Rise of ISIS (6 page)

But this book focuses on more than just ISIS. While there is not
sufficient time and space to outline the threat of every jihadist group in every corner of the Muslim world, from Yemen to Lebanon, Nigeria to Mali, Libya (where al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists carried out the deadly Benghazi attacks on September 11, 2012) to Pakistan and Afghanistan, there is one other group that is not only vicious and deadly, but is engaged in constant, open warfare against our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel.

That group is Hamas.

Our battle with the Jews is long and dangerous, requiring all dedicated efforts. It is a phase which must be followed by succeeding phases, a battalion which must be supported by battalion after battalion of the divided Arab and Islamic world until the enemy is overcome, and the victory of Allah descends.

—Hamas Charter, Preamble

I
t would be hard to find an American who hasn't at least seen a Sbarro restaurant. How many times have we walked on city streets or through an airport or mall and passed by a Sbarro, glancing at it without a thought as kids and families indulge their insatiable hunger for a good slice of pizza?

On August 9, 2001, families and kids at a Sbarro in Jerusalem were doing exactly what families and kids love to do in America: eat pizza. School was out, so the restaurant was packed with teenagers. The atmosphere was festive.

Until 2 p.m.

That's when a Hamas suicide bomber walked in, either wearing a suicide belt or carrying explosives in a guitar case. Regardless of where he kept his bomb, it was packed—like most suicide bombs are—with nails, bolts, and other small metal scraps, all designed to tear human flesh and maximize human agony.

He self-detonated.

When the smoke cleared, fifteen people lay dead—including seven children and one pregnant woman. One hundred thirty more were wounded, some with horrific injuries.

Initially, Hamas denied responsibility, incredibly blaming Israel for murdering its own children. But it later praised the bomber, honoring him as a man who “gave the Zionists a taste of humiliation.”
¹

This suicide bombing was hardly unusual for Hamas. In the so-called Second Intifada, Hamas carried out suicide bombing after suicide bombing, invariably targeting Israeli civilians—killing as many as it could, as often as it could. After much hard fighting, Israel defeated Hamas in the West Bank. But it was relatively unscathed in the Gaza Strip, where it consolidated control until it ruled the entire area with an iron grip, launching thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians.

Its crimes are easy enough to chronicle, but who is Hamas? Why is it so relentless in its quest to kill Jews? A bit of history is necessary.

The two principal Palestinian groups representing the Arabs of Palestine are Fatah,
²
the political arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
³
and Hamas,
⁴
the Islamic Resistance Movement,
⁵
an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
⁶
As of the
last free Palestinian presidential election,
⁷
Fatah's candidate for president, Mahmoud Abbas, was elected president of the Palestinian Authority (PA),
⁸
while Hamas candidates won a majority of the legislative seats in the 2006 parliamentary election.
⁹
As a result, for the last several years, Fatah and Hamas have been competitors whose respective followers have attacked each other.
¹⁰
In fact, in 2007, Hamas assumed total control in the Gaza Strip and has held total power there ever since.
¹¹
Moreover, while Fatah has publicly renounced resorting to violence in pursuit of an agreement with Israel,
¹²
Hamas has refused to do so. In fact, the Hamas Charter declares violence to be a legitimate means to use against Israel.
¹³

The Hamas Charter declares violence to be a legitimate means to use against Israel.
¹⁴

The United States, Canada, and the European Union have all declared Hamas to be a terrorist organization.
¹⁵

Hamas “is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
¹⁶
It was established on the eve of the intifada (also known as the “First Intifada”)
¹⁷
in December 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Mahmoud Zahar with one specific purpose—to eliminate Israel and return all of Palestine to Islamic control, “rais[ing] the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”
¹⁸
Sheikh Yassin, a Muslim Brotherhood activist in Cairo, was a spiritual leader who founded the Islamic Center (al-Mujamma' al-Islami) in 1973 “to coordinate the Brotherhood's political activities in Gaza.”
¹⁹
In December 1987, Yassin founded Hamas “as the Brotherhood's local political arm.”
²⁰
Shortly after its founding, the group pub
lished its covenant (also called the Hamas Charter) in 1988, stating its purpose in chilling detail.

The Hamas Charter opens with verses from the Quran, proclaiming the superiority of Islam,
²¹
with Hamas's stated motto in Articles 5 and 8: “Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model to be followed, the Koran its constitution, Jihad its way, and death for the sake of Allah its loftiest desire.”
²²
The Charter proclaims: “Israel will exist, and will continue to exist,
until Islam abolishes it.
”
²³
The entire Hamas Charter, from its preamble to the last article, pursues only one purpose: the violent elimination of Israel.

The Charter proclaims that “Palestine is an Islamic land. In it is the first of the two
qiblas
[directions of prayer] and the third most holy mosque, after the mosques of Mecca and Medina. It is the destination of the Prophet's nocturnal journey.”
²⁴
Further, consistent with Sharia law, the Charter states that

[T]he land of Palestine is
Waqf
land given as endowment for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. One should not neglect it or [even] a part of it, nor should one relinquish it or [even] a part of it. . . . This is the legal status of the land of Palestine according to Islamic law. In this respect, it is like any other land that the Muslims have conquered by force, because the Muslims consecrated it at the time of the conquest as religious endowment for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. . . . This
Waqf
will exist as long as the heaven and earth exist. Any measure which does not conform to this Islamic law regarding Palestine is null and void.
²⁵

Accordingly, the Hamas Charter calls the existence of the state of Israel on the land that was formerly held by Muslims a “Zionist invasion.”
²⁶
It therefore pledges to wage “
jihad
in the face of the oppressors, in order to deliver the land and the believers from their filth, impurity, and evil”
²⁷
in order to “[return the homeland to its rightful owner] and “to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine”
²⁸
no matter how long it takes.
²⁹

Hamas does not want “peace” with Israel, and it will not negotiate a permanent peace agreement with Israel. Instead, it will only agree to intermittent “truces” when its military capabilities have been so degraded that it needs time to recuperate and rearm.

Hamas does not want “peace” with Israel, and it will not negotiate a permanent peace agreement with Israel. Instead, it will only agree to intermittent “truces” when its military capabilities have been so degraded that it needs time to recuperate and rearm.

Its Charter states that “so-called peace solutions” and “conferences are nothing but a way to give the infidels power of arbitration over Muslim land.”
³⁰
The Charter declares that “[t]here is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by
jihad.
”
³¹
As reflected in Hamas's Charter and actions,
jihad
here does not mean spiritual struggle. In the preamble, Hamas commits to “join arms with all those who wage
jihad
for the liberation of Palestine.”
³²
It states, “our fight with the Jews is very extensive and very grave, and it requires all the sincere efforts. . . . [B]rigades upon brigades from this vast Islamic world [must be reinforced], until
the enemies are defeated and Allah's victory is revealed.”
³³
The Charter declares that “neglect[ing] any part of Palestine [means] neglect[ing] part of the Islamic faith.”
³⁴

Accordingly, from its inception, Hamas has relentlessly waged jihad and attacked Israel in accordance with its stated purpose and Islamic teachings.
³⁵
Through its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, Hamas has conducted numerous suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and shootings against Israeli targets.
³⁶

Western entities, including the United States, the European Union, and Canada, have declared Hamas to be a terrorist organization.
³⁷
The United States officially designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on October 8, 1997.
³⁸
On December 21, 2001, the European Union adopted a measure to combat terrorism that listed Hamas's military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassem, among its recognized terrorist groups.
³⁹
In 2003, the European Union designated Hamas's political wing as a terrorist group.
⁴⁰

Despite Hamas's terrorist reputation, it maintains significant popular support because of its involvement in a “broad network of ‘Dawa' or ministry activities.”
⁴¹
Hamas donates a significant portion “of its estimated $70 million annual budget” to social establishments as varied as food banks, schools, medical clinics, and sports leagues.
⁴²
According to Israeli scholar Reuven Paz, “approximately 90 percent of its work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities.”
⁴³
Hamas uses these social programs to spread its doctrine of hatred toward Israel, for example by publishing textbooks that refuse to recognize Israel's existence and by calling “Zionism a racist movement” bent on driving Islam from the Middle East.
⁴⁴

Despite Hamas's terrorist reputation, it maintains significant popular support because of its involvement in a “broad network of ‘Dawa' or ministry activities.”
⁴⁵

There are signs, however, that Hamas's eternal quest to kill Jews is diluting its commitment to placate Gaza's citizens through its “ministry activities.” The discovery of an extensive network of terror tunnels reaching from Gaza into Israel (sometimes with exit points close to Israeli homes and schools) demonstrates that Hamas has in fact been diverting an enormous share of its budget to terror activities—up to 40 percent.
⁴⁶
This has included diverting even international aid into building its terrorist infrastructure.

In contrast with Hamas, Fatah is a secular group that was founded by Yasser Arafat and a small group of Palestinian nationalists in the late 1950s.
⁴⁷
Its existence and purpose were a secular version of Hamas's quest to destroy Israel, based on the ideas that “the Palestinian Arab people possess the legal right to their homeland” and that “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.”
⁴⁸
In 1969, Arafat became chairman of the PLO's executive committee, an event that transformed Fatah from “a resistance group [in]to a legitimate political party and the largest faction within the PLO.”
⁴⁹

For decades, the PLO led the Palestinian fight to “liberate” Palestine from the “Zionist invasion”
⁵⁰
(in plain English, it meant the PLO was trying to destroy Israel entirely, not coexist with a Jewish state). Yet, once it determined that the military option was not succeeding (after decades of war), the PLO in 1993 recognized Israel's right to exist in pursuit of a two-state solution
with Israel.
⁵¹
Hamas, however, has adamantly refused to follow the PLO in recognizing Israel and has vowed to continue the “resistance.”
⁵²
Hamas has even chastened the PLO in its charter:

Owing to the circumstances that surrounded the establishment of the PLO . . . the PLO has adopted the idea of the secular state. . . . Secularist ideology stands in total contradiction to the religious ideology, and it is ideas which are the basis of positions, behavior and decisions. Hence, with all our appreciation for the Palestine Liberation Organization and what it may yet become, and without belittling its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, we cannot give up the Islamic identity of Palestine in the present and in the future to adopt the secularist ideology—for the Islamic identity of Palestine is part of our faith, and whoever is lax with his faith is lost.
⁵³

Following unsuccessful peace talks with Israel and Arafat's death in 2004, a rift developed between the PLO's “old guard” of Arafat confidants and the “new guard,” members of the next
generation who sought to gain leadership positions for themselves.
⁵⁴
As Fatah experienced internal strife, Hamas defeated Fatah in the 2006 parliamentary election and took control of the Gaza Strip the following year.
⁵⁵
Hamas has treated Fatah members with the same kind of savage disregard for human life seen in ISIS's conduct in Syria and Iraq, killing Fatah members through summary executions, even tossing some from the tops of tall buildings in Gaza.