Hamas: Israel has no REASON to defend itself

Hamas, here by it’s leader for 20 years, Khaled Mechal, has repeatedly stated that they want peace with Israel, once the occupation is over.

And 22 Arab nations, 57 Islamic nations, including Iran, offer full recognizion of Israel and offer all relations - once the occupation is over. Which means relations with the whole world.

The old debate of right to defend itself aside, does Israel have a reason to defend itself? The answer is a resounding no. Without the illegal occupation – Israel will have no enemies. The whole world wants to have relations with them. Hamas wants to be neighbors with them – on the other side of the internationally recognized borders.

Highlights in this post:

* Israel has occupied their neighbor country Palestine illegally since 1967. That is the core of the conflict.

* Every top leader of Hamas has offered peace and long term truce since 1988 – and Israel has killed or tried to kill every one of them.

* Israel expresses the intent of taking over all of Palestine. That would never be accepted by any other than perhaps the USA, and is a recipe for eternal war.

* The Arab nations have offered peace and relations with Israel since 2002. Iran has been on board since 2003.

* Tensions are rising in the Middle East, and Israel’s neighbors are getting impatient. They want Israel thrown out of the UN, and call on sanctions from all states.

We are nearing our celebration of the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace. As love for one another is preached all over the Western world, Israel continues their genocide against Gazas civilians, mostly children, at full speed. There is a fragile hope now that a ceasefire in Gaza will be a step to a lasting peace in the region. The question is: will Israel have any reason to breach a ceasefire with Hamas – to start the war all over again?

Israel claims that Hamas want to exterminate the Israeli state. Wartime Israel lies, but have they kept one little area of truth that they wrap around one particular topic: Hamas? Or could this claim be just propaganda?

When we come to heaven we’ll get all the answers, like who came first - the hen or the egg. But here on earth it’s not a divine mystery what comes first – occupation or resistance against it. Israel has occupied all of Palestine – Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - since 1967. Hamas was born as a resistance movement twenty years later.

It’s time to find out: What does Hamas want? Is Israel actually threatened by anybody?

What does Hamas want?

Western media seldom pose that question to any of the Hamas leaders. Charlie Rose, Emmy-awarded CBS journalist, did. Ten years ago Rose went to Doha to interview the then Hamas top leader, Khaled Mechal.

Khaled Mechal was in 2014 leader of Hamas Political Bureau, which included the political party, the resistance, the prisoners and diaspora groups.

Mechal was the head of Hamas Political Bureau for two decades until 2017. Today he is in charge of Hamas’ international relations. In 2014, Israel had ended another war on Gaza. Mechal says:

“You’re asking me what do I want. Hamas needs, wants peace, again. But we want peace without occupation, without settlements, without siege. We want to live on the same level as every single nation in the world. We need to live in Palestine.”

Hamas has been consistent since 1988, when they offered their first long truce with Israel – in return for the occupation to end. Hamas has always been more pragmatic in real politics than in their original Charter.

Rose was very concerned about Israel’s security - while not asking anything about the Palestinians need for security. Mechal said:

“The occupation and the siege are the problem. The solution starts with the international community’s will to say to Israel: Stop. Enough is enough. They ought to compel Israel to stop. (-) When the siege is lifted on Gaza, when the occupation on the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza is stopped, and we reach a state, then we would have security for the Israeli”.

The question is how to get there:

“ The occupation has to stop. The occupation is the the worst thing you can ever imagine. So every Palestinian can die for the next generations to live in peace and freedom. The world needs to help us peacefully reach a state, or we will expel this occupation from our land. Yes, they have the upper hand, but every single occupation ends, and the peoples become victorious”.

Rose was still concerned about Israels safety - if a peace is reached, would Hamas’ armed forces still be a threat?

“Do you have their approval, before you can make a commitment?”

Mechal makes very clear:

“We are not two heads or two parts. When the political leaders commit to something, then the military wing will commit itself too. We are a respected institution. When the leaders make a decision, every single person in the movement, whether he or she are militants or civilians, they will follow. Then be sure that there will be no more rockets”.

US politicians lying through their teeth

Hamas cannot be more clear about what it’s all about: The end to the occupation, and then all resistance will be over. But still we hear Western politicians stating that the state of Israel is in danger – rather than in conflict. The latest in this mountain of propaganda is Marco Rubio, the proposed Secretary of State, on Fox news and his X:

Rubio: “Hamas is an organisation that exists blatantly and explicitly to wipe out Israel. They say it openly, they don’t hide that, and for whatever reason, we people in the West, we don’t believe them when they say these things. We think it’s only a figure of speech”.

The fact is that people do believe it. Not because Hamas has said it, but because Marco Rubio and so many others just like him, has pulled this out of thin air.

CBS-Charlie Rose again wanted to know what would happen after a Palestinian state was established. He asks: «If you have that, will you pledge to the security of Israel? Will you pledge not to eradicate Israel?»

If there was a price for being a good interview object, Hamas leader Khaled Mechal would have got it for this interview. Mechal does not get offended. He pauses a couple of seconds. And smiles almost undecernably and says:

“Do you think that Palestinians who suffer from occupation and settlements can eradicate Israel? No, this is a beguiling, misleading propaganda. We need to live in peace in our land.”

And Rose admits: «No, I don’t think you can eradicate it. I don’t think you can».

Other media

Some media start with the basis that Israel is occupying Palestine illegally, and Hamas are resisting.

On May 25 in 2021, the Editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, David Hearst had an interview with Khaled Mechal, only days after another Israeli war on Gaza had ended.

Israel had bombed Gaza from May 6 until the ceasefire on May 21, killing 250 Palestinians. Like a broken vinyl record, sending the same noice over and over again - Israel started by attacking the most holy place for the Palestinians, the Al Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem. Hamas then sent some of their home-made rockets into Israel, hitting nobody. With the world’s most deadly weapons, Israel bombarded Gaza, flattening residential buildings, destroying forty schools, four hospitals and nineteen medical facilities - in two weeks.

Hearst asked the usual: «After this war, will Hamas continue resisting?» As if handing Palestine over to Israel voluntarily was an option. But Mechal just said that yes, they will resist until the occupation is over. Then Hearst ended with a brand new question: «The US are prepared to talk to the Taliban in Doha, where you are, but they’re not prepared to talk directly to Hamas. What is your message to Joe Biden?»

And Mechal says:

What a beautiful and smart question. The US does not hesitate to hold negotiations directly with its enemies who are fighting them, but it’s restricting itself from communicating with Hamas, who does not fight the United States. It’s weird how successive US administrations have harmed US interests while serving Israel’s interests. But this is my message to Biden, and to the Western states who continue to have Hamas on their terrorist list: Hamas is a liberation movement and a legitimate resistance movement according to all international laws. It is fighting just as the people of the East and the West have done in history. Whoever wants to communicate with us, are welcome without condition.

A price-worthy interview

The Muslim countries don’t see Hamas as terrorists, but journalists like the ones from Qatar-based Al Jazeera still manage to ask the critical questions. Their award-winning correspondent Rawya Ragen’s interview with Khaled Mechal in 2011 could be a lesson in journalist education.

Respectfully, she poses prying questions, like «You send rockets into Israel – why do you do that»?

Al Jazeera’s Rawya Ragen, interviewing Khaled Mechal in 2011.

And Mechal answers:

“Our land is occupied, there are illegal settlements, and there is a blockade imposed on us. There are thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, thousands of homes are being destroyed, also in the West Bank. Then there is the separation wall, and they are desecrating our holy sites. These are reasons enough to resist and to defend ourselves. So what’s the problem? The problem is that the world is focused on the reactions from Gaza. Israel kills our people with the most sophisticated American weapons, and the West seldom critizices it”.

Ragen pushes on: «So we will see a continuation of the rockets from Gaza»?

Khaled Mechal answers:

“Hamas’ resistance, and Palestinian resistance, most definitely will come to and end when the occupation ends”.

Israel tried to kill Mechal in 1997, but he survived almost by a miracle. The story of Israel killing or trying to kill Hamas leaders after they offer peace goes decades back.

30 years plus of peace offerings

Hamas was established in 1987, inspired by the first Palestinian’s uprising after 20 years of occupation. The founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, had clearly his hand in the writing of the well known first Charter, that called for a Palestinian state in the whole land. But already in 1988, Yassin offered to end the resistance and enter into a decades long truce with Israel, in exchange for an end to the occupation and a free Palestinian state. Yassin said to Al Jazeera:

"We don't hate Jews and fight Jews because they are Jewish. I will fight my cousin if he takes my home and expels me from it. I love all people and wish peace for them, even the Jews. But when a Jew takes my home and expels me from it, I will fight him”.

Coming out of Friday prayers in the mosque i April 2004, Sheikh Yassin was assassinated by an Apache helicopter that sent rockets at him in his wheelchair.

One of the co-founders of Hamas, the paediatrician Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, was appointed leader after Yassin. He offered peace with Israel in 2003. Less than a month after Yassins murder, Israel killed al-Rantissi also – with nine rockets from an Apache helicopter to his car.

«We want peace» can be most dangerous statement of all, if you are a Hamas leader.

The founder of Hamas to the right, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. The Hamas leaders seem to have a secret force that Israel does not: They really like eachother. And they manage to keep up the good spirits in spite of all. Within one month they were both killed.

“Kill him silently”

In 1997, Khaled Mechal was living in Amman in Jordan. As a refugee of the war in 1967, he was not allowed to return to Palestine. In Amman he was out of reach for Israeli bombs, but the Israeli PM Netanyahu instead ordered his murder by poison. Mechal came back from the brink of death when Israel had to send the antidote to Amman, after a humiliating phonecall to Netanyahu from president Bill Clinton. The story is very well documented by Al Jazeera in a two-part movie «Kill him silently», which is more of an edge-of-the-seat thriller than a documentary.

After al-Rantissi’s death in 2004, Khaled Mechal was appointed the top leader of Hamas. Ismail Haniyeh was Hamas’ leader in Gaza and candidate for Prime Minister. Israel had tried to kill Haniyeh in 2003, and he escaped just seconds before his home in Gaza was turned to rubble.

Hamas won the election by a landslide in January 2006. As newly elected Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh tried to reach out to Israel, but to no avail. He then sent a letter to president George W. Bush and expressed the wish for peace with Israel, and a state along the UN-recognized Palestinian borders.

One of the first things Ismail Haniyeh did after being elected Prime Minister in Palestine in 2006, was to offer peace with Israel.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz writes the essence of Haniyehs message to Bush:

“We are an elected government which came through a democratic process. Our concern is stability and security in the area. We will accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, and offer a truce for many years”.

Haniyeh invited Bush to a dialogue:

“We are not warmongers, we are peace makers and we call on the American government to have direct negotiations with the elected government”.

President Bush never answered, and instead the US and Israel kept repeating that Hamas was a listed terrorist organisation, and therefore off limits to talk with. The rest of the West followed.

Accepting two states in new Charter

In 2017, Ismail Haniyeh took over as the top leader of Hamas after Mechal. The same year Hamas changed their Charter, so it was now also in print that they accepted a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

Khaled Mechal stepped down after 20 years as top leader of Hamas in 2017, and Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh took over. (Screendump from Times Now)

Haniyeh was the head ceasefire negotiator for Hamas this spring. On April 17 he met the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Doha, discussing the ceasefire negotiations. After the meeting, the Turkish FM told Al Jazeeras correspondent Resul Serdar: “The Hamas’ Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh said that if a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders is established, the military wing is ready to dissolve itself and to give up their arms”. The statement was big news on Al Jazeera’s English TV network. One of their foremost analysts, Media Professor Mohamad Elmasry of Doha University was called in to the studio, but he basically informed the news host that there is actually not anything new in this; Hamas had been trying to get that message through for many years - it just hadn’t been picked up by the international media.

Kill this one loudly

On May 5, the negotiators from Egypt, Qatar and the US presented a ceasefire plan which Hamas accepted the next day. It placed demands on Israel to end - not only the war, but also the siege of Gaza. Netanyahu totally rejected it. On May 31, President Biden presented a new plan. Biden told the press corps it was actually an Israeli plan, and that he could guarantee that Netanyahu was on board with it.

The May 31 plan was endorsed by the Security Council ten days later. Hamas accepted the plan – of course – it was basically the same they had agreed to on May 5. There was hope that the ceasefire would start immediately. But the next day, on June 11, Netanyahu said in Tel Aviv that he didn’t commit to Bidens plan - he would never end the siege. The whole world waited then for Bidens response, since he presented the plan as accepted by Netanyahu.

Anthony Blinken went to Amman, and on June 12 he stated for the world:

“When I met Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday in Israel, he reaffirmed his support and his commitment to bringing this proposal across the finish line. Today, as we gather, one – and only one – thing stands in the way of this deal happening, and that’s Hamas”.

Watching Blinken say this was painful. It will go down in history as one of the worst lies ever told. It’s right up there with Colin Powels’ “We have proof of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction” to the Security Council in 2003. That lie led to another of the US’s massive miscalculations. Billions of dollars lost for the US civil society, wasted on a meaningless war again, and endless death and destruction for Iraqi civilians.

Blinken’s lie was an open show of US’ total support of the genocidal Israel.

Then followed weeks of Hamas trying to get the truth out from under the thick, wet blanket of Blinken’s lie. Ismail Haniyeh said over and over again that they had agreed to the ceasefire, and were ready to implement it immediately. And then, on July 31, Israel killed him. In the middle of the night, in his sleep, rockets blew up the house where he was staying in Teheran.

The largest newspaper in Norway, Verdens Gang, wrote that the Hamas leader had been killed in Teheran. They illustrated the story with one of the iconic last photos taken the day before in Teheran, where lots of men were happily surrounding a smiling Haniyeh in the middle.

Ismail Haniyeh just a few hours before he was murdered by Israel in Teheran. (Screendump from Iranian TV).

In the Norwegian newspaper the caption was:

«Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Teheran. Haniyeh is the man in the white shirt».

The biggest newspaper in Norway wouldn’t expect their readers to even recognize who he was. That is a grim expression of how the press in the West has covered Hamas over years - which amounts to close to nothing. That the top leader of Hamas was a democrat, an elected Prime Minister, a moderate muslim who stood for peace, would be totally unknown for Norwegian readers – and for many, straight out unbelievable. As it would be for most people in the West. For hundreds of millions of people in the Islamic world, he was a father, a leader, a teacher and a role model. They loved him.

Haniyeh wrote in the Guardian in 2012: (writing opinions in the Guardian is not your average terrorist doings)

“I would like to reiterate on behalf of my people our sincere desire to live in security and stability, without wars and bloodshed; we hope that the world will help us in this venture. We extend our hand to all those who seek a just peace to work seriously to end the occupation and help us establish our state, which the world has already recognised.

We do not want more blood. We want help in achieving justice for our people who lost their land and freedom decades ago, and in providing security for a region that has long endured oppression and suffering. This is a responsibility no one should evade”.

It’s all about the occupation

The international community never helped. Instead the Israeli occupation got worse each year. From 2008 and until October 6, Israel had killed more than 6000 Palestinians, and wounded 153.000. And in September 2023 in the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu held up a map of the Middle East, where there was no Palestine.

Then the pressure cooker burst on October 7.

After the violent attack, Israeli hate-speech of Hamas increased a hundred-fold. And the supposed devil incarnated on earth was the leader of Hamas in Gaza - Yahya Sinwar, who was regarded as the mastermind behind October 7. As the head of Hamas in Gaza, Sinwar stood by Haniyeh in all the ceasefire proposals - one of the first in May 2024.

The top leadership of Hamas accepted the ceasefire agreement in May, when Yahya Sinwar was head of Hamas in Gaza. To the right deputy leader in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya. The event was broadly recorded by Arabic media.

After Haniyeh was murdered, Sinwar was elected to head Hamas. Contrary to Israeli propaganda, Yahya Sinwar was also a man of peace. He was highly educated and spoke several languages fluently. He was also a novelist, and wrote a bestseller in 2004 – The Thorn and The Carnation. He has been called the Middle East’s Che Guevara. Yes, he was most definitely a fighter, and a brave one at that. But his goal was the same as all the others in Hamas: an end to the fight, when the Palestinian state had become a reality. The internet is full of Sinwar’s glowing appeals for the resistance, and for people to rise up against Israel. But it is still just that – resistance. The resistance he called for was against the illegal occupation, colonization and apartheid. He never called for an attack on anyone outside of the occupying state.

Some of Hamas’s acts will undoubtedly in a future legal process fall under the definition of terror. But Netanyahu and other Israelis leaders will have to answer personally for the intentional murdering of tens of thousands of civilians. This last year is the last chapter of all the massacres Israel has committed against the Palestinians – for 75 years before October 7.

Sinwar – man of peace

In his last interview in English, in 2018, Sinwar explained the position of being the leader of Hamas in Gaza:

"I am not the leader of a militia, I'm from Hamas. And that's it. I am the Gaza leader of Hamas, of something much more complex than a militia—a national liberation movement. And my main duty is to act in the interest of my people: to defend it and its right to freedom and independence”.

Sinwar said he didn’t like war:

"And I am not saying I won't fight anymore, indeed. I am saying that I don't want war anymore. You walk to the beach at sunset, and you see all these teenagers on the shore chatting and wondering what the world looks like across the sea. I want them free. (-) It's time for change. It's time to end this siege. End this occupation."

And he described Hamas:

«Half of our employees are women - would you have ever guessed that? Our goal is a state based on democracy, pluralism, cooperation. A state that protects rights and freedom, where differences are faced through words, not through guns. Hamas is much more than its military operations. It's in our DNA. We are first and foremost a social movement, not just a political movement. We set up soup kitchens, schools, hospitals. Since ever».

Hamas willing to step down

The final reason for not continuing to kill Palestinian children, is that Hamas already has declared that they are willing to step down and let some other authority rule Gaza. Israel keeps insisting that their goal is to eradicate Hamas, that they should be removed from power. They have already stated that they will remove themselves from power.

Member of Hamas Political Bureau in Gaza, Basem Naim, has stated numerous times that Hamas is ready to hand over the reigns of power to others.

Netanyahu insists that Israel must remain in control over the border between Egypt and Gaza - otherwise Hamas will smuggle in rockets and attack Israel all over again. What is the reality in such an accusation? If the border between Egypt and Gaza was free from Israeli control, it would mean that the Israeli siege of Gaza had ended, after 17 years of devastating blockade. A huge step towards freedom would had been achieved, on the way to an independent Palestinian state. What are the chances that Hamas - or any other Palestinian - would totally ruin their chances of a state, by attacking Israel again, out of the blue, for absolutely no reason? Netanyahus claim is a distraction, and should be rejected completely.

Peace offer – from everybody

The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claims that Israel has a multitude of enemies - not only Hamas. On August 27, 2024, he spoke to the UN General Assembly in New York. In his speech he claimed that Israel’s wars are vital for their existence - they are surrounded by nations who want to exterminate them.

His words were refuted the same day, in the same building.

All of the Islamic nations were there. They didn’t declare war on Israel. They declared peace.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, cut through all Israeli nonsense and said:

“The Israeli Prime Minister said Israel is surrounded by enemies who want to destroy it. We are here, 57 Muslim countries, and I can tell you, all of us are willing to guarantee the security of Israel, in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for a Palestinian state. All of us want a peace in which Israel lives in peace and security, accepted, normalized, with all Arab countries. Israel wants to destroy Gaza, the West Bank, Libanon, and after that – they have no plan. We have a plan for a peace, but we have no partner for peace in Israel”.

The plan – The Arab Peace Initiative, is actually more than 20 years old, and Iran has joined since 2003. In fact, Iran also despises Israel mainly for this one reason; the occupation of the Holy Land. Iran renewed the peace plan in 2017 under a new leader. The initiative includes Saudi Arabia and all others that the US wants Israel to have peace with.

The Arab Peace Initiative was initiated by the king of Saudi Arabia in 2002, and is today signed by 57 Islamic nations.

This generous offer would actually entail that Israel would be at peace with the whole world. It’s a mystery why the powerful Jewish supportgroup AIPAC, wouldn’t want such a huge success for Israel.

Foreign Minister Safadi’s speech had no value for Netanyahu. Instead, the same day, he gave the go ahead for another shocking warcrime: the bombing of six huge apartment buildings in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

The massive bomb-attack killed hundreds of innocent civilians. It also killed one Hisbollah leader. The enormous crater and the numbers of innocent people killed, shocked the world. Israel killed 3500 Lebanese the next two months, and displaced a million people.

This added to the horror of Israeli massacres of civilians in Gaza for more than a year. But after the ICC arrest warrants, we have the correct words to describe what we see: Israel is performing warcrimes. And the warcriminals are Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Defence minister Yoav Gallant.

The Jordanian Foreign Minister’s message went viral, and blew up the Israeli story that it’s surrounded by enemies. With Israel’s total disregard for the peace offer, the neighbors are getting very impatient.

On November 11, the Islamic nations met in Riyadh. They were more condemning of Israel than ever before. Their stance was summed up by the President of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim: «Israel no longer belongs within the civilized community of nations».

The joint resolution from the Summit is historic. It wipes out all of Israels annexations, and some states’ acceptance of the same. Donald Trump in his first term accepted Israel’s annexation of the Golan Hights, which is a part of Syria. But a US president doesn’t own any hights in Syria, or any parts of Palestine, for that matter. So he has no power to give away land that belongs to someone else. The Summit calls on all UN member states to impose sanctions on Israel. And it states that when this war is over, it’s the Palestinians who will rule over their state, through the Palestinian Liberation Organisation – not anyone else.

Peace – or else

The UN resolution of September 18 this year also expresses the same, so there can be no mistake: Israel can never expand with any piece of land outside of their own. Whatever they declare that they annex, will never be a reality and a part of their land. The majority of the nations of this world is so determined that it’s a question of live or die for the UN: If the incoming new US administration will let Israel keep on crushing neighbors, it will mean the end of the UN, and of any world order.

The next chapters would then be popular uprisings in Muslim countries, revolutions, and ultimately – nuclear wars. And all for nothing. The Israeli dream of one day controlling a peaceful, subordinate Middle East will never happen. But they can achieve lasting peace and security and prosperity for land and people right now, if they just end the war - and the occupation.

This ends the debate about Israels right to defend itself. When Israel has no reason to defend itself, then of course it has no right to defend itself either. Every single activity Israel does against the Palestinians is a warcrime. And state terrorism of the most evil kind.

If Israel refuses to give up the occupation, they choose an eternal war they can never win. So it’s time now for outer forces to armtwist Israel to understand what is best for them.

Now is the time for the American Trump-for-peace-voters, the Democratic stay-home-voters, the Green-voters and all the rest of us, to keep up demanding - a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

It’s obvious: the world’s most powerful man was never afraid to stand up to Israel - Biden has just endorsed the genocide from the start. And then we got one that was so much worse.

Read also: Israel’s wars are mentally deranged

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