The Hamas attack has nothing to do with the Jewish settlements in the West Bank or the freedom of the Palestinians. She pursues a different goal.
A boy recruited by Hamas in Gaza, 2005 Photo: Suhaib Salem/Reuters
The Hamas attack has nothing to do with Israel’s settlement policy, no matter how terrible one may find it. Hamas is a terrorist organization with a similar profile to IS and with similar goals.
The Gaza Strip was completely evacuated by Israel in 2005. The Israeli settlements in Gaza were evacuated with sometimes brutal force by the Israeli army. At that time the international press wrote euphorically that now Gaza to the Singapore of the Middle East could become. This would actually have been possible if not for the population of The majority of Gaza had already chosen the terrorist organization Hamas as their representative in 2006.
After Hamas’s partly military conflict with Fatah, which officially rules there and throughout Palestine, Hamas finally took control of Gaza in 2007 as an entity independent of the rest of Palestine. To protect themselves from Hamas attacks, Israel, but also Arab Egypt, closed the border with Gaza, and from then on Gaza was described by some as an open-air prison. What was always kept secret was the fact that, in addition to Israel, Egypt also took part in the boycott of Gaza, and not without reason.
What happened next should be common knowledge. Hamas turned Gaza into a military base for attacks on Israel. In addition to small arms, it initially equipped itself with self-made rockets and later also Iranian rockets and repeatedly attacked Israel with rockets.
Fight for the freedom of Palestine?
This was always followed by Israeli responses with aircraft to destroy the missile bases, and sometimes Israel also used ground troops to deal with the situation. Hamas’ attacks became more and more violent, the number of rockets fired increased, as did their range and accuracy, although Hamas’ targets in Israel were almost exclusively civilian. No country in the world would accept such a permanent threat. The latest increase in these attacks for now was the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023.
Now one could interpret Hamas’ attacks on the civilian population of Israel as a just fight for the freedom of Palestine. But you have to take a close look at your goals. The initial situation, the territory of Gaza, which had been free since 2005 and where Hamas was able to act as it wished from 2007 onwards, was not used to improve the situation of the people, but rather to completely arm itself for the fight against Israel and to build hundreds of kilometers of tunnels to protect against Israeli counterattacks and to be more mobile in combat.
Hamas’ rearmament has consumed a lot of money and resources that should have benefited the people of Gaza. Instead, they remain in misery while the Hamas leadership clique lives a life of luxury. The EU and especially Germany are the largest donors to the Palestinians, including in Gaza.
Become money from this also finances school bookssome of which lead to the destruction of Israel and called for the murder of all Jews becomes. Hamas’ goal is not to improve the situation of the Palestinian population, but, as it is written in the Hamas charter, exclusively to destroy Israel. A two-state solution of any kind is not at all an issue for Hamas to discuss.
The logic of Hamas
In military conflicts with Israel, Hamas uses civilians as protective shields. It is not the dead Israelis, but the dead Palestinians who are Hamas’ trump card. The more dead Palestinian civilians there are, the louder the protests against Israel become around the world, and the more shaky the support for Israel in the West. According to Hamas’ logic, there must be as many dead Palestinians as possible.
This issue is therefore not sufficiently considered by the Western public. From its point of view, Hamas carried out an extremely successful terrorist attack on Israel, murdered 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped many hostages, particularly as a trading object. No one is so naive, least of all Hamas, not to know that this unprecedented terrorist attack will be followed by a terrible backlash from Israel. One must therefore assume that Hamas not only expected Israel’s counter-reaction as it is currently occurring, but also took it into account. Because for Hamas, people count for nothing.
It is an action that grows out of an Islamist worldview that has nothing to do with the fight for the freedom of the Palestinians, against Jewish settlements and for a two-state settlement of any kind. The only logic of this terrorism is to work towards the collapse of Israel. This is the stated intention of Hamas, as well as Iran.
It is a wrong turn of the tongue when there is currently talk in the media around the world of Israel taking revenge. It’s probably not primarily about revenge, but about that the spiral of violence repeatedly provoked by Hamas will finally end.
Peaceful future sabotaged
Yes, Israel’s policies have actually not been particularly wise in recent years. And yes, Israelis have to live with their Palestinian neighbors whether they like it or not. But: It was Hamas that, with the attack on October 7th, successfully sabotaged not only Israel’s rapprochement with the Arab states, but also a peaceful future for Palestine.
Hamas terrorists are not Palestinian patriots because, contrary to their loud invocations, they are completely indifferent to the lives of their own people.
