The victory of Hamas
What drives Hamas to attack, even though in doing so it suffers heavy losses, is its bi-dimensional perspective on existence - and in this case Hamas made gain on both the transient dimension of this world and the transcendent eternal world.
Why is Hamas celebrating? This question intrigues pundits and policy-makers in Israel and beyond. The answer is simple: Hamas has won. In order to understand this victory it is necessary to stand outside a cozy Jewish one-dimensional worldview and step into the Islamic bi-dimensional worldview driving Hamas and other Islamist movements. Westerners often describe the latter worldview as “extremist”, “fanatical” and “irrational."
Nevertheless, before we rally to pillory Islam it is necessary to understand the fundamental difference between the contemporary Western worldview and the Muslim vision of reality. This difference is best understood by eschewing facile value judgments.
Misrepresented
Rafael Castro
Op-ed: Facebook is riddled with unintelligent remarks, and Google only reveals contradictory behavior in the Arab community, but millions of well-meaning Muslims are still out there.
What drives Hamas to attack, even though in doing so it suffers heavy losses, is its bi-dimensional perspective on existence. Whereas in Judaism and contemporary Christianity only one dimension counts – namely the terrestrial one, Islam offers two dimensions: The transient dimension of this world and the transcendent eternal world. When a Jew dies in war, Jews mourn, revere and admire the fallen, yet no amount of praise will conceal a reality where the dead is universally viewed as having lost his or her most precious possession – namely life.
On the other hand, the Hamas militant who dies in battle with the Zionists has - according to his relatives, friends and fellow citizens- conquered eternal bliss by dying for his faith.
Israeli officials boast that Hamas has lost the war because hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters have died, whereas the Israeli casualty count stands at 70. Yet this reading only matters in the Judeo-Christian world. In the Islamic world this count amounts to a resounding victory for Hamas and its allies.
Why? At least 2100 Gazans have earned martyrdom and are now enjoying paradise whereas 70 Jews have been dispatched to hell. This reading only appears irrational to those who are stuck in a one-dimensional view of the universe - not to those with a more transcendent perspective of reality, the perspective millions of Arab Muslims share.
Understanding this vision is important and yet needs to be qualified. It is not true that if Israel were to destroy 100,000 Gazan lives while suffering few casualties itself, Khaled Mashal would be celebrating 100,000 new martyrs in his luxurious hotel suite overlooking the Persian Gulf. Even Muslim otherworldliness knows its bounds. Victories attained in battles against non-Muslims in the transcendental dimension need to be tracked by tangible achievements in the earthly dimension.
Yet Hamas has attained a resounding victory in this earthly dimension too. In order to secure a ceasefire, Israel has agreed to concessions such as relaxing border controls, expanding Gaza’s maritime boundaries and granting Hamas de facto recognition as a party to negotiations with the Jewish State.
These are all important achievements which have been attained by means of violence, death and destruction. Given this resounding victory achieved in all dimensions of existence what will stop Palestinians from supporting the Islamist strategy rather than the sterile diplomatic efforts of Abu Mazen?
That is why Hamas activists today hand out candy bars and that is why tomorrow they will whet their knives for the next confrontation with Israel.
