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The Myth of the Moderate Hamas

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dore Gold - Egypt announced in January 2011 that Jaish al-Islam, a Gaza al-Qaeda affiliate, was responsible for the bombing of a Coptic Church in Alexandria that killed 24 Coptic Christians. In the past, Hamas had undertaken joint military operations with Jaish al-Islam, like the 2006 kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. Their involvement demonstrated how the Hamas regime was giving sanctuary to organizations that were directly threatening Egypt. This past year the Egyptian military has become increasingly convinced that Hamas itself has become linked to the global jihadist network flourishing in the Sinai Peninsula. This includes training in the use of explosives and other military preparations that are permitted at Hamas military bases. In early 2014, Egypt's Interior Minister, Muhammad Ibrahim, accused Hamas of providing logistical support for a terrorist operation on December 24, 2013, in Mansoura, in the Nile Delta, that left 16 dead and 130 wounded at the local Egyptian Security Directorate. Since that time, a Cairo court outlawed the activities of Hamas throughout Egypt. With respect to Israel, another aspect of Hamas behavior that has not received adequate attention is the increase in genocidal rhetoric against the Jewish people within the Hamas leadership. Sheikh Younis al-Astal is a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and heads the Clerics Association of Palestine, the most influential religious institution in the Hamas movement. On March 13, 2008, al-Astal called for a mahraqa (literally, burning, but also holocaust, of the Jews). Appearing on Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV, he explained that Allah punished the Jews by means of the Germans and now "it is the turn of the Islamic nation to punish them once again." PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas just embraced a movement - Hamas - that has placed genocidal threats against the Jewish people high on its ideological banner.
2014-04-27 00:00:00
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