To Be Pro-Palestinian, You Must Be Anti-Hamas

Pajamas Media ^ | March 20, 2009 | Ryan Mauro

[TDCAnalyst]

It has become commonplace in academia to look at Hamas as the natural reaction to Israeli aggression and unwillingness to provide Palestinians with a better life — the political application of Newton’s Third Law of Motion, for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. The idea that Hamas’ individual actions are reprehensible but are simply an outgrowth of long-ignored “legitimate claims,” as President Obama once said during the 2008 campaign, reflects a fundamental flaw in understanding the radical Islamic ideology and sophisticated political strategy of the terrorist group.

Hamas is not a force fighting for Palestinian liberation; nor are their choices of suicide bombers as weaponry and civilians as targets simply made because it is their only viable means of making their voices heard. Hamas was founded by, and remains a part of, the radical Islamic movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood. Their stated goal is the establishment of an Islamic state across the entire earth — a rejection of the sovereignty and nationhood they claim they are fighting to give the Palestinians.

The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t create Hamas to “liberate” the Palestinians, but rather to win a juicy, strategic front in their global offensive. The Muslim Brotherhood’s “project,” dating back to 1982, specifically describes their intent “to adopt the Palestinian cause as part of a worldwide Islamic plan, with the policy plan and by means of jihad, since it acts as the keystone of the renaissance of the Arab world today.” The organization’s decision to try to connect everything to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, intellectually seducing people like Chas Freeman, is a success in the art of political manipulation that must be enamored by the most elite of political strategists...