Hamas Even Hates Rotary Clubs

By William MacKenzie,

Do I have your attention?

Most media coverage of the war in Israel has inexorably shifted from the Oct. 7 barbarism of Hamas[1] to civilian casualties from Israel’s response. Hamas knew this would happen.

“After dealing with reporters through many rounds of violence since coming to power in Gaza in 2007, Hamas understood that most can be co-opted or coerced, and that coverage of Gaza would reliably focus on civilian casualties, obscuring the cause of the war, portraying Israel’s military operations as atrocities, and thus pressuring Israel to stop fighting,” Matti Friedman, a Canadian-Israeli journalist and author, wrote today in The Free Press. This has allowed Israel’s critics to claim the high ground without shame.

It is critical that this shift be challenged by going back to the reality of Hamas’ aims.

The reality is in the Introduction to Hamas’ original 1988 charter.[2]

“…our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails.”

Hamas perceived from the outset that it would have many enemies.

“The enemies” who must be confronted “…stood behind the French and the Communist Revolutions and behind most of the revolutions we hear about here and there,” said Article 22. “They also used the money to establish clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests. Such organizations are: the Free Masons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B’nai B’rith and the like.”

“All those secret organizations, some which are overt, act for the interests of Zionism and under its directions, strive to demolish societies, to destroy values, to wreck answerableness, to totter virtues and to wipe out Islam,” added Article 28.

The shift in media coverage has allowed the reality of Hamas, as highlighted above, to recede into the background,

As one critical observer, Kevin Diamant, recently wrote in a Letter to the Editor in the Wall Street Journal, “”Hospitals and civilians are entangled in the fighting because the terrorist cowards want them to be — images of civilian casualties are the tool Hamas uses to turn weak minds to its cause.”

Never forget.

[1] The New York Times reported on Nov. 28, 2023, that it had uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

[2] This is from a translation of the original 1988 charter of Hamas. A revised Hamas Document of General Principles and Policies was issued in 2017.