LOS ANGELES.–Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), 55, slammed the New York Times for interviewing billionaire Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal at his condominium in Doha, Qatar. Fetterman didn’t like the fact that the interview gave Hamas credibility, when, in fact, it gave a rare look into the sick reality of Hamas thinking, something good for Western nations to see. Few in the West comprehend the Oct. 7 Hamas Nazi-like atrocity where Hamas terrorists stormed the Negev Desert Nova Music Festival and local kibbutzes, raping, torturing and murdering over 1,200 Israelis and others, then takings 151 hostages, still holding at least 91, alive-or-dead, nearly one year after the Gaza War began. “Hamas is surviving the war in Israel. Now it hopes to thrive in Gaza again,” was the title of the New York Times article, giving useful insights into Hamas delusions.
Meshaal told the New York Times that Hamas “is winning the war and will play a decisive role in Gaza’s future,” despite the obvious destruction of the Gaza Strip. Meshaal, who lived in exile in Damascus Syria for nearly 20 years at the pleasure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was ousted from Syria when al-Assad found he supported Sunni terror groups, including ISIS and al-Qaeda, attempting to topple the Damascus government. Once evicted from Damascus, Meshaal managed to get safe haven in Doha, Qatar. Meshaal, like his late Doha friend 64-year-old Ismail Haniyeh, were billionaires from looting Gaza for the last 18 years, plundering Gaza’s coffers to enrich himself and other former Palestinian officials. When Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel in Tehran July 31, he, like Meshaal, was worth $4 billion, a staggering sum all from stolen Gaza cash.
New York Times was right saying its interview “offered rare insights into the thinking of Hamas officials,” especially Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, now holed up in Hamas’s labyrinth of military tunnels under Gaza. Fetterman thinks giving Hamas a propaganda platform lends credibility to a U.S.-recognized terrorism organization. While that’s true, it’s still helpful to understand Hamas’s delusional thinking about “surviving” and living to control Gaza’s donor cash in the foreseeable future. For Hamas, it’s all about the money, not destroying Israel or establishing a Palestinian state. “In the interview, Mr. Meshaal made clear that Hamas officials are not in a rush to conclude a ceasefire with Israel, and will not give up the their main demands for an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal,” Times wrote. Meshaal smells more donor cash ready for the looting.
Fetterman thought giving Hamas a platform was a bad idea because they use it to spread propaganda. While Fetterman is right about that, there’s no time that Hamas doesn’t spread propaganda, including about Gaza War casualties. Israel has said that Hamas’s body count of 42,000-plus Gazans, mostly women-and-children, is designed as pure propaganda to build sympathy and infuriate the international community. “No idea why the NYT would platform this propaganda from a terrorist. Undoubtedly, Israel will hold him accountable,” Fetterman wrote. “Hamas is no different than WW II Nazis and I fully support Israel’s commitment to neutralize them,” Fetterman wrote. Meshaal, like Haniyeh, is the epitome of the Hamas pirate, willing to loot the Gaza strip of donor cash to enrich himself, made more obvious by the fact that he’s worth an estimated $4 billion.
Interviewing Meshaal puts on the record the criminal thinking involved in international terrorist gangs, of course never getting to Hamas’s real motives of plundering donor cash. “Hamas’s reasoning is simple—winning simply means surviving and, at least for now, the group has managed to do that, even it if it is severely weakened,” Times wrote, omitting the real purpose of looting what promises to be a rich haul of donor cash when the war ends. Meshaal boasted in the interview that Hamas would eventually win its war with Israel, realizing that the true purpose of its mission was returning Palestinian land, the same mantra pushed for the last 80 years without any results. Meshaal, who’s stolen all his $4 billion from Gaza donor cash, can’t imagine that Hamas cannot continue its scam donors into the future. Oil rich Gulf States no long trust Hamas to manage its cash.
Turing over Hamas leadership to Sinwar was a slap in the face to the U.S. and all other responsible states, with the exception of Iran. Meshaal mentions nothing about Hamas receiving its weapons and cash from Iran, part of its so-called “Axis of Resistance,” a phony call by Shiite Muslims in Iran, Yemen and Lebanon, to support a Sunni terror group barely hanging on to Gaza. “All their illusions about filling the vaccum are behind us,” Meshaal told the Times, referring to plans by the U.S. and others to replace Hamas as the controlling legal authority in Gaza. Meshaal dismisses any idea the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre was a mistake, believing killing Jews was his right of resistance. “As a Palestinian, my responsibility is to fight and resist until liberation,” Meshaal told the Times, failing to mention how he’s stolen Palestinian wealth for his entire career with Hamas.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
