Hamas and ISIS should be treated alike

   In his speech to the nation on Wednesday, President Obama described ISIL (ISIS) as: "a terrorist organization, pure and simple," and said "Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterroism strategy." 

     Hamas, the Jihadist terrorist organization that for 50 days lobbed over 2,000 rockets and mortars at Israel, should be treated exactly the same way. 

     Just like there was no mention of “diplomacy” or “negotiations” in the president’s plan for ISIS on Wednesday, neither should there be any for Hamas. Just as the president’s stated goal is to "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIL (ISIS) – that too should be the only goal in dealing with Hamas. 

Background: 

     Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya ("Islamic Resistance Movement"), was founded in 1987 as the Gaza branch of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who became an activist in local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo. 

     Hamas AKA “the resistance” emerged at the forefront of violent Palestinian terrorism against Israel. The US and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Its rival party, Fatah, headed by Abu Mazen, and which dominates the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has renounced violence. Hamas embraces it.

     Hamas first employed suicide bombing, its signature tactic, in April 1993, five months before PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords. The historic pact established limited self-government for parts of the West Bank and Gaza under the PLO.

     Hamas condemned the accords, in which the PLO formally recognized Israel. This is something Hamas, according to its charter and Manifesto (see below) can never accept. 

     Hamas cannot be negotiated with – any more so than ISIS can. However whereas ISIS has global goals of spreading Sunni Islam around the world, abolishing all existing sovereign states and countries in favor of a single global Islamic state, governed according to strict Sharia and ruled by a Caliph-Hamas was established in Gaza by the Muslim Brotherhood for two specific and focused purposes: 

1. To violently remove every last Jew from every part of the modern State of Israel. 
2. To kill all Jews…everywhere. 

     Hard to believe? Here it is in the Hamas Manifesto – the Ten Principles of Faith, which are part of the Hamas charter. Every member must pledge to uphold these ten principles.

The Hamas Manifesto-Ten Principles of Faith 

1. Hamas swears to conduct a holy war over Palestine against the Jews until Allah’s victory is achieved. 
2. The land must be cleaned of the filth and evil of the tyrannical conquerors. 
3. Under the winds of Islam it is possible to have peaceful coexistence with other religious groups. But without Islamic rule over the Dome of the Rock, there can only be hatred, controversy, corruption, and repression. 
4. By command of the Prophet, Muslims might fight the Jews and kill them wherever they are. 
5. Hamas strives to set up an entity wherein Allah is the highest purpose, the Koran is the law, jihad (holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty) is its means, and dying for the sake of Allah is the noblest wish. 
6. Palestine is a holy Islamic entity until the end of time. Therefore, it is non-negotiable and no one can give up any part of it. 
7. It is a personal, religious commandment for every Muslim to engage in the jihad until the land is redeemed. 
8. Hamas opposes any kind of international talks or negotiations as well as any possible peace arrangement. Sovereignty over the land is strictly a religious matter and conducting negotiation over it means giving up some measure of control by (Islam) believers. 
9. The Jews control the media and the world financial institutions. By means of revolution and war, and organizations, such as the Masons, Communists, capitalists, Zionists, Rotary, Lions, Bnai Brith, and the like, they undermine human society as a whole in order to destroy it. By their evil corruption, they try to gain domination of the world by such institutions as the United Nations and its Security Council. More details of their iniquity can be found in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. 
10. Hamas opposes any secular state the PLO would seek to create in Palestine, since by definition it would be anti-Islamic. On the other hand, if the PLO would adopt Islam and follow its flag, then all members would become freedom fighters who would light the fire to consume the enemy.” 

     Take a deep breath and read them again, one at a time…slowly. Now you understand that Hamas was established by the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza for one purpose only: to facilitate the destruction of Israel as the Jewish state and homeland, and kill Jews wherever it can. Currently supported and sponsored by Qatar and Turkey, over the years Hamas has brainwashed and trained thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank to fulfill that singular mission. Anyone who thinks that this single-minded fanatical Jihadi organization can be reasoned with is delusional. 

     The only way, in my opinion, to deal with Hamas is as the US, according to President Obama, plans to deal with ISIS: "degrade and destroy”.