The Imperative to Destroy Hamas
What the hell did we just witness? Hamas fighters in clean, new uniforms and a fleet of shiny new pickup trucks. Staged hostage release scenes choreographed by masked men with assault weapons. And the hordes of Gazans crushing each other to get at young Israeli girls, victims who were barbarically kidnapped to terror dungeons and suffered there for a year and a half.
Why is there no peace for Israel? Why is Israel attacked over and over? Why is it like this? The answer is Islamism, radical Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic extremism. Whatever you want to call it, it is the animating force behind Hamas, as it is for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and so many other terrorist groups across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
Islamic extremists like Hamas believe the Quran calls them to subjugate or kill non-Muslims, and to bring the entire world to heel under the boot of Sharia law. In pursuit of this goal, Islamic extremists are merciless.
Terrorism
Islamic extremists are by far the leading perpetrators of terrorism in the world. According to the Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol), between 1979 and April 2024, there were 66,872 Islamist attacks worldwide which caused the deaths of at least 249,941 people. And it’s accelerating. Worldwide, nearly 85% of those attacks occurred since 2013. In Europe, there were nearly 7x more Islamist terror attacks over the last ten years than there were in the prior ten years.
Further, the 10 largest terrorist groups in the world are all Islamic terrorist groups. They are Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Hezbollah, Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al-Shabaab, Hamas, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. There are many, many more, but this “Top 10” accounts for hundreds of thousands of deaths and the suffering of millions around the world.
Hamas perpetrated a horrifically brutal act of terrorism against Israel on October 7, 2023. But that wasn’t a one-off. Across the 1990s and 2000s, Hamas carried out repeated suicide bombings on buses, in cafes, and in various other public places in Israel. They launched tens of thousands of rockets from Gaza into civilian areas in Israel, just since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. And they have kidnapped and murdered Israeli civilians and soldiers alike.
Other Islamic extremist groups behave in exactly the same manner as Hamas. It was Al-Qaeda that hijacked three commercial airliners and crashed two into the World Trade Center in New York, killing nearly 3,000 people in total. It was also Al-Qaeda that bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing hundreds. And it was Al-Qaeda that bombed passenger trains in Madrid, killing hundreds more.
It was Al-Shabaab that opened fire in the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi in killing 71 and injuring 175. It was also Al-Shabaab that was responsible for a truck bombing in Somalia that killed 587 innocent men, women, and children.
It was Lashkar-e-Taiba that attacked the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, killing 175 innocent workers and guests. It was Boko Haram that murdered some 2,000 innocents in the Baga Massacre in Nigeria. It was Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin that killed more than 600 in Burkino Faso and National Thowheeth Jama’ath who attacked churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 250.
It was the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, IS-K, and their sympathizers) that attacked the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, Russia, killing 145 people and wounding more than 500, and that opened fire killing civilians in Vienna, and that carried out truck ramming attacks in Stockholm and Barcelona and London and Berlin and Nice and most recently New Orleans, killing hundreds and injuring many more.
It was also Islamic terrorists who detonated bombs outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 concert goers and wounding over 100. And there have been many, many more.
Martyrdom
According to Gaza Islamic Scholar Mustafa Qeshawi, “The prophet Muhammad specified six rewards for the martyrs. First, their sins are forgiven with the very first drop of their blood. They have no sins. Zero.” and “They are married to 72 black-eyed virgins.”
Only a month ago, Canadian Islamic scholar Sheikh Younus Kathrada said in a sermon, “That man who dies on the battlefield, defending Islam, and the lands of Islam, fighting for me and fighting for you, that man who the media labels a terrorist—Allah blesses him. All of his sins are forgiven.” and “The martyr will have 72 black-eyed houris, those maidens in Paradise.”
If that is what Islamic extremists like Hamas believe, it is no wonder they are so willing to sacrifice themselves and their children. And why wouldn’t they believe it? It is what they are taught from the day they are born.
On May 7, 2023, the Quds News Agency (Palestine) aired an interview with the mother of Hassan Qatanani, the Hamas terrorist who murdered a British-Israeli woman named Lucy Dee and her two daughters in a shooting attack the month before. She proudly told the interviewer, “He loved martyrdom. He would say to me, day and night, ‘Mom, I want to be martyred.’ He would kiss my hand and say: ‘Pray to Allah that I will be martyred.’ I would say: ‘May Allah give you what you want, inshallah.’ Praise be to Allah for granting him what he wanted.”
Amina Zahran, the mother of two slain Hamas terrorists, one of whom was responsible for the 1994 kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman, said, “I have 17 children and 65 grandchildren. By Allah, I will sacrifice them for the sake of Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. I will wholeheartedly and happily. They are the price for our homeland. I told my children and my grandchildren: ‘You are the price for our homeland. I give you to our homeland.’”
Sheik ‘Ikrimi Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem, appointed by the Palestinian Authority, said in an October 2000 interview, “The younger the martyr, the greater and the more I respect him.” When asked if this is why mothers cry with joy when they hear about their sons’ deaths, he replied, “They willingly sacrifice their offspring for the sake of freedom.”
Not only do Islamic extremists praise child martyrs, they cultivate them. The Palestinian Authority broadcast a television program called the ‘Children’s Club’ which featured a knock-off Mickey Mouse character who told children to kill Jews and martyr themselves. The show also featured songs with such lyrics as, “When I wander into Jerusalem, I will become a suicide bomber.”
Too often, we are inclined to imagine others think like we do and share the values we do. But if we think that way, we will fail to understand the depth and sincerity with which Islamic extremists like Hamas believe things we find abhorrent.
Yes, we are all born equal. Every human baby can grow to become a loving, wonderful person. But what happens if they are indoctrinated from the time they can walk to hate and to kill? What happens if they are told every day of their lives that martyrdom while killing Jews and ‘liberating’ Jerusalem is their highest purpose in life? What happens if they are taught that all of the world’s problems, including the sufferings and failures of their own families, are caused by the Jews? What happens if even their scripture teaches them that they are commanded by Allah to kill Jews? What happens if all of this is reinforced daily by their parents, their teachers, their religious leaders? What happens if they are trained even as children to fight and to kill?
Jews
The record of attacks on Jews by Islamic extremists is long and terrible. From the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, that killed more than 1200, wounded 3400, and took some 240 hostages to the 1992 Islamic Jihad attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina that killed 30 and injured 242 to the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship and murder of disabled Jewish-American Leon Klinghoffer to the 1972 Palestinian attack on Jews at the Munich Olympics, to cite only a few, the attacks against Jews by Islamic extremists have been unremitting.
None of this is new. Muslims have persecuted and murdered Jews for centuries. Consider the 1947 Aden Pogrom (Yemen) where 82 Jews were murdered or the 1945 Tripoli Pogrom (Libya) where 145 Jews were murdered or the 1941 Farhud (Iraq) where as many as 780 Jews were killed or the 1934 Constantine riots (Algeria) where 25 Jews were killed or the 1929 Hebron Massacre (Mandatory Palestine) where 67 Jews were killed or the 1860 Tétouan Pogrom (Morocco) or the 1840 Damascus Affair (Syria) or the many others in between.
The result of this relentless persecution and murder, which increased significantly in the 20th century, is that the long history of Jews in the Middle East has been nearly erased. Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya were home to more than 250,000 Jews in the early 20th century. Today, that number is zero. Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia were once home to more than 650,000 Jews. Now there are only some 3,000 Jews left. This is not a “both sides” story. Since 1948, the Muslim Arab population in Israel has grown from 156,000 to 2,100,000.
Even with effectively no Jews left in their countries, they still call for the murder of Jews, not merely the destruction of Israel.
“There are Jews everywhere. We must attack every Jew on planet Earth! We must slaughter and kill them, with Allah’s help. We will lacerate and tear them to pieces.” – Fathi Hammad, Hamas Politburo, July 14, 2019
“We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do the best we can to harm Jews in Israel and the world over, with Allah’s help and according to his command.” – Ayman al-Zawahri, Al-Qaeda leader, April 2, 2008
“The Jews are our enemies. Allah will annihilate them at our hands. This is something we know for certain.” – Muhammad Hussein Yaaqub, Egyptian Cleric,
Al-Nas TV (Egypt), December 29, 2009
“And you, people of Hebron – you are now waging a war against the Jews. You are well-versed in this. We saw how, on a day in 1929, you slaughtered the Jews in Hebron. Today, slaughter them on the land of Hebron. Kill them in Palestine. Arise, oh people of Palestine, all the people of Palestine – arise in defense of your Al-Aqsa Mosque, arise in defense of Nablus and Hebron.” – Sheik Himam Sa’id, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Al Manar and Al Aqsa TV, December 3 and 5, 2008
“If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” – Hezbollah leader Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanon Daily Star, October 23, 2002
Just as they did more than 75 years ago.
“It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.” – Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, October 11, 1947
Today, the historic Muslim call to kill Jews has reemerged in chants from ceasefire celebrations in Gaza to so-called pro-Palestinian rallies across the West. “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.” This is a reference to a series of battles recorded in the Quran in which Mohammed slaughtered Jewish communities because they refused to convert to Islam.
Christians
It is not only Jews who face persecution and slaughter by Islamic extremists. The Christian population of the Middle East has fallen from 12.7% in 1900 to 4.2% in 2020. In Gaza and the West Bank, 11.6% of the population was Christian in 1910. Today, Christians represent only 0.5% of the population of Gaza and less than 2% of the population of the West Bank. In Egypt, Christians represented 18.7% of the population in 1910 but less than 5.0% today. In Turkey, the Christian population fell from 21.7% to 0.2%. In Iraq, 6.3% to 1.0%. In Syria, 15.6% to 2.0%.
More concerning is the acceleration of this ethnic cleansing. Even in Lebanon, which was three quarters Christian in the early 20th century, the Christian population has fallen from 45% in 2010 to 32.4% in 2023. According to the US State Department, the number of Christians in Iraq fell from 1.2 million in 2011 to 120,000 in 2024, and the number in Syria from 1.5 million to 300,000. The depopulation of Christians is so extreme that in some areas of the Middle East it has even been designated a genocide by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.
And this is not happening only in the Middle East. Islamic extremists are relentlessly persecuting Christians in Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Nigeria.
Others
The religious intolerance of Islamic extremists like Hamas fuels their violent persecution of all non-Muslims. On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered and kidnapped everyone they encountered. Citizens of Thailand and Nepal who were neither Jew nor Christian met the same fate as those who were. Again, this wasn’t a one-off. It’s consistent with centuries of history.
In Iran, the majority was once Zoroastrian, but now there are only 25,000 Zoroastrians left in a nation of nearly 90 million Muslims.
In Iraq, the Islamic State invaded the Sinjar province, home to the Yezidi people, attacking, displacing, murdering, and enslaving hundreds of thousands of Yezidis solely because they are deemed infidels, non-Muslims.
In Afghanistan, Islamic extremist gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a Sikh shrine, killing dozens of worshippers. And last year in Dagestan, Russia, Islamic extremists simultaneously attacked two synagogues, two Eastern Orthodox churches, and a traffic police post with automatic weapons and Molotov cocktails, killing dozens and wounding dozens more.
All of these terrorist attacks noted so far are just a very few examples of the more than 65,000 Islamic extremist attacks that have occurred in recent decades.
Women
Women fare no better under Islamic extremists. Under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, women are banned from studying in secondary schools and universities. Women are not allowed in parks, gyms, or beauty salons. They are forbidden from going outside to walk or exercise. They cannot sing or read in their own homes if they might be heard by anyone outside the house. Afghan women are not allowed to look directly at men they are not related to by blood or marriage. According to Afghan law, “Whenever an adult woman leaves her home out of necessity, she is obliged to conceal her voice, face, and body.”
Female genital mutilation is practiced by extremists in the Muslim majority countries of Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Indonesia, and the Maldives. In fact, this terrible cruelty is rarely practiced in any non-Muslim countries.
In some Muslim countries, girls as young as nine-years-old can be married and forced to consummate that marriage with significantly older husbands. The basis for this is a fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran, which includes the story of the Prophet Muhammed’s marriage to a nine-year-old girl. The more extremist the country or area, the more common are fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of the Quran. For example, according to Sana University researchers, the average age of marriage in rural Yemen is between 12 and 13.
The experience of the Yezidi people is a tragic example of how Islamic extremists treat women. According to the United Nations, Islamic extremists captured and forced some 7,000 Yezidi women and girls into sex slavery. In one case that made headlines because it was photographed, 19 Yezidi girls were burned alive in a steel cage because they refused to be sex slaves for Islamic State fighters.
Who does these things? This is not about acceptable differences in culture or tradition. It is cruelty and it is oppression. There cannot be peaceful coexistence with extremists who do these things.
Peace
But peaceful coexistence is not what Islamic extremists like Hamas want. They want jihad. They want the destruction of their enemies, especially the Jews. Consider these excerpts from Hamas’ 1988 founding charter.
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” (Preamble)
“There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.” (Article 13)
“The day the enemies usurp part of Muslim land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In the face of the Jews’ usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.” (Article 15)
Hamas’ entire purpose, the very reason for its existence, is to eliminate Israel. And make no mistake, it is not just about reclaiming land. Hamas also memorialized its hatred of Jews in its founding charter.
“With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.” (Article 28)
Consider as well what Hamas said immediately after their October 7, 2023, massacre of Jews.
“We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight. Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.” – Ghazi Hamad, Hamas Political Bureau, October 24, 2023
And what did Hamas then say as soon as the January 2025 ceasefire was agreed?
“This war started for the sake of Jerusalem. Our guiding compass will continue to point to Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They will continue to be the goal of our jihad and our resistance.” – Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas Political Bureau, January 15, 2025
And before that?
“Bring annihilation upon the Jews. Paralyze them, destroy their entity.” – Sheik Hamad al-Regeb, Hamas official, April 7, 2023
“You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing.” – Fathi Hamad, Hamas official, July 12, 2019
“We’ll take down the border and tear out their hearts from their bodies.” – Yahya Sinwar, former Hamas leader in Gaza, April 6, 2018
The point is Hamas does not want peace. Islamic extremists don’t want peace. They don’t share our values. They aren’t seeking a better life for themselves or their children. What they want is to kill the so-called enemies of Islam and are quite happy to sacrifice themselves and their children to that cause.
There will never be peace for Israel with Hamas at its border. The mistake that led to the October 7th massacre was believing such a situation is manageable, containable. It is not. Perhaps the current ceasefire will hold for a while, just like there have been brief periods of calm in the past. But we can’t think that this time is different, that lasting peace is at hand. Hamas’ singular pursuit of its mission has never wavered. Hamas attacks or Hamas prepares to attack. There is nothing else. What this means for Israel is a simple choice. It can wait for Hamas’ next attack, for Israeli citizens to again be kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered, or it can destroy Hamas.