The Peace FAQ:

Hamas and Hizballah

Frequently Asked Questions:

The existence of Hamas and their suicide bombers must reflect the tremendous rage the Arabs must feel toward their Israeli oppressors...?
These organizations are anti-Zionist - for sure - but why do you imply that they are also antisemitic?
Aren't Hamas and Hizballah primarily social and humanitarian organizations?
Isn't Arafat and the PA opposed to Hamas? Doesn't the PA work with Israel to prevent their terrorism and arrest them as has been agreed?

The existence of Hamas and their suicide bombers must reflect the tremendous rage the Arabs must feel toward their Israeli oppressors...?

What is most important to understand here is that "to die for the sake of God" is, above all, not to die at all. By dying in the "divinely commanded" act of killing Jews (Jews, not Israelis), the Hamas terrorist actually seeks to conquer death (which he fears with special terror) by living forever. In this eternal life, Hamas videotapes reveal, there will be rivers of honey and 72 brides for each hero "martyred" fighting the enemies of God.
Hence, the "love of death" described by the Hamas nonstate enemy of Israel is the ironic consequent of an all-consuming wish to avoid death. Since the death that this enemy "loves" is merely temporary and temporal, leading in "fact" to a permanent reprieve from death, accepting it as a tactical expedient is an easy matter. If, however, the death of the individual Muslim body in holy war against the Jew were not expected to ensure authentic life ever-after, its immense attractions would surely be reversed.
- Louis Rene Beres
Professor of International Law
Department of Political Science
Purdue University

These organizations are anti-Zionist - for sure - but why do you imply that they are also antisemitic?

Just how fully integrated anti-Jewishness and anti-Judaism are in the Islamist struggle against Israel can be best learned from the ideology of the Islamic Resistance Movement -- the HAMAS. By its own definition, the HAMAS is a Palestinian Islamist movement fighting for the liberation of the entire Palestine, the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic State in its stead. However, starting with its most basic ideological literature, most notably the HAMAS' Covenant of August 1988, the organization stresses that its actual struggle is global and as much against the Jews as against Israel or its Zionist inhabitants.
- from ISLAMIC ANTI-SEMITISM AS A POLITICAL INSTRUMENT, by Yossef Bodansky, in The Maccabean Online, January, 1998
Selections from Anti-Semitic Motifs in the Ideology of Hizballah and Hamas
by Esther Webman, Tel-Aviv University, 1994
Anti-Semitism as a corollary of anti-Zionism: a basic tenet of Hizballah ideology as reflected in the Hizballah press
Hizballah is completely opposed to Jews and Judaism and stresses the eternal conflict between them and Islam, although it also cites the more tolerant aspects of Islam toward the Jews. The movement calls to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism, but at the same time reinforces its anti-Zionism by reviving the ancient Islamic enmity toward the Jews, revealing that essentially there is no separation between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Hizballah's total negation of Israel's existence is, on the face of it, a natural extension of its negation of the West, especially the US, inasmuch as Israel is perceived as a tool to realize American interests in the region. However, this negation based on Islamic precepts portraying Judaism as the oldest and bitterest adversary of Islam and intertwined with anti-Semitic motifs, taken mainly from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeyni's preaching and rhetoric, turns into a basic tenet in the movement's general Islamic plan. It appears, therefore, that the line distinguishing between anti-Zionism - the de-legitimization of Israel's right to exist - and anti-Semitism - a primordial hatred of the Jews is becoming increasingly difficult to define.
.Hizballah spokesmen interchange the terms Zionism and Judaism, and Zionists and Jews, freely. In an interview, Husayn Fadlallah, the most senior religious authority of Hizballah, [uses] Qur'anic references to the corrupt, treacherous and aggressive nature of the Jews. "We find in the Qu'ran that the Jews are the most aggressive towards the Muslims, not because they are Jews or because they believe in the Torah but because of their aggressive resistance to the unity of the faith. They reached an agreement with the idolaters to fight the prophet Muhammad, Fadlallah asserted; they are known as the killers of the prophets; they spread corruption on earth; and they oppress other peoples." The idea that those most hostile to the faithful are the Jews and the idolaters is a theme which appears repeatedly"
Fadlallah and other Hizballah spokesmen do not see any contradiction in presenting Islamic sources as displaying tolerance toward the Jews, on the one hand, and as exposing the Jews' wickedness, on the other. These same sources, according to Hizballah ideologists, also provide the reasoning behind, and the motivation for, the irreconcilable struggle between Islam and Judaism, which is viewed as the struggle between truth and falsehood, and good and evil. The Hizballah fighters wage war on Israel out of religious belief and conviction, "just as they pray and fast--it's God's order to them."
Israel is a state that emerged in the heart of the Arab nation in order to revive "the Jewish persona" through Zionist racism in confrontation with all Muslims. "Either we destroy Israel or Israel destroys us." A further dimension is added to the abiding enmity between Islam and Judaism in the utilization of Western anti-Semitic images and perceptions of Jews. "The Jews are the enemy of the entire human race." "Zionism dictates the world and dominates it." "The Jews constitute a financial power ... They use funds to dominate the Egyptian media and infect its society with AIDS." "The Torah inspires the Jews to kill."
[...]
THE HAMAS IDEOLOGY
In November 1988, Hamas published a covenant which was an attempt to systematically present the movement's ideology, in contrast to the PLO covenant. It presents the Arab-Israeli conflict as the epitome of an inherently irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims, and Judaism and Islam. It is not a national or territorial conflict but a historical, religious, cultural and existential conflict between "truth and falsehood," the believers and the infidels, in which one side will eventually be the victor. The only way to confront this struggle is through Islam and by means of jihad (holy war), until victory or martyrdom. "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews [and kill them]; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: Oh Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!? This ideology is represented in the movement's emblem, which shows the Qur'an and a sword. Reflecting this point of view, the Hamas leaflets were the most vociferous of all leaflets distributed by the Palestinian organizations during the Intifada and contained the most extreme anti-Semitic statements against Jews, Israelis and Zionists.
The terminology used against the Jews in the leaflets is a mixture of Western anti-Semitic and Islamic rhetoric. Some of the anti-Semitic expressions appearing repeatedly in the leaflets are:
"The brothers of the apes, the killers of the Prophets, blood suckers, warmongers," "barbaric," "cowards," "cancer expanding in the land of Isra' [reference to Palestine which was the destination of Muhammad's night journeyl and Mi'raj [Muhammad's ascent to heaven] threatening the entire Islamic world," "a conceited and arrogant people," "the enemy of God and mankind," "the descendants of treachery and deceit,", Nazis," "spreading corruption in the land of Islam," "the Zionist culprits who poisoned the water in the past, killed infants, women and elders," "thieves, monopolists, usurers."
Verses from the Qur'an and the hadith (the traditions associated with Muhammad passed down by his companions) were used often to reinforce the negative image of the Jews, and terminology with Islamic connotations was dominant. The leaflets usually began with the religious invocation: "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compa.ssionate." Almost every leaflet contained a Qur'anic verse either as a heading or as a conclusion, emphasizing a certain feature inherent to the Jews, is instigating war. For example: "Oh believers! take not the Jews or the Christians as friends." "So make war on them: By your hand will God chastise them, and will put them to shame, and will give you victory over them, and will heal the bosoms of a people who believe."

Aren't Hamas and Hizballah primarily social and humanitarian organizations?

HAMAS was formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Various elements of HAMAS have used both political and violent means, including terrorism, to pursue the goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel. HAMAS is loosely structured, with some elements working openly through mosques and social service institutions to recruit members, raise money, organize activities, and distribute propaganda. Militant elements of HAMAS, operating clandestinely, have advocated and used violence to advance their goals. HAMAS's strength is concentrated in the Gaza Strip and in a few areas of the West Bank. It also has engaged in peaceful political activity, such as running candidates in West Bank Chamber of Commerce elections.
HIZBALLAH is a radical Shia group formed in Lebanon; dedicated to creation of Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon and removal of all non-Islamic influences from area. Strongly anti-Western and anti-Israeli. Closely allied with, and often directed by Iran, but may have conducted operations that were not approved by Tehran. Known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-US terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombing of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 and the US Embassy Annex in Beirut in September 1984. Elements of the group were responsible for the kidnapping and detention of US and other Western hostages in Lebanon. The group also attacked the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992.
Source: U.S. Department of State. Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. 1998. Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1997. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State. April. pgs. 53-79.

Isn't Arafat and the PA opposed to Hamas? Doesn't the PA work with Israel to prevent their terrorism and arrest them as has been agreed?

The following is an excerpt of a September 24, 1998 interview with Muhammad Dahlan, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in Gaza, which was conducted by the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda.

"Question: The Preventive Security Service has been criticized for not accepting into its ranks people who are not members of Fatah.

Dahlan: That is not correct. We have enlisted into the ranks of the Preventive Security Service many of our brothers active in other organizations opposed to the agreement and I have considered this to be a personal goal Matters reached the point where we engaged in a huge political battle with the Americans and the Israelis over the enlistment of some 25 members of the Hamas military wing, which was done as part of our overall responsibility toward all members of the Palestinian people. Israel accuses them of being the hard-core military infrastructure of the Izz a-Din Al-Kassam brigades [the Hamas terror cells]. We arrested them in the past for various security-related matters, but we saw no reason to continue to detain them. Since the Israeli Prime Minister contested the matter, we made a historic, national decision to protect them. We said very clearly to the Israelis that an attack on any of them
would be an attack on the entire Palestinian Preventive Security Service. Thus, we protected them and gave them the opportunity for an honorable life."
ARAFAT CONTRIBUTES TO HAMAS MOSQUE
Yasser Arafat has donated $100,000 Dollars for the building of a new mosque dedicated to Iz A-Din el Kassam, the infamous Arab terrorist after whom Hamas terrroist cells have named themselves. El-Kassam was killed during the Arab riots of 1936-1939. During the mosque dedication last week, a representative from the PA's office of Holy Sites, Sheikh Salame thanked Arafat for his generous financial support. "This shows President Arafat's commitment to remembering those who defend this land." said the Sheikh. Arutz 7 correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that the new mosque was built in Kfar Yamon, south of Jenin.
(Courtesy Arutz 7 Radio, Israel 8/12/98)

RELATED SECTIONS:
Palestinians, Islam, Antisemitism, Arafat, Terrorism, Edenism, The Occupied Territories, Jihad
WWW RESOURCES:
BOOKS & PRINTED MATERIAL:
- Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, by Matthew Levitt [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence, and Coexistence, by Shaul Mishal, Avraham Sela [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- The Hunt For The Engineer: The Inside Story of How Isral's Counterterrorist Forces Tracked and Killed the Hamas Master Bomber, by Samuel M Katz [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- The Israel-Arab Reader: Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict 6TH rev Updated Edition, by Walter Laqueur, Barry Rubin [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israel Conflict, Second Edition, by Mitchell Geoffrey Bard [VIEW BOOK HERE]

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