Since blind quadriplegic Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded Hamas in 1987 from the Muslim Brotherhood, its sole mission was to avenge the humiliating loss of the 1967 Six-Day-War when Israel defeated the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat began to see the futility of dislodging Israel from the British Mandate of Palestine and territories seized during the Six-Day-War. Yassin played Arafat’s terrorist hit man while he won favor with the United Nations, talking peace but never striking a deal with Israel, despite several attempts at peacemaking by the United States. Through several rounds of intifadas, or Palestinian name of uprisings, Yassin routinely ordered the slaughter of Israeli civilians by suicide bombing, sniping, stabbings, car ramming or any other means to show “resistance” to Israeli “occupation.”
To Yassin, Israel occupied Palestinians lands in Israel proper, not just the so-called spoils of the Six-Day-War. For ally the mayhem caused to Israeli civilians, Yassin was assassinated March 23, 2004 in Gaza City by an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship Hellfire missile. Sworn to Israel’s destruction, Hamas passed the torch to Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, who’s public vows to avenge Yassin’s death brought his death April 17, 2004, less than a month after Yassin. Hamas’ leadership passed the torch to Khalid Meshaal who ran Hamas’ in exile from Damascus, until Syrian President Bashar al-Assad evicted him for showing sympathies to Sunni militants seeking regime change in Damascus. Gaza’s leader Ismail Haniyeh inherited Meshaal’s position May 6, 2017, now threatens the same violence against Israel for President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
Haniyeh encouraged Palestinians to start a new intifada, all because Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t make the proclamation about Jerusalem, it was Trump who ordered the State Department to begin preparations to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. While Israel’s controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem since June 10, 1967, Haniyeh acts like something just changed. Trump made clear that everything’s on the table in new peace talks between Israel and Palestinians, including East Jerusalem as a possible capital. “The U.S. is still offering deals and continues to be on the side of the Palestinian Authority [PA] one way or another, in order to give them a capital or entity in the Abu Dis area, away from Jerusalem, with a bridge linking to al-Aqsa Mosque allowing for freedom of prayer,” said Haniyeh.
Haniyeh has reservations about the Oct. 12 Hamas-Palestinian Authority unity deal, now unraveling because Hamas won’t give up its goal of destroying Israel. Whether it’s firing off rockets or digging tunnels into Israel, Haniyeh maintains the long-term perspective that Israel must be destroyed. When Arafat and Abbas tried to negotiate a peace deal with Israel, Hamas wouldn’t sign on unless Palestinians who lost land in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence are allowed to return. Netayahu sees those demands as preposterous, since it would involve millions of Palestinians. Seeing PLO Chairman Abbas as a traitor, Haniyeh refuses to force Hamas’ armed wing al-Quds Brigades to disarm. Peace deal or not, Hamas refuses to disarm or transfer control of al-Quds’ Iranian-made rocket arsenal to Abbas. Haniyeh sees no benefit to surrendering control of Gaza to the PLO.
Haniyeh asked Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to continue the uprising against Trump’s “decision,” saying the “deal of the century” would disenfranchise Palestinians from Jerusalem and their rightful homeland. “There are also signs that he Israelis will take advantage of the deal to impose their version of the facts on the ground, such as the Judaisation of Jerusalem bill that will be voted on tomorrow,” said Haniyeh. It doesn’t take much for the anti-Semitic rhetoric to leak out, calling Jews controlling Israel Zionists. Running Gaza into the ground, Haniyeh spews pernicious propaganda that Hamas will one day conquer Israel. When Gaza residents are polled, they believe in decisive majorities that Hamas will one day return Israel to Palestinians. Haniyeh knows that Palestinians never had one inch of sovereign territory in the holy land before Israel declared independence.
Running out of cash in Gaza and Ramalllah, Haniyeh seeks a new war with Israel to ramp up donations from oil-rich Gulf State donors. Rioting about Trump’s decision makes zero sense, considering Israel has controlled Jerusalem for over 50 years. Establishing the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Feb. 14, 1949 in Jerusalem, there’s no secret that Israel considered Jerusalem the capital from Day-One. Only the Arab states, led by Turkey which lost Jerusalem after WW I, continues to see Jerusalem as a Muslim capital. Trump’s Dec. 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital infuriated Arabs precisely because Trump stated the obvious. Hamas and the PLO have no bargaining chips other than whipping up more anti-Semitism at the U.N. or threatening armed conflict. Instead of letting Trump negotiate a favorable two-state solution, Palestinians chose more conflict.
