All over major cities in the world, people are putting up posters of the roughly 240 men, women and children who were taken captive from Israel by the Palestinian political-terrorist group Hamas. While people may walk past a posting of a lost dog, Palestinian supporters become enraged at seeing the signs of captive Israelis.
Jihadi anti-Israel activists don’t think that the hostages are innocent because they view all of Israel as an illegal European colonial enterprise. Other anti-Israel activists understand that the basic strategy of Hamas relies on global opinion. Sympathy for Jews undercuts Palestinian defenses.
Israel invests significant intellectual and monetary capital in preventative defenses. It has bomb shelters in public space and homes. It uses its ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system and built security barriers around Gaza and the West Bank to stop or slow the advance of Palestinian Arab terrorists. It blockaded the terrorist safe haven of Gaza to slow the shipment of weaponry.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, has not invested in any preventative defense system. It uses concrete for tunnels for its soldiers rather than bunkers for civilians. It uses its school system to educate Arabs that Jews are the enemy rather than develop scientific skills.
Hamas’s defenses completely rely on REACTIVE measures, such as world condemnation about Israeli attacks, and relying on Israel’s morality to not strike killers hiding amongst civilians and under hospitals.
Anti-Israel activists do not want people to remember the October 7 barbarity and only to focus on the current situation in Gaza. In doing so, they hope to flip the narrative of cause-and-effect, and make Israel the aggressor.
The presence of kidnapped posters for pro-Israel activists and decent people is a call to bring innocent civilians home. For anti-Israel activists, it prevents the world from defending Gazans and reminds everyone of the heinous barbarity of the Palestinians’ elected representative body.
World leaders denounced Hamas as being the latest incarnation of ISIS, due to the brutal savagery it committed on October 7. Both radical Islamic groups decapitated people and burned them alive, filming the atrocities to gain support for their jihadi terror.
In selecting ISIS, leaders like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden hoped to gather world support in eliminating Hamas as occurred with ISIS. Netanyahu said “President Biden was absolutely correct in calling this ‘sheer evil.’ Hamas is ISIS, and just as ISIS was crushed, so too will Hamas be crushed. And Hamas should be treated exactly the way ISIS was treated.”
Unfortunately, Hamas is not like ISIS. It is the Palestinian army, much like the Wehrmacht was the army of Nazi Germany.
ISIS was a rogue terrorist group operating in ungoverned land in Iraq and Syria. It did not hold elections or sit in government. It was manned by foreign fighters, especially from Jordan, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kurdish regions.
This stands in sharp contrast to Hamas, which is a Palestinian political party holding 58% of the Palestinian parliament. If elections were held today, the leader of Hamas would win the presidency. It is very much like Nazi Germany in the 1930s that came to power democratically.
Much like the Nazis who sought to invade and annex neighboring countries, the popular Palestinian army of Hamas hopes to destroy Israel and bring millions of Arabs into the Jewish State.
The only major difference is that Nazi Germany had a very powerful army which effectively invaded neighboring countries, while Hamas’s weaponry is crude, making its October 7 invasion and attack on Israel last for only one day.
Hamas, the Palestinian army, is still fighting the 1948 war against the existence of Israel.
Queen Rania of Jordan, herself of Palestinian descent, said as much: “this conflict did not begin on October 7th…This is a 75 year old story.” She added that “this is a fight for freedom and for justice.”
During the 1948 war, five Arab armies invaded Israel to destroy the Jewish State, and after they lost, the Arab and Muslim world expelled nearly 1 million Jews.
Palestinians are not helpless as portrayed by their sponsors and supporters but simply have a weaker army.
The latest incarnation of Israel’s war of independence is still raging, and the world wonders whether the Islamic Republic of Iran and its various proxies including Hezbollah in Lebanon will join Palestinians in their fight against the Jewish State. Watching intently from the sides, diaspora Jewry fears whether socialist and jihadi groups will attack them, as Jews pray for Israel to defeat the Nazi army next door.
As of October 7, 2023, Hamas became the official poster child of evil in the civilized world. The death toll of 1,400 people was appalling in itself, but the butchery of civilians, ripped from their homes and burned alive will be scorched in the minds of this generation.
So imagine being a Palestinian on global television and asked about Hamas and the events of October 7.
If one wanted to distance oneself from the savagery, one could clearly condemn the group and the actions unequivocally. Say that the group is disgusting and doesn’t speak on behalf of Palestinians.
Queen Rania of Jordan, a descendant of Palestinians, took a different course. She took ownership of Hamas as part-and-parcel of the Palestinian people, essentially the rag-tag army against a powerful Israeli military. She said that while Hamas shouldn’t have killed civilians, Israel has killed many more and sees the Western press buying into Israel’s “right to defend itself” as a form of Islamophobia which may result in the Muslim world coming for them next.
Watch her entire interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. Since Amanpour loves the queen, she was loathe to interrupt and correct her lies. When Amanpour asked her pointedly about Hamas and October 7, Rania pivoted the discussion to suffering in Gaza from Israel’s air strikes.
Jordan’s Queen Rania was given almost 20 minutes to air her grievances on CNN with Christiane Amanpour, October 2023
Some lowlights from Rania’s talk to consider before you watch the interview:
To start, Rania discussed the difficult situation in Gaza for Palestinian mothers but said nothing about Israeli mothers who had their children ripped from their arms and shot intentionally before them.
At 1:30, Rania noted that “October 7th happened”, in passive language borrowed from the pages of Rep. Ilhan Omar who described the attacks on 9/11 as “some people did something.” She distanced the Palestinian political-terrorist group Hamas from the deliberate unprovoked slaughter.
At 2:20, Rania made a veiled warning (or threat) to the western world for backing Israel in defending itself after the Hamas massacre, saying that the west was “complicit” and was “aiding and abetting” Israeli attacks against Gaza.
Amanpour, after giving Rania nearly three minutes to rant freely, asked a pointed question: “what did you feel on October 7th?” The response was a bland “we condemn the killing of any civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli.” Rania then described the views of Islam, arguing that it had an ethical code when fighting war which prohibits the killing of children, women and elderly. Amanpour never asked about Islam. She asked the queen a personal question about how she felt, but Rania offered a bland ALL lives matter, coupled with a defense of Islam. Perhaps the queen’s deflection was understandable, as Hamas is a devout Islamist group which clearly doesn’t have religious views which dovetail with Rania’s version.
At 4:15, Rania moved the conversation that “this conflict did not begin on October 7th.” This was the crux of Rania’s interview. After implying that the militant Islamist group Hamas doesn’t represent Islam, she implied that it very much represents the Palestinian people. Rania said that for Palestinians “war has never left. This is a 75 year old story,” meaning from the founding of Israel. At 7:30 she leaned in completely saying “this is a fight for freedom and for justice,” which Hamas launched on October 7.
After Amanpour failed to get Rania to offer any emotion about Hamas’s butchery, she asked the question differently, as to whether Hamas’s barbaric attacks hurt the Palestinian cause. Rania offered the same responses as before, that she does not favor the killing of civilians but that “this is a story of violence that has been going on now for so long.” She somehow conflated Jews building homes in Judea and Samaria with Palestinians yanking people out of their homes and raping them, then dragging them through the streets; Israelis building a security wall to stop Palestinian terrorists with Hamas decapitating babies in front of their parents; Jews visiting the Jewish Temple Mount with Arabs burning families alive.
Rania then moved her comments to the situation in Gaza, again refusing to clearly condemn and distance herself – and Palestinian Arabs generally – from Hamas.
She said the Israel is engaged in war crimes and is targeting hospitals and mosques. She didn’t seem to mind that the hospital bombing was proven to be from Palestinian terrorists and the mosque had a weapons cache stored beneath it when leveled by Israel.
At 9:40, Rania asked “why is it that whenever Israel commits these atrocities it comes under the banner of ‘self-defense’ but when there’s violence by Palestinians it is immediately called ‘terrorism?’ Is the word ‘terrorism’ only reserved for Muslims and Arabs?” Quite a but of political trickery, in calling Hamas’s massacre “violence by Palestinians” while Israel commits “atrocities.” She followed that with smearing anyone who called out the barbarity of Hamas as an Islamophobe.
By 10:10, Rania attempted to reframe the entire situation: “These are not two equal people in the conflict. One is an occupier and one is the occupied. One has a military, one of the mightiest in the world, and the other doesn’t have a military at all.” Well, not quite. In saying that Hamas speaks for the Palestinians she offered that it is the Palestinian military at this moment in time.
At 11:00, she summed up her feelings that the current situation should be focused on Israeli “violations” and “not this hyper-fixation on Hamas.” Somehow Rania missed the point that the West has a “hyper-fixation on Hamas” to distance the massacre from Palestinian Arabs to show there is a pathway to peace. The west will never push Israel into compromising with genocidal maniacs.
Rania’s anger bubbled and her voice quivered but the interview was not quite over.
At 12:20, Rania expressed how upset she was that the October 7 massacre was described in the press as “savagery, barbaric, blood-thirsty, cold-blooded, but we’re not seeing that terminology describing that situation [in Gaza]” She questioned media bias against Palestinians and the unwarranted defense of Israel, in light of many more Palestinians being killed since October 7.
Again, she refused the opportunity to distance herself and Palestinians from the massacre.
At 16:40 Rania added that she was angry that Arabs are asked to show their “humanity bona fides” in condemning the October 7 massacres but Israelis are not asked about the current campaign against Hamas. She bemoaned that western leaders don’t say that “Palestinians have a right to defend themselves.” She added that western countries should allow people to protest “for Palestine” without being called “terrorist sympathizers and antisemites.” Perhaps the queen is unfamiliar with the chants at those “protests” of ‘Globalize the intifada’, ‘from the river to the sea’ and ‘gas the Jews‘. But I doubt it
Towards the end of the interview at 18:10, Rania said that even if Israel kills every member of Hamas, it will just “create a new generation of resistance that is fiercer and more violent.” Rania’s comment embraced Hamas as a “resistance” movement against Israel. Somehow, even after October 7, she thinks the next generation of Palestinians can have even more evil intent.
So what do we learn from the Palestinian queen who rules in Jordan? A woman who is more polished after decades of interviews than the man-on-the-street, perched on a pedestal at news media which adores her.
Asked to comment on Hamas and its attack on October 7, Rania did the opposite of disowning the group. She let it be known that:
Hamas is Palestinian. It is the military arm of Palestinians who are still fighting the 75-year old war of Israel’s creation.
Hamas’s brutality is understandable and the Palestinian people will not distance themselves from the group nor the actions, but offer “all” civilian lives matter statements.
The Arab world considers the condemnation of Hamas’s actions to be a sign of Islamophobia, even though they admit that Hamas’s actions are against Islam.
The Arab street is judging the western world now, not just Israel. Terrorist attacks may spread as part of the ‘globalize jihad’ and ‘globalize intifada’ movements.
The Palestinian war against Israel is 75 years and counting and will not end until every Jew gets out of the West Bank and a new Palestinian State can have full autonomy, including a proper military to “defend itself” against Israel, ensuring much more bloody wars in the future.
It’s the same message from Turkish President Recep Erdogan who said “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people.”
The Muslim and pro-Palestinian narrative is the opposite of that held by western politicians who are attempting to demonize Hamas and its Iranian-sponsors, so as to enable the notion of peaceful and moderate Palestinian Arabs on the whole, who will be willing to live side-by-side in peace with the Jewish State. If Hamas is essentially the Palestinian military, backed and supported by everyday Palestinians, how could such a people be enabled to have an independent country with a full blown army living next to Israel?
The West NEEDS to demonize Hamas to advance a two-state solution, deaf to the comments of Palestinians and their supporters, who make clear that Hamas is their military “resisting” Jews living in their land. Palestinians hope that the West will feel so committed to “two states for two people” like the United Nations, that the West will be compelled to adopt the Palestinian narrative inverting cause-and-effect of October 7, and place the 100 years of modern Zionism in the crosshairs for attack.
The Godfather is a classic in American cinema. The 1972 film won numerous awards including in the Best Picture category. The penultimate scene cemented the script in daring story-telling, as the leading figure, Michael Corleone, set himself as head of the new order.
While Corleone stood in church to be the godfather of a young child being baptised, his hitmen took out the heads of the competing crime families. In doing so, Corleone positioned himself to control the region without challenge.
Perhaps the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia will consider doing something similar to the warlords backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Each group has caused death and destruction, dismantling any chance for a civilized life for residents and neighbors.
Now, as Iran attempts to stop Saudi Arabia from getting nuclear power from the United States, and establishing an alliance with Israel, it has released its dogs of war to inflict brutality and carnage.
To avert mass destruction and set a better course for the Middle East, the troika of US, Israel and Saudi Arabia could take out the leadership of Hamas in Qatar, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Houthis in Yemen. It would send a clear message to Iran that the US has not left the world to a Russia-China-Iran axis, and avert the deaths of many thousands of civilians throughout the region.
In ‘The Godfather,’ it took a “massacre” to get the families to stop killing each other, and ultimately the heads of the crime syndicates paid the price. As the Middle East prepares for a large scale war, the United States may want to send a clear and unmistakable message to Iran that the period of terrorism in the Middle East is over.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16), representing one of the most Jewish districts in the country, has a running tab of antisemitic and anti-Zionist actions:
Would not sign letter to Department of Education to fight antisemitism at colleges (February 4, 2022)
Original sponsor of resolution calling the founding of Israel a “catastrophe” (May 17, 2022)
Does not recognize discrimination against Jews (March 9, 2023)
Authored letter to President Biden to condition aid to Israel (April 23, 2023)
Voted against the Abraham Accords (April 25, 2023)
Voted against condemning antisemitism, and that Israel isn’t a racist state (July 18, 2023)
Boycotted speech by the Israeli president to a joint session of Congress (July 19, 2023)
Office called Republicans “Nazis” to distract from Bowman pulling fire alarm (October 2, 2023)
Called for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza without any mention of, or attempt at freeing hostages and bringing Hamas terrorists to justice, nor that Israel has a right to defend itself (October 16, 2023)
Voted against resolution condemning Hamas and supporting Israel (October 25, 2023)
Car in White Plains (NY congressional district 16) on October 25 as vigil for Israeli hostages held a block awayRep. Jamaal Bowman , representing White Plains, voting on October 25 to not stand by Israel
“Present” voters included Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), another member of the far left-wing of the party. Other left-wing extremists who have been critical of Israel like Betty McCollum (D-IL) did vote in favor of the resolution. One Republican, Thomas Massie (R-KY), also voted against the bill, who was not coincidentally the only Republican to not support funding the defensive Iron Dome system for Israel.
The votes of the socialists is not surprising. It is a movement that is trying to dismantle the west and its approach of capitalism, “imperialism” and “colonialism”, wanting to bring back the good old days of the Russian revolution.
In the immediate aftermath of the gruesome Hamas butchery, The World Wide Socialist Website, posted a quote by Leon Trotsky from 1938 on the eve of the Holocaust, “A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning or violence breaks the chains–let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!“
That is the view of socialists. Barbarism is a rightful act by the Palestinians because they fought a war to destroy Jewish “invaders” in 1948 and lost. They support Palestinians taking over Israel, and if it be by blood, rape, fire, beheadings, or other acts of evil, so be it.
The socialist site discussed its disgust at the United States supporting Israel, stating “The World Socialist Web Site condemns the vicious and obscenely hypocritical statements of President Joe Biden and leaders of the European Union denouncing the Palestinian resistance as “terrorism”…. As always, the sympathies of the imperialist powers are with the oppressors. Any manifestation of resistance by the oppressed is greeted with frenzied denunciations. The media ignores the fact that the Israeli government is led by a criminal, whose coalition is dominated by fascistic racists and is engaged in efforts to suppress the constitution.”
It would go on to compare Gazans to Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, and Israelis to Nazis. Blatant antisemitism.
A toxic mix of rabid antisemitism and socialism have penetrated American universities and congress. It is coming for the Jewish State and soon diaspora Jewry. In the end, it will come for the West.
In the weeks following the brutal slaughter of 1,400 people in Israel, Israel has been actively trying to bring over 200 hostages home, bring the Hamas perpetrators to justice, and ensure that peace can prevail. In its efforts to minimize civilian casualties, Israel asked Gazans living in the northern part of the strip to move south. It continues to give the civilians additional time as requested by the United States, before it begins a ground incursion.
This is all too much for the United Nations Secretary General.
On October 24, UNSG Antonio Guterres lambasted Israel saying “Protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields. Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than 1 million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself.” He seemingly doesn’t want Israel to bring the Hamas terrorists to justice in ensuring that civilians stay in the north and act as human shields for the Satans of Gaza.
In his comments, Guterres finally made it clear why he excuses Hamas. He does not believe that Hamas is like ISIS, a genocidal jihadi group hell-bent on killing infidels. He believe they are part-and-parcel of the Palestinian mainstream.
In his remarks yesterday, Guterres said: “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
There was no separation between Hamas and Palestinians. Guterres tied the terrorists’ actions directly to Palestinians’ complaints and demands. While Guterres said “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians,” he immediately went on a long list rationalizing the Arab brutality.
For the United Nations, Hamas and the Palestinian people are one and the same. Bringing Hamas terrorists to justice is an anathema, as it would mean inflicting harm on the United Nations favorite adopted wards, Palestinian Arabs.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at Cairo Peace Summit, October 2023
On June 28, 2016, Ban Ki Moon, Guterres’s predecessor as Secretary General, visited Gaza and told the audience: “I stand with the people of Gaza to say that the United Nations will always be with you.”
He wasn’t lying.
The United Nations has kept its promise of always standing with the people of Gaza, even the evil terrorists who hack children to death, rape women and burn families alive.
ACTION ITEM
Write US Ambassador to United Nations “The Secretary General cannot say there’s no excuse for terrorism… and then give excuses for terrorism. If Hamas indeed represents the will of Gazans as the UNSG states, then their hopes for killing Jews and destroying Israel must be vanquished as well as the terrorists who commit atrocities.”
To listen to the media, would would imagine that Gaza is the worst place to live, much worse than neighboring Egypt for example, which controlled the Strip from 1949 to 1967.
Here are the statistics as reported by the World Bank.
Table 1: Life statistics in Gaza and Egypt
The average life expectancy in Gaza is 74 years, about 1.5 years longer than in Egypt. There are roughly 2.5 fewer deaths per 1,000 people in Gaza than in Egypt, with death rates of 3.8 and 6.3, respectively.
The medical care in Gaza is quite good and has extended the lives of Gazans beyond those found in neighboring Arab Egypt. The United Nations providing healthcare to its adopted wards similarly helped the young Gazans.
Table 2: Infant mortality rates per 1,000 live births in Gaza and Egypt
As seen in Table 2, babies born in Palestinian territories do significantly better than they do in Egypt. This is primarily driven by free healthcare services provided by the United Nations to Palestinian Arabs but not to Egyptians.
The United Nations also provides free education to Palestinian Arabs but not to Egyptians.
Table 3: Literacy rates for Palestinian Arabs and Egyptians
The gap in literacy scores between Palestinian Arabs and Egyptians is staggering. According to the World Bank, Palestinian literacy rate is 96.2%, while it is a terrible 67.4% for Egyptians. The Palestinian literacy rate is slightly higher than Saudi Arabia and is only surpassed by Jordan among Arab countries in the region.
Despite the better education and healthcare, Palestinian Arabs have a weaker economy, especially in Gaza.
Gaza’s economy is much weaker than in Egypt or the West Bank as the territory is ruled by the Hamas political-terrorist group. Israel and Egypt have a blockade around the area to stop the flow of weapons into the strip which has launched five wars against Israel since it seized the area. Many countries won’t trade with the region because of its violent jihadi leadership which pours its resources into waging war rather than to develop society.
Local Gazans often incorrectly attribute “social services” to Hamas, when the healthcare and education are principally provided by the United Nations. The similarity in healthcare and educational statistics in Gaza and the West Bank prove this out.
Despite Hamas failing Gazans, it remains extremely popular. According to a September 2023 poll, Palestinians would elect the leader of Hamas (58%) over Fatah (37%) to the presidency. Much of that is because 53% of Palestinian believe that the pathway to end the “struggle” against Israel is via violence (as pushed by Hamas), while only 20% support negotiations (as voiced by Fatah).
The United Nations has given Gazans the very best healthcare and education among the region’s Arab nations, all for free. Despite the better education and physical health, Gazans focus their efforts on destroying Israel and in the process, their own economy, and now, their infrastructure.
The United States long ago understood that Hamas is a terrorist group. When the US set up a list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 1997, Hamas was in the first class based on its 1988 Charter calling to kill Jews and destroy Israel, and following through killing dozens of people.
After the barbaric Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, the U.S. designated additional people and organizations which assist Hamas, to stop its flow of millions of dollars. Yet the United States has still not pressured many of its allies and trading partners to similarly designate Hamas, in order to isolate and destroy it.
Canada lists Hamas as a terrorist group along with several other Palestinian Arab groups. Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union also list the group as a terrorist organization.
But what about the countries in Central and South America? In eastern Europe?
The European Union ” reiterates that the terrorist organisation Hamas needs to be eliminated” but what is it doing to facilitate that outcome?
There cannot be peace in the Middle East as long as evil jihadist groups and ideologies exist. It is time for the United States and European Union to apply pressure for all countries to label the noxious evil clearly and plainly.
ACTION ITEM
Email White House “Pressure all trading partners to label Hamas as a terrorist group immediately and call for its destruction.”
Hamas, the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, is seemingly getting some media support from The New York Times.
Just two weeks after the brutal slaughter of 1,400 people in Israel in an unprovoked attack, The Times is softening language around the evil group.
Despite raping women and dragging them by the hair through the streets, cutting the throats of children, shooting old people at bus stops, burning families alive, and kidnapping over 200 people in one of the largest hostage seizures ever, the paper decided to not call the group “terrorists” or even “militants.”
Cover of New York Times on Saturday October 21, 2023
In two articles on the cover page of the paper, the paper referred to “Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza” and “Hamas, the group that controls the territory.”
It’s as though the Times thinks Hamas is a co-op board.
In 2014, after the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 200 Nigerian girls, the Times was apoplectic. It wrote that Boko Haram was a “ruthless Islamist group” which committed a “horrifying abduction.” And the group didn’t even beheaded anyone.
Israel is still trying to identify the victims of Hamas’s atrocities, with people so dismembered and incinerated beyond identification, that two weeks on, the number of dead and missing is unknown. But the media has moved on to their victims of preference.
As Israel pursues maximum justice for the savagery of Hamas, New York’s liberal paper is distancing the terrorist group from its evil roots and actions. It’s a form of antisemitism in which justice for Jewish victims is being reframed as an unprovoked attack on 2 million helpless and innocent residents of Gaza.
First One Through 