I shouldn’t have done it. I thought The New York Times published the article “Behind Hamas’s Blood Gambit to Create a ‘Permanent’ State of War” to showcase the horror Hamas inflicted on Israel, its treatment of those in Gaza, and more details about the October 7 massacre.
Nope. Read between the lines, and it’s a sympathetic piece. Please read the piece. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Small parts of doubt toward Israel litter the article. For instance (my emphasis):
Since the shocking Hamas attack on Oct. 7, in which Israel says about 1,400 people were killed and more than 240 others dragged back to Gaza as captives, the group’s leaders have praised the operation, with some hoping it will set off a sustained conflict that ends any pretense of coexistence among Israel, Gaza and the countries around them.
Israel didn’t SAY. Hamas filmed and SHOWED off the massacres.
First off, I’m not going to bury the lede. Hamas admitted its end goal:
But in the bloody arithmetic of Hamas’s leaders, the carnage is not the regrettable outcome of a big miscalculation. Quite the opposite, they say: It is the necessary cost of a great accomplishment — the shattering of the status quo and the opening of a new, more volatile chapter in their fight against Israel.It was necessary to “change the entire equation and not just have a clash,” Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’s top leadership body, told The New York Times in Doha, Qatar. “We succeeded in putting the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region is experiencing calm.”—“I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us,” Taher El-Nounou, a Hamas media adviser, told The Times.
In other words, liquidating Israel and Jews.
The attack even surprised Hamas. The terrorists couldn’t believe they could slaughter and kidnap so many people.
I guess Hamas had an identity crisis. Some thought the terrorist group lost its purpose. They never wanted to govern Gaza. They only want to destroy Israel.
Hamas repeats its primary objective at the end of the article.
It’s not about Gaza or Palestinians:
“Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” said Mr. al-Hayya, the politburo member. “Hamas, the Qassam and the resistance woke the world up from its deep sleep and showed that this issue must remain on the table.”“This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers,” he added. “It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.”
Now, let’s get back to the sympathy.
The New York Times seems to justify Hamas’s attack because of images the leaders saw of Jews disrespecting Palestinians.
The article links to stories, but the authors didn’t elaborate:
But the frustration was building. Hamas leaders in Gaza were flooded with images of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, Jews openly praying at a contested site customarily reserved for Muslims, and the Israeli police storming the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a touchstone for Palestinian claims to the holy city. The prospect of Israel’s normalizing ties with Saudi Arabia, long a deep-pocketed patron of the Palestinian cause, appeared closer than ever.
I have many problems with Israel. However, let’s look at the stories mentioned in the above paragraph.
The authors then focus on Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza. He created the Qassam Brigades, the terrorist group’s armed wing, responsible for all the rockets and suicide bombers. His nickname is “Butcher of Khan Younis,” his hometown.
Israel arrested and prosecuted him in 1988. He spent two decades in prison learning about his “enemy.”
But then, Israel made a mistake:
In 2011, Mr. Sinwar was released in a prisoner swap that Hamas took as a signature lesson: Israel was willing to pay a high price for its captives.Hamas traded a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, for more than 1,000 Palestinians, including Mr. Sinwar, a prison leader who had been involved in the negotiations. Freeing him was a big prize for Hamas, and he vowed to release more inmates.
No wonder Israel has taken such a tough stance regarding hostages. The government doesn’t want to make the same mistake again.
Israel left Gaza in 2005, which apparently forced Hamas to govern the territory. How dare they!
The NYT wrote: “Israel, in tandem with Egypt, imposed a blockade on the strip aimed at weakening Hamas, plunging Gazans into deepening isolation and poverty.”
So, it’s Israel and Egypt’s fault that Gaza is a desolate place. It’s definitely not the terrorist organization that flat-out admitted its only goal in life is to destroy Israel, not govern or help Palestinians:
Hamas leaders were ambivalent about the group’s new governing role, with some believing they needed to improve life for Gazans, and others considering governance a distraction from their original, military mission, experts say. Hamas derided the Palestinian Authority for its cooperation with Israel, including the use of Palestinian police to prevent attacks on Israel. Some Hamas leaders feared that their own group, in negotiating daily life issues with Israel, was, in a lesser way, on the same path.
I reread the NYT article three times. I shouldn’t be shocked that the article leans to blaming Israel for Hamas’s frustrations and why the group attacked on October 7. The linked articles in the paragraph listing the situations that infuriated Hamas and other terrorists did not provide more context or backstories.
What do you think?
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