'Human rights activists' at Hamas' service
Op-ed: Islamic organization has a huge reservoir of marionettes waging its PR war in Israel and around the world.
In October 2013, Ismail Haniyeh delivered a thanksgiving address: "We put our trust in the support of the liberals in the world… Greetings to all the civil society organizations and human rights organizations."
In that exact speech, he presented the "Palestinian national strategy," which will include "an armed struggle and a PR struggle in all regional and international arenas."
The strategy works. Hamas has launched another round in order to play its role in the "armed struggle" front. Only several hours passed before "writers and intellectuals" began filling their own role in the "PR struggle" front. The first petition has already hit the road. No to violence. Not to war. All they want is to "probe the incitement," Israel's of course. And they are demanding "an end to the fighting in Gaza."
The protests around the world have already begun too. In London, streets have already been blocked in a joint protest of the radical left and jihad supporters. In Dortmund, Germany, it was a coalition of Islamists and neo-Nazis.
Once the goal was to portray the Jew as a monster. Today the goal is to portray Israel as a monster.
Sometimes we have to rub our eyes in disbelief, as it is not only neo-Nazis, Islamists and anarchists who participate in these protests. Human rights supporters protest against Israel too, and common sense finds it difficult to digest the foolishness.
Official position holders in Hamas call for the destruction of Jews. They don't settle for Israel. They talk there, on Hamas' official channel, about "conquering Rome, and from them continuing to conquer the two Americas and Eastern Europe." This isn't the vision of the end of the days. It's what Hamas demands in the current generation.
Another broadcast on that same channel asserts that "the Christians, the Jews and the communists must be destroyed to the very last one of them." The children's shows are filled with brainwashing against Jews.
Not a tiny bit of this has ever been broadcast on a public media outlet in Israel. But the flower children know how to transform the picture. Israel is the one who's inciting. They have nothing to say about Hamas.
It's difficult to understand Hamas, which favors violence, incitement and a rocket industry over prosperity and hope. It's even more difficult to understand the "liberals and rights activists" who work at Hamas' service.
Criticizing Israel's policy is okay. That's not what's going on with the members of the band wandering between petitions and protests. They are not advancing human rights. On the contrary, they are making the situation worse. They are serving Hamas' murderous ideology.
This is neither an interpretation nor an estimate. It's exactly what Haniyeh is saying: You engage in PR, in a human rights dialogue, in protests, so that Hamas can find the time to engage in the armed struggle.
They are not only wrong, they are also misleading others. Because the IDF drops leaflets on Gaza, warning residents that it plans to target weapon caches and rocket launchers. That's not enough. It also telephones every house that might be affected. That's not enough either. And so the Air Force launches tiny bombs as part of the "knock on the roof" procedure, to warn the building's inhabitants. NATO bombed Yugoslavia and Libya. The US bombed Fallujah ceaselessly. They didn't dream of such means.
And what does Hamas do? It issues an official order to these civilians to serve as a human shield. The IDF is trying to reduce the number of casualties among civilians. Hamas is trying to increase that number, because that's exactly what will cause its PR messengers to launch a campaign against Israel's "war crimes." Not Hamas'.
Hamas knows that it has a huge reservoir of marionettes, in Israel and in the world. They are operating exactly according to Ismail Haniyeh's orders. The protests against Israel are the first stage. Hamas knows that it has someone it can trust. The next stages are on the way.
These pointless rounds of violence which lead nowhere must end. We need peace. We need an agreement. One demand must be directed at Hamas and Israel: Accept the Quartet conditions (renouncing violence and recognizing past agreements).
The residents of the Strip, who are becoming victims of the jihad which controls them, must be given hope. But as long as the kind souls are working for Hamas' PR department, intentionally and unintentionally, as long as they fail to point an accusing finger at Hamas, there is no chance of that ever happening.
The incitement, the violence and the bloodshed must end. The campaigns supporting violence and bloodshed must end as well.
