Differentiating Hamas

It is with confusion that I watch the press try to present different sides of Hamas.  While the press may say that some Hamas members belong to the “political wing” and others the “military wing”, the simple fact is that Hamas is:

1. a terrorist group;
2. the most anti-Semitic ruling party in the world;
3. a group of Holocaust deniers;
4. committed to destroying ALL of Israel;
5. the leading democratically elected party (winning 58% of the Palestinian parliament in their last election in 2006)

To put it another way, splicing Hamas is like differentiating between the Nazi Party, the SS and the Gestapo.  While there were differences in their roles, each was evil and guilty of genocide.

• CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/16/world/meast/hamas-explainer/  “Hamas has sections dedicated to religious, military, political and security activities.”
• New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/world/middleeast/palestinian-militants-and-israel-trade-attacks.html?_r=0  “Masked men from the Hamas military wing…”
• BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26549247  “…facilities operated by Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, and on targets belonging to Hamas’s military wing.”
• NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6659397  “…both the military and political wings of Hamas…”
• Time: http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2064072,00.html  “…young fighters from Hamas as its political wing,…”
• Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shadi-hamid/what-was-hamas-thinking-u_b_153801.html  “Hamas is not a unitary actor. It is riddled by internal divisions between the political wing (“politicians”) and military wing (“militants”) or, put another way, between “pragmatists” and “hardliners.””

Do not kid yourselves. Hitler was democratically elected and a politician too.

Political music video on Hamas Theme Song (CSNY): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF2fcaSPB6M