The Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has chosen arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, atrocities against thousands of Israelis, as the chairman of its "political bureau." Sinwar, who has been hiding in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas-led attack, will take over from Ismail Haniyeh, the former chairman of the group's "political bureau," who was killed in the Iranian capital of Tehran on July 31.
The fact that Sinwar was elected shows that Hamas's political and military branches are the same. It also demonstrates that when it comes to Islamist terrorist organizations, there is no difference between a political and military leader. By electing Sinwar as its "political" leader, Hamas itself is stating that it does not distinguish between a politician and terrorist.
Has anyone ever considered referring to Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the heads of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS), as the "political leaders" of their respective organizations?
In addition to Haniyeh, Hamas's "political bureau" consists of several figures such as Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashaal, Musa Abu Marzouk, Ghazi Hamad, and Taher a-Nunu who have long been advocating the armed struggle against Israel and glorifying acts of terrorism against Israelis.
On the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities, these leaders held a special prayer in the office of Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, to thank God for the crimes perpetrated by their terrorists and thousands of "ordinary Palestinians." These crimes resulted in the murders of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of more than 240 others to the Gaza Strip. During the attack, Israelis and others were beheaded, raped, sexually abused, burned alive, and abducted.
Moreover, the "political" leaders of Hamas have threatened, from their safe villas and offices in Qatar, to carry out more atrocities against Israelis, and added that their ultimate goal is to destroy Israel. One of them, Ghazi Hamad, said in an interview with Lebanon's LBC TV that Hamas is prepared to repeat the October 7 massacres time and again until Israel is annihilated:
"Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country... The Al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas gave to the attack] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth... Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. ... everything we do is justified..."
Weeks before he was assassinated, Haniyeh called on Palestinians in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere to mobilize and escalate the confrontation with Israel:
"We must rise in the face of the [Israeli] enemy. The free Palestinian people should mobilize on all the fronts – in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon... They need to escalate the confrontation... to accomplish our plan of liberation and the return of the refugees.... We must be together in this and stand as one to defeat the enemy. We must close ranks together with Gaza, and in all our cities and villages in the West Bank, and in the occupied land inside [Israel]."
When Hamas talks about the "liberation," it is referring to its declared goal of eliminating Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state, as affirmed in its own charter:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
The charter also reminds Muslims of the renowned Islamic Hadith:
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."
Note the word Jews, not Israelis. At the moment, other non-Muslims are also being slaughtered, such as Christians in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, and the Massalit in Sudan.
The "return of refugees" refers to the Palestinian demand to flood Israel with millions of Palestinians in the hopes of turning it into another Arab state where some Jews could be allowed to live as a "tolerated" minority.
Another Hamas "political" leader, Khaled Mashaal, said earlier this year that his group's attack on Israel has revived the dream of destroying Israel and "proved that liberating Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea is a realistic idea." He noted that there is "nearly a consensus" among the Palestinians that they will not give up their rights to the land stretching "from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea."
The fiery rhetoric and threats to eliminate Israel by Hamas "political" leaders did not stop some Western media outlets from describing Haniyeh as "a very moderate leader." Reuters described Haniyeh as "tough-talking" but "the more moderate face of Hamas," while Sky News called him "the pragmatic face of Hamas."
In response, Elon Levy, a former spokesman for the Israeli government and former international media advisor to the President of Israel, asked:
"What is a 'very moderate leader' of an Islamist jihadist death cult that perpetrated the deadliest terror attacker since 9/11 on October 7?"
"For the BBC, Ismail Haniyeh was 'moderate and pragmatic;' for the rest of us he was a monster," commented British author and journalist Stephen Pollard. He pointed out that Haniyeh had recorded the following message to the Palestinians from his luxurious home in Qatar: "We need the blood of women, children, and the elderly of Gaza... so as to awaken our revolution spirit."
Pollard added:
"Haniyeh was indeed 'moderate'. The total number of Jews murdered by Hamas does not come close to six million. Not that Haniyeh would have regarded that as anything other than disappointing, given he led an organisation committed to wiping out every Jew from the face of the earth.
"As for 'pragmatic': well, he was prepared to let others join Hamas in murdering Jews. October 7 saw at least four other Islamist terror groups take part. Kudos to Haniyeh for not keeping the glory all to Hamas. That's proper pragmatism for the good of the cause."
Now that Sinwar has joined Hamas's inner circle of "political" figures, it is reasonable to presume that he too will be dubbed by the Western media as a "moderate" and "pragmatic" Palestinian leader.
What comes next? Will the Biden-Harris administration and other Western governments rush to discuss with the newly elected Palestinian leader and mass murderer the creation of an independent Palestinian state that will be used by the Iranian regime and its terror proxies, including Hamas, to destroy Israel?
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
VictorMc