I stumbled across this news story and photo over at Charles Johnson’s excellent “Little Green Footballs” (and no, nobody seems to know exactly what that name means) and just had to write about it.
But first, go read the story and look at the picture. Really. I mean it.
My first thoughts: Hamas has a “military wing?” I’ve heard that before, and always had the same thought: that implies that they have a non-military wing, and therefore that gives them some credibility. I don’t buy that. They are terrorists. True, they are terrorists who occasionally do some other things to score some good PR, but they are at their core terrorists. It’s like the notion that fraternities and sororities (at least, ones like I saw in college) are about community service. No, they do those for good PR for cover for the next time they nearly kill some pledges or have a drunken riot, but writ huge. It leads to moral equivalence, where you end up counting hospital beds Hamas provides against the graves it fills with a bus bombing. Hamas doesn’t have a “military wing,” it’s a terrorist organization — all of it. One can’t be “partially terrorist” more than one can be “kind of pregnant.”
Second thought: These guys are holding press conferences? What the hell do terrorists say at a press conference? I suppose it’s better than their usual methods of communication, the bomb-o-gram and the snuff video, but still… I’d hate to be the reporter assigned to cover THAT event.
Third thought: They did this in a MOSQUE? What the hell were the leaders of the mosque thinking? They have no problem with ARMED, MASKED MEN coming into their mosque with SERIOUSLY HEAVY military weaponry, showing it off, and talking to the press? I thought Islam was the “religion of peace.”
We’ve run into exactly the same situation in Iraq — armed terrorists/insurgents/whatever hole up in a mosque and we treat them with kid gloves. Well, the time for that is well past — if it ever was.
Here’s what I’d like to see the next time it happens:
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Great posting, Jay Tea. It also reminds me of how important it is to get Bush re-elected. If Kerry’s elected he’ll probably appoint Jimmy Carter (the most incompetent president in my lifetime) as an envoy to Israel-Palestine. During a speech before the Arab-American Institute, Kerry derided the Israeli’s for building a security fence. Later, when addressing a Jewish PAC, he said the security fence is a measure that is necessary. Yet, except for Fox News Channel and a conservative Jewish writer friend of mine, I never heard about that flip-flop in the MSM (perhaps because the MSM is pro-Palestinian, like Geraldo Rivera saying, “We are all Palestinians.).
As an Arab-American myself, I hate all this PC stuff about Islam as a peaceful religion. It’s history says otherwise.
Please excuse my grammatical errors in my comments. I tend to shoot from the hip and fail to edit properly. LOL
You COMPLETELY missed the point of the picture.
This was nothing more than a yard sale to cover the expenses of the Old Terrorists Home.
Hamas does a great deal of good work in the Middle East.
Creative population control for Israel.
Training in and testing of Extreme Thermal Self Disassembly Devices. (Really Stupid Bombs)
The above mentioned Old Terrorists Home.
I will admit they seem to have misunderstood the concept of Rock The Vote in Iraq, but that may be due to overexuberance on their part. (Note to Hamas, Rock The Vote does NOT equal BOMB the voters!)
Try not to be so negative.
Just try and be understanding. Support Hamas and vote FOR John F’n Kerry. They’ll be glad you did.
I agree. I had this exact conversation yesterday with my father in law, a retired Lt .Col from the Air Force. It is gettign time to wither drop the hammer or think about getting out. All this half assed almost sieges and taking care not to damage a brick on teh Mosques that are launchin mortars… Blow them away the way we know how or don’t. A wise little green guy once said,”Do or do not, there is no try.” (Yoda)
If you refuse to acknowledge the non-miltary wing of Hamas (and others) then the war on terror is already lost.
Terrorist groups generate massive support in their areas of operations not because of their ultimate goals, but in large part because they provide essential social services that are otherwise unavailable to dirt-poor civilians.
And I predict that this is exactly what will happen in Iraq if Kerry is elected.
Jim wrote:
Please excuse my grammatical errors in my comments. I tend to shoot from the hip and fail to edit properly. LOL
That’s because you’re an asshole, Jim. LOL
Hal Stone,
How brave of you to say while hiding behind your PC. You’re one of those punks who’s a loudmouth on the telephone or online, but deep down inside you know you’re a punk. Which is why you’re a Liberal. Liberalism makes punks feel like they’re really heroes, when deep down in their guts they know they’re cowards.
Terrorist groups generate massive support in their areas of operations not because of their ultimate goals, but in large part because they provide essential social services that are otherwise unavailable to dirt-poor civilians.
Leopold Stotch = Sen Patty Murray, D-WA
If I didn’t know better…I’d think the picture looks like Dan, Tom and Pete at The New Yorker Festival getting ready to take on the bloggers.
“Leopold” is exactly right, however.
Hamas has huge popular followings because it actually does provide community services separate from its military actions. This is exactly along the lines of Sinn Fein and the IRA: one does the talking, one does the bombing. The questions that is hard to answer is just how much coordination takes place between the two.
Hamas community services is also a major draw for charitable donations. While it’s convenient to blur the distinction between the two wings, Arab populations do not blur them, but see them as two, separate organizations.
Many in the US–and of course Israel–would prefer that both be seen as the same. But you have to sell that to the people who actually do the supporting, and so far they aren’t buying.
I personally think they’re far too close, that money does move in ways it shouldn’t be moving. But I’m not a middle class Arab writing a check to provide food and shelter for people in a tough circumstance, either.
The USG has had some success–notably in Saudi Arabia–in getting funding to Hamas cut off, even from individual donors. But its a very hard sell to a population that doesn’t like the salesman very much.
– Jay Tea…not to fret….Israel (unlike the chuckle heads infesting the left that do everything they can to thwart the effective use of American military power) know exactly how to deal with the Islamic Fascist thugs….
– Day after day the Israeli Army continues to fumigate the Hamasbug infested border edge of Palestine as well as Lebenon. They have stated several times that the attitude adjustment will proceed until the “peace loving murderers of children” stop lobbing rockets into civilian area’s in Israel….
– The very reason the Arabs are so annoyed with Israel is that they forego the negotiation crap, which is just a stalling tactic, and bomb the piss out of them. The Jews are really bad guys because they act quickly and decisively without worrying about whether it “meets the international test”…..
– The Mosque in the picture will probably be a pile of stucco dust within a few days….
Did I see the same caption as everyone else? The one I read said “militant wing” not “military wing”. It just means that they are bigger whack jobs that the normal run of the mill Hamasoids.
Hey numbnuts check out the IRA’s history they had a political wing Sinn Fein that actually got MP’s elected to the British house of parliament (tho they never took their seats). Terrorism is a tactic not a movement in and of itself. The IRA had a multipronged stategery employing violence thro terrorism, political action and community outreach. Hamas does the same and you defeat them with better tactics not by conventional military action because a conventional army can’t readily distinguish combatants from non-combatants leading to more than enough ‘collateral damage’ to maintain the moral support for the terrorists within the very community community from which you are trying to mseperate them.
Welcome to the real world America and Get a clue!
Jay Tea,
While I generally agree with this site 90% of the time I can’t stand this crappola about islam anymore. Islam is a brain washed servant serving the wrong god for the wrong reason all the time. Mohammad was a false prophet that destroyed countries and peoples in the name of his god, allah. Underline the word his god. He wasn’t happy with the one he had so he made up a new one. Read the Qa’ran. It’s filled with hatred, lessons in abuse and more importantly the removal of infidels from the planet earth. In other words if you ain’t mooslam you’re dead meat. Religion of peace my ass. Everybody walks around on their tippy toes saying how terrorists are debasing a peaceful religion.
Bullshit, they’re following the friggin’ manual.
Islam and terrorism will go hand in hand until a Mohammed Luther nails up some reforms on the mosque door. They need to have their Reformation and stop living in the 8th century. Of course, Reformation took centuries to unfold the last time, maybe we can speed it up this time.
One Drummer: learn how to refute what you disagree with instead of making asinine comparisions. I’ll put my credentials on this matter up against anyone’s.
Leopold —
Hey, you’re Professor Chaos. That is so cool. I love your website. I was reading it last night — also I agree with your blog about the MSM eventually getting around to covering WHAT Kerry said rather than HOW he said the things he said. For instance, his opposition to yet another weapons system — the nuclear Bunker Buster — and his call for a Global Test, which his defenders are already spinning.
One Drummer,
You misunderstood Leopold. He’s not defending terrorism but rather explaining the intricacies of waging a war against terrorists. Terrorism is a method of attack — it’s not an enemy. The enemy is Islamofascism. And like the Fascists of old, they do provide services for the people whom they wish to rule. Mussolini, for instance, did make Italy’s trains run on time. Hitler did drastically cut the unemployment rate in Germany. And even Liberals in this country throw a bone to the poor and disenfranchised once in a while — especially during election time. LOL.
Is there really that much difference between “militant wing” and “military wing?”
well here is the question or dilemma
Hezbollah has a military wing and a political wing as it holds seats in the Lebanese government
I’ve never understood how come Hezbollah patrols the Israelis-Lebanese border given Lebanon has a functioning army along with 20,000 Syrian troops in country……..
but the dilemma is this, just like you have the IRA and Sinn Fein, rather than terrorism you want to encourage people to use the political system and use legal means to achieve their goals…..
the problem is for example how can anyone trust or respect Gerry Adams or any active militant or military members of Hamas as politicans after the havoc they have wreaked……
do you have to form the political party with all new blood to be credible? or at minimum does the new blood have to have no blood on its hands……..
it is like considering Arafat as a statesman, please…..
I missed it. The photo caption mentions both “militant wing” and “military wing:”
“In their first-ever news conference, members of the secretive Hamas military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, threatened Saturday to fire rockets at the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon…”
D’oh! So there really is no difference, as I suspected anyway.
the peace-loving Muslims of Iraq.”
Thank you.”
You’re welcome. Thanks for my “Jay” fix.
Bomb all the damn shrines – we’ll get rid of more of them that way, quick, faster, over and out.
~C
How many beds does this Old Terrorists Home have?
Being a Terrorist is one of those activities that lends itself nicely to the Darwin awards. A true practicioner shouldn’t have a long lifetime. The exception of course is AraFAT who is the reason that the opposing group Hamas was set up. AraFAT has always run Terrorism as a profit making enterprise to personally enrich himself.
Stephen Walker
This is quite some religion those guys have got there. They use their houses of worship as armories. At some point, someone is going to realize that all this “jihad” stuff is just press hype and nobody’s going to get any angrier than they already are if you simply level these m^Ho^Hs^Hq^Hu^He^Hs^H armories when all the weapons and tangos are concentrated there.
For anyone who thinks Islam is a religion of Peace, a quick review of any timeline of Islamic history should be enlightening.
Just for instance: http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/itl/scroll/new.html
Although many religions have from time to time been drawn into bloody conflict, Islam from its birth has used and approved of the full range of brutal options, including mass killing, to impose itself upon unbelievers.
Jay – did I take a wrong turn again? I was looking for the fart in church.