Hamas ‘death culture’ beyond comprehension, says founder’s son

[Twiglets1]

Hamas’s embrace of “death culture” is beyond comprehension for much of the world, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, the founder of the terrorist group, told JNS on Tuesday.

“It is not just the West, it’s also the East. It is beyond understanding that some people are willing to sacrifice human life for political gains, or worse for financial gains. I am a living example of this. My father had to choose between his eldest son and the cause and he chose the cause,” said Yousef.

“There is no parent in the world that would go into a fight that would put their own children in harm’s way. Hamas did the opposite. They went and dragged Israel in the most brutal fight of our time, knowing children would pay the price. This shows you their hypocrisy,” he continued.

“It’s the same game with pro-Palestinians worldwide. Everybody cries for the children on one hand, and on the other they are pushing Palestinian indoctrination which leads to the death of children. And then when children die, they blame Israel,” he added.

www.jns.org/hamas-death-culture-beyond-comprehension-says-founders-son/

They went to war to stop the state of Israel from being formed.

That doesn't mean that they wanted to "remove" (ie take away from Palestine to somewhere else) those Palestinians who happened to be jewish. They just didn't want the land to be carved up into two separate countries based on religion, and couldn't see why the jewish minority couldn't continue to exist within Palestine as a whole as it always had.

It's weird how people often seem to conflate these things - the idea of a jewish state and the existence of individual jews. Even now, proponents of a one-state solution who question the right of Israel to exist as a jewish state get accused (including on this board) of wanting to exterminate the Israeli population.

Arguments about the nationhood and political settlement that should exist around a group of people are not in themselves questions about whether those people may continue to exist, or continue to exist in that locality.

Who said they were above reproach? Or always did the right thing? Or entitled to annhilate another country? What a ridiculous straw man. Literally noone and certainly not me.

I wasn't talking about the 1000s of years of oppression. I was responding to your ludicrous suggestion that the state of Israel (which has only existed in the last 100 years) was involved in some ongoing Holy war and referring to the way other countries have treated their Jewish minorities, in that recent history, which is rather more akin to a campaign of religious inspired violence than the way Israel has treated religious minorities.

Though we must, of course, note the less than perfect way Israel and Israelis have at times treated minorities because otherwise people would assume we think that Israel alone among all nations is perfect and beyond reproach.

My comment was in response to your statement re Israel and that it “enshrines freedom of religion and religious equality.” They fail significantly on that point and that is significant when we are talking about the treatment of Palestinians in this war and the hope of future peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I realise that my comment was not the main emphasis of your discussion - apologies for sidetracking based on one small part.

The historical displacement/mistreatment/abuse/murder of Jewish people anywhere in the world is unacceptable. It is relevant in that Israel is a Jewish state and Hamas are antisemitic (although even that seems too light a word for their feelings towards Jewish people). I think there is more to this conflict than purely a religious war. Partly because I don’t believe all Palestinians are radicalised to a point where they can be discarded as terrorists. I’m also not convinced that Israel is pursuing Gaza/WB’s land from a religious perspective (although some members of govt have suggested as much). I think the main driver is that having Palestinians as neighbours is more challenging than not so pushing them out of Gaza and the WB would be ultimately easier for the security of Israel. However, this isn’t possible when the people of Gaza and WB exist. Unless you dehumanise them and pursue ethnic cleansing.

And a final comment re their treatment of minorities. It’s not a matter of nit picking loads of random things that Israel don’t excel in to prove they’re not perfect. It’s certainly not an attempt to paint all Israelis as the equivalent to Hamas. What it is, for me at least, is identifying the areas that are barriers to peace with Palestinians.

I can't be dealing with a viewpoint that limits itself to the last century when speaking of issues that have been ongoing for over a thousand years, whose main actors quote thousand-year-old texts as their guiding principles. I'm out - but genuinely thank you for your insights.

Are ancient texts really their guiding principles? Actual guiding principles?

I dont think its a religious war from the Israeli side. It was the pp that said it was a holy war. Its about security for Israel

This makes sense to me. But the trouble is not knowing who Hamas is and isn't. They deliberately blend in with civilians, and exert such control that one wonders who can manage to survive in Gaza without to some extent deferring to Hamas, if not actively supporting them.

After what happened on 7 Oct, the enthusiastic participation of Gazan civilian mobs in the attacks, the involvement of "peace project" Gazans in providing key information to Hamas about who was going to be where and when in the kibbutzim that day, the open celebrations in the streets afterwards, and the accounts of the few returned hostages, if I were Israeli I'd be scared of everyone in Gaza, right or wrong. It's a really shitty situation.

In an ideal world there would be some kind of futuristic X-ray/DNA superscan to determine from a safe distance who is pro-Hamas and who is not, but I doubt it's that straightforward in reality.

I can understand being fearful of Gazans after 7/20 if you were Israeli. The collective trauma is bound to have that sort of impact. A similar thing was seen after 9/11 - a lot of people were suspicious of all Muslim people.

But the issues with racism/segregation I was referring are not just towards the people in Gaza post 7/10. Within Israel itself, Arab Israelis are treated differently in a very visible way. There’s a total disregard for the rights of WB citizens. This all predates 7/10 although was obviously exacerbated by it. I’m not saying any of this to try and pointlessly attack Israel. I think it’s important to identify how this terrible situation occurred and to me that means looking at all parties involved. So Hamas, of course, Palestinians who to a greater or lesser extent support Hamas (and why they’re drawn to such a violent group) and Israel. Ignoring israel role makes all of this much more likely to happen again.

Trying to find the same interview/info on a non Israeli website, but cant

Not that same interview but similar message from an interview with Dr Phil:

When Hamas launched their attack on Israel on the 7th October they knew that they couldn't militarily defeat the whole of Israel. What their objective was to kill and kidnap as many Israelis as possible in the most barbaric way in order to create the biggest possible military response by Israel.

They also knew that the greater the number of Palestinian civilian casualties the greater the level of sympathy they would get from the western media / public etc. As such Hamas launch attacks against Israel from civilian areas, divert aid, and seek to create the largest possible number of civilian casualties and distress.

If the objective is genuinely to help civilians in Gaza then the most productive action the Western media / public can do is to march and campaign for the removal of Hamas.

"I believe in the book of books (Bible) and I read it as a call to action that every generation must do what it can to ensure the eternity of Israel. I know that without the ability to wield the sword of David we would not be here; therefore, we do what needs to be done in order to ensure that we will be here."
B.Netanyahu, 2018/19

“History, history, history. My father told me if you don’t understand how you got here, you are not going to understand how to go forward,” the Prime Minister [Netanyahu] said. “And in Israel, history begins with three words: Bible, Bible, Bible. There’s no meaning to the Jewish people without the Bible; there’s no meaning to our future without our past.”
2022

"You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible."
Netanyahu, 2023. His office clarified that he had in mind a passage from Deuteronomy: "Blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."

"“This is a war between the children of light and the children of darkness. We will not relent in our mission until the light overcomes the darkness; the good will defeat the extremist evil that threatens us and the entire world."

"You have girded me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me."

"We will realize the prophecy of Isaiah 60:18 – 'Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.”

Also 2023. There's more, but this is enough, especially the "three words" quote.

Netanyahu had a reputation as a diplomat and a moderate, but has been entrenching his identification with the Biblical Israel, the warlike chosen people. This may be to rally support among his Orthodox citizens, who are among the most aggressive factions of the military and the most active 'settlers' of occupied West Bank territories.

It doesn't matter why he's doing it, though. He's speaking to and for his country - in violent Bible quotes.

I don't need to illustrate that Islamist forces take their guidance from the Koran, do I. They're very loud about it.

Agreed. Instead of which... 😞

I can only speak for the people I have interacted with/chatted about this with (privately and on forums like MN) but I haven’t come across anyone who thinks Hamas should be allowed to carry on in Gaza. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t think they committed horrendous acts.

I don’t understand, however, the reasoning that we must all turn a blind eye to the actions and rhetoric of the Israeli government against the people in Gaza (and the related behaviour in the WB). How dehumanising to them to suggest that their lives don’t matter in the pursuit of Hamas. A government cutting off aid to people should cause a stir. A government denying starvation that they contributed to should cause a stir, a country weaponising aid should cause a stir. A government killing the largest number of journalists on record should cause a stir.

Personally, I cannot just accept those things, especially because they are putting Israeli people at huge risk of more extremism. If you ignore or minimise the impact of the Israeli attack on normal Palestinian and their homes, you are literally pushing them into the arms of extremism. I also can’t ignore them as I don’t want any country to seem this acceptable in war. People lately seem to have become immune to war crimes: “they always happen” people chime as if the impact of those crimes isn’t something to feel angry about.

People are marching to ensure the Israeli government in its pursuit of Hamas cannot disregard the lives of innocent people. Whether that’s bombing a hospital twice like today or withholding aid for months. I think the world has totally lost it if we stop being outraged by such actions.

100% agree and well put!

He’s amazing.
I was reading about him just a few months ago.

I hope so too

Thanks, I'll check that out

This is an interesting point of view that I haven't heard before. Please could you direct me to any reading material that has led you to think the Arab Palestinians wanted one state with Jewish people free to live there with the same legal status as Arabs?

It was my understanding that Arab Palestinians wished for their own state the way so many Arab regional identities got theirs at that time- with the breakup of the former Ottoman empire.

And what about you?
Do you think Israel should exist? Or would you favour a 1SS?

What should have happened in 1947 / 8, in your opinion?

It's a horrible situation, indeed. Legitimate war tactics are probably impotent against terrorists, though, and I'm wary of being outraged without having any idea what's going on behind the scenes. Gathering information on the ground must involve being led to and shown things in a kind of whistle-stop tour, which on the Gaza side presumably is controlled by Hamas. So-called "neutral" sources such as the UN are no such thing, and all media have an editorial bias, e.g. the BBC placing this right at the very end of a long article, almost as an afterthought:

Nisreen Khaled, a widow left caring for three children after her husband died of cancer five years ago, told the BBC: "When the hunger worsened, my children were crying not only from pain but also from watching our Hamas-affiliated neighbours receive food parcels and sacks of flour.

"Are they not the reason for our suffering? Why didn't they secure food, water, and medicine before launching their 7 October adventure?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kz42j92jmo

If you ignore or minimise the impact of the Israeli attack on normal Palestinian and their homes, you are literally pushing them into the arms of extremism.
Maybe, but from what I've read about the culture Hamas has imposed since being elected, everyone's always been "pushed into the arms of extremism" anyway. For example Ms Khaled's use of the word "adventure" to describe 7 Oct sounds like critical euphemistic irony to a Western reader, but might equally be just the way she sees it (or a mistranslation).

Who knows? This is all meaningless puppet theatre to all of us here, unless anyone on this thread has lived and worked in both Israel and Gaza for many years! (Anyone?)

If I bang on here about things, it's not because I applaud what Israel is doing - I just don't understand the full picture, which could only emerge when examined historically with full access to military intelligence. I also feel that laying the blame entirely at Israel's door, including for the very existence of Hamas, is playing into Hamas's propaganda game, and for that reason alone I am very wary of doing so.

There is no doubt Hamas are evil and the majority of logical thinking people get that and would like to see them and their ideology gone.

However, the response has been shocking in its brutality. Yes Hamas bare responsibility for the October 7th atrocities but that does not absolve Israel of what has happened since. It’s gone beyond just ‘unfortunate’ civilian collateral damage and I don’t think anyone really disputes that.

To summarise then there should be a removal of Hamas but you just want it done without so many civilian casualties. Which I think is a perfectly logical and valid viewpoint.

A ceasefire now would greatly reduce civilian casualties but leave Hamas in power. Hamas have vowed to repeat the 7th October attacks again and again:

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp-video/mmvo196930629782

So whilst a ceasefire today would undoubtedly greatly reduce Gazan casualties, this would come at the price of further Israeli casualties from future terrorist attacks. The Israeli Government has a duty to protect its citizens so will continue to remove Hamas from power

Again if the objective is to minimise both Israeli and Palestinian civilian casualties then the best way to achieve this is for Hamas to be removed from power. Which is why it so frustrating that on recent protests nobody is calling for the removal of Hamas and those few that do are physically attacked.

Thank you for sharing,l have been in Israel and gaza and other middle Eastern country s it's very difficult to understand , life is so differant than western countries or usa , canada etc , l think all middle east people are nice at heart l am told Islam is a peacefully religion but there ideas seem to be hundreds of years behind the west , hamas and hesbula wish only to kill , destroy the Israel y state , even if middle Eastern people come to western countries they l suppose find it hard to fit in . It's a very difficult situation,l don't know the answer but it could take many people dieing before things settle in the middle east .

I agree re the tactics discussion and the fact that I am not a military expert. But I still cannot condone a double strike on a hospital a&e department or the weaponisation of aid or the denial of starvation. I understand civilians die in war. It is a sad reality. But I think the israel govt value the death of Hamas over the lives of innocent people and I don’t think that is going to lead to an end to extremism.

The issue people have with the UN, I believe, is a fundamental lack of understating about it as an entity. The general assembly is of course hugely biased. It’s playground politics where people gang up against each other and bring resolutions to make others look bad. It’s a way of showing loyalty (or not). But the bodies working under the U.N. banner are not the same as the general assembly. The UNRWA is a humanitarian body that is run by people who are experts in that field. They work around the world supporting people in dire situations and are critical across the board of humanitarian issues. Of course, they are not perfect and their field work is always going to be challenging in contexts like Gaza (with terrorists hide in plain sight) but I don’t believe this is enough to discard what the U.N. humanitarian entities say about humanitarian crises.

Re the BBC, there are numerous complaints that is massively bias towards Israel. Both sides are frustrated that the ‘other side’ is covered. Of course, there will be a level of bias depending on who writes the article and the general left leaning people in charge but, personally, I don’t think enough to make me disregard them or favour X sources over their reporting. Especially things like BBC verify.

Re Gazans being pushed into extremism anyway, is the only answer to disregard them as humans then? Kill them anyway as they’ll probably end up extremists. Do you condone the Gazans seeking visas to take up UK uni places because it’s too late to save them? And the children? Wiping our hands of 2m people because their road to extremism seems set in stone is something I can’t accept. The people of Gaza deserve a chance to live without terrorists in charge or a crippling occupation.

I understand your perspective to a certain extent and I understand the frustration about the Israel ‘pile on’. To me, the pile on re Hamas is a given. They need to go. They have done (and continue to do) horrendous acts. But the only people who can really give Gazans a better life at this point are Israel. Not by taking Gaza and continuing any sort of occupation but by treating the people of Gaza like humans whose lives actually matter. The gaslighting of the famine and incidents like yesterday are only going to help Hamas recruit. If Israel really want to protect their people, they need to destroy Hamas without giving the other 2m people a reason to become extremists.

I love the way you put things, @PinkBobby, but still struggle a bit with "The israel govt value the death of Hamas over the lives of innocent people and I don’t think that is going to lead to an end to extremism" - just because of the difficulties identifying "innocent people" (setting aside the obvious ones e.g. babies, of course!) and the extremism already inherent in Gazan culture (from what I can tell from my comfy armchair in the West!). Also, I know this makes me sound like a monster, but I do feel that Israel has every right to want the death of Hamas as their primary goal.

I wish I could just wave a magic wand to create peace and harmony for everyone in that region. I have nothing useful to say about it and just watch in horror at the whole miserable gut-wrenching charade.