proportionate responses," applied by the same Western nations that themselves burned entire cities to the ground during World War II. Hamas has learned, therefore, that Israeli efforts have been channeled into defensive measures, which since the days of the Crusader fortresses have been a formula for certain defeat.

These lessons are based on the moral catch Israel has put itself in, which exposes its citizens to missiles that fly over its army and prevents it from hurting and deterring the enemy. Because a deterring punishment of Hamas' leaders and its electorate is an existential requirement, it isn't advisable for Hamas to lean on these lessons for very long.

Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=3066

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