Hamas And The Shalit Abduction

Tuesday, June 27, 2006
By: Tashbih Sayyed

Can a war be won without understanding the enemy? No. Israel's continuing failure to stem persistent Hamas terrorism is a testimony to the fact that the Jewish state is still in dark about the real character of their enemy - Arabs living in the historical Jewish lands.
Time and again Israeli leaders have exhibited their profound ignorance of the Arab's culture of terror that nourishes the Hamas mentality. The Israeli efforts to withdraw from southern Lebanon and the unilateral disengagement to the 1967 lines around Gaza Strip have all been carried out under the perception that such gestures would achieve peace with the Arabs. But in reality, it worked the other way round. The Arabs perceived Israel's peace moves as its weakness. The Israelis have been forced to pay in blood, the price of their leaders' failure to understand the culture of terror.

In the existential war that Israel is fighting, it is vital to keep Hamas' constitution in mind. A video released on the Hamas website clearly emphasizes the Arab Islamic ideology - the subjugation of Judeo-Christian lands under Islam. Moreover, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza is viewed as the successful result of their policy of terror. The manner in which Israel "ran" from Gaza is being presented as the prototype for future Israeli and western behavior in the face of an Islamic force.

Transcripts of a recent Hamas video leave no doubt about the true agenda of the Islamists in which the future Palestinian State, being pushed as the "only" solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict, will be a vanguard. The video boasts, "We will rule the nations, by Allah's will, the USA will be conquered, Israel will be conquered, Rome and Britain will be conquered. "The Jihad for Allah... is the way of Truth and the way for Salvation and the way, which will lead us to crush the Jews and expel them from our country Palestine. Just as the Jews ran from Gaza, the Americans will run from Iraq and Afghanistan and the Russians will run from Chechnya, and the Indian will run from Kashmir, and our children will be released from Guantanamo. The prisoners will be released by Allah's will, not by peaceful means and not by agreements, but they will be released by the sword, they will be released by the gun."

Sunday's (June 25, 2006) pre-dawn attack by Hamas' military wing against Gilad Shalit's tank in which the terrorists succeeded in abducting him and killing two of his crew is just another example of Hamas' culture of terror. Proving once again my premise that talks, negotiations, dialogue and peace gestures are tools of a civilized culture and incompatible with radical Islam. In a culture of terror these methods are viewed as a sign of weakness.

In the radical Islamic ideology, murderers are lionized as Gaziz (victors), killers who die in the pursuance of their bloody trade are called Shaheeds (martyrs) who are believed to be rewarded by Allah with 72 virgins and a state in which the followers of one faith are considered as the most perfect and the others sub-human (Dhimmis) is considered as a Dar ul Amn (House of Peace).

The Islamist culture of terror is unambiguous with regard to Jews. An act of terrorism against Jews is not considered terrorism. The majority of newspapers in the Muslim lands support Arab terrorism against Jews. They justify attacks on the Israeli citizens as a legitimate act of jihad (holy war). The Egyptian Mufti, Sheikh Ali Goma'a has issued an edict stating: "whoever blows himself up is a Shaheed."

Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential contemporary Sunni Muslim scholars is a radical supporter of Islamist terrorism and promoter of anti-Semitism. According to a research article, "he has called for targeting American forces and civilians in Iraq and provided religious justification for the use of suicide bombers against Israeli civilians. His fatwa authorizing the use of women in suicide attacks - an ironic reflection of his "advanced" concept of women's capabilities - providing religious sanction for Hamas when it began enlisting female "martyrs."

The culture of terror that symbolize Hamas believes and teaches that the Jews have killed God's prophets and oppose justice and righteousness. According to this belief, and throughout history, radical Islam has inflicted enormous damage on the human race. They have achieved this by engaging in plots against other nations and ethnic groups, by perpetrating destruction, evil and malice.

The theology that has given birth to the Hamas mindset teaches that the infidels (non-Muslims) have been the source of such deadly diseases as the plague and typhus. They believe that Christians poisoned their water wells, and thus killed them.

Can a dialogue be initiated with a culture that professes a belief system that is anti-Christian and anti-Semitic? No. Unless this culture is cleansed of their hatred for non-Muslims of all religions, nothing productive can emerge from any amount of talking or negotiating. They need to be dealt with an iron hand, as they are clearly becoming more empowered by counterproductive and meaningless rhetoric.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is correct in his declaration that there will not be any negotiations with Hamas over the release of IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit. "This is not a matter of negotiations, this is not a matter of bargaining," Olmert said in a speech to a gathering in Jerusalem. Olmert said Israel would fight Islamic extremists and warned that it could hit militants wherever they are. Olmert made good on his word today by launching a missile attack on Gaza.

The Shalit abduction should serve as a warning that so long as Hamas is being treated as an authentic member of a civilized society, Israeli will never be able to secure peace and prosperity for its citizens. Hamas must be treated for what it is - a group of terrorists.

This past Sunday's killings and kidnapping should be taken as further proof that by rewarding terrorism with appeasement, land giveaways and negotiations, the Islamists have become further convinced that terrorism is a legitimate response in their quest to achieve their ultimate and sinister goals.