What if Hamas and its supporters mean what they say? This obvious but awkward question lurks in the background of the debate over Israel’s response to the terrorist organization’s atrocities. Many people are avoiding the question. The reason they avoid the question becomes clear if it’s stated bluntly.
Is Hamas really a genocidal, baby-murdering death cult?
‘Experts’ Ignore Religious Dimension
Hamas is broadcasting its beliefs and livestreaming its deeds to the world. Yet a lot of people want to pretend that Hamas is not what it clearly is. Many supposed foreign policy experts — pundits, scholars, and officials — speak and write on the issue, often at length, with no consideration of the religious motives of Hamas and its supporters.
This absence demonstrates a desperation to have this war be an ordinary geopolitical conflict, with ordinary solutions of the kind experts are trained to offer. The alternative may be too terrible for them to consider, for there is no easy way to deal with a genocidal, baby-murdering death cult that has gained control over millions of people.
After all, if Hamas’ viciousness is tactical rather than intrinsic, a means to an end rather than the end itself, then a negotiated settlement could still bring peace. Then the problem is one of finding the right combination of Israeli concessions to satisfy Hamas. The conviction that this must be the case explains much of the reflexive anti-Israel tendencies among the professional foreign policy class. They think Israel could surely strike
