Israel Matzav

Hamas having trouble convincing Gazans it hates Israel enough

Hamas is having trouble convincing its Gaza constituents that it hates Israel enough.

As Hamas hunted down the Gaza based Islamic radicals, who recently kidnapped and killed a pro-Palestinian Italian leftist, they encountered more resistance than anticipated. Several years of Hamas pressure on more radical Islamic groups, has caused these smaller groups to pay a lot of attention to how best to hide from Hamas. The search for the Italian's killers found hundreds of potential suspects, although the real ones were quickly located. All these Islamic radicals are more extreme than Hamas and have come to see Hamas as the enemy (along with Israel and the Egyptian government.) Worse, the anti-Hamas extremists are more frequently not outsiders, but local Hamas members who have become more radical than the Hamas leadership. So while Israel threatens another invasion if attacks on Israel do not cease, Hamas is under pressure to destroy these more radical challengers just to maintain control of Gaza.

Hamas has a bigger problem here. It cannot hope to win another election, especially one against Fatah (for control of the West Bank) without becoming less radical. But this causes the other Islamic radical groups in Gaza and the West Bank to gain recruits. Hamas had always sought a wider base, and got lucky when multiple moderate candidates allowed a more focused and disciplined Hamas to win an election and take control of Gaza five years ago. Now that Hamas controls Gaza, a few hundred more radical Islamic militants are not a threat to their power. But the fact that, as quickly as these militants are killed, jailed or forced to flee, more frustrated young men replace them. The problem won't go away as long as all Palestinian media and propaganda stresses the ultimate goal of destroying Israel. But many pro-terrorist groups, including backers in Europe, blame Israel for the violence between Hamas and its more radical rivals. If anything goes wrong, the "Jewish plot" explanation is always popular. The key problem here is that the more radical groups consider attacks against targets in Gaza and Egypt as legitimate (and easier, because of effective Israeli counter-terror tactics).

Despite the threat from more radical groups, Hamas is still a threat to Israel. Hamas leaders openly talk of continuing efforts to kidnap Israeli Jews for bargaining purposes. Hamas discusses this openly because of the need to attract more Palestinians to the kidnapping effort, and to show how Hamas is taking the lead in providing this effort with leadership and better organization.

I have an idea. Since they love death so much, why don't they prove it by committing mass suicide in Gaza without taking any Jews with them. You know, Jim Jones style. Then they won't have to worry about competing with 'more radical' groups to maintain membership and they won't have to worry about how to win elections against the 'Palestinian Authority' either, but they will have proven that they are the kings of the death cult. Heh.

Labels: Gaza, Hamas, mass suicide

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:45 PM