What does Hamas really want, Western commentators often muse. Palestinian apologists claim that their actions come in response to the supposed “open-air prison” conditions in Gaza and settler encroachment in the West Bank.

All of that is simply propaganda served up to Western media and moral idiots. When Hamas speaks to Arab audiences, they make their annihilationist goals crystal clear, none of which have to do with Gaza or the West Bank but with Israel entirely.

The last we saw of Ghazi Hamad, the Hamas spokesman bailed out of a BBC interview when asked about the carnage among civilians after reporter Hugo Bachega kept pressing Hamad over his denials that Hamas had slaughtered unarmed men, women, and children. Three days earlier, however, Hamad had embraced those attacks, and promised more and more exactly like it. Hamad told Lebanon’s LBC audience that Hamas would continue slaughtering Jews until they destroyed Israel, and that the Jews deserve it:

Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated.

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MEMRI TV captured this and published it overnight, and Power Line’s Scott Johnson picked it up this morning. It certainly clarifies Israel’s position in this war in a way that even the IDF might not have achieved, and it creates a moral dilemma for Israel’s fair-weather allies. The interview is conducted in Arabic but subtitled in English by MEMRI, and I will transcribe it for clarity below:

HAMAD: Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and it it must be finished. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force. … [cut]

… We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight. Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.

Emphasis mine. Hamad then tries to deny any intent to harm civilians, but somehow justifies the slaughter of festival attendees — at least 260 of the dead — because they got in the way:

HAMAD: We did not want to harm civilians, but there were complications on the ground, and there was a party in the area with (civilian) population … It was a large area, across 40 kilometers …

So they just decided to deal with it by slaughtering everyone they could find at the party. Got it.

In the last cut provided by MEMRI, Hamad makes clear what Hamas considers to be an ‘occupation’ that they want to end. It ain’t just Gaza and the West Bank, emphases mine again:

HAMAD: The occupation must come to an end.

Q: Occupation where? In the Gaza Strip?

HAMAD: No, I am talking about all the Palestinian lands.

Q: Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?

HAMAD: Yes, of course. [cut] … The existence of Israel is illogical. The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood, and tears. It is Israel, not us. We are victims of the occupation. Period. Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000 — everything we do is justified.

Is that clear to everyone now? Hamas will not stop trying to annihilate Israel, no matter what offers of aid or autonomy they receive. It does not matter that they cause Palestinians (other than themselves, we should note) to die, because Hamad and his ilk have ‘volunteered’ them for martyrdom. Nothing will stop them from slaughtering every last Israeli and every last Jew until they have conquered the area “from the river to the sea.” And they have no compunction whatsoever about that annihilation nor the means they will choose to execute it.

This is a war of survival for Israel, and Hamas set those terms, not Israel. They have no choice but to destroy Hamas and every last resource they can use against Israel. Those are the stakes on which “proportionality” rests.

Will the American media report this honestly? Or will they continue to spoon-feed their audiences Hamas’ Western-aimed propaganda to claim that this was is only about the Israeli-Egypt strategy of containment around Gaza that tried to prevent this annihilationist war? I know which way I’ll bet on that question, and I know which way I’ll bet on the Big Tech and “misinformation” minders’ response to this post, too.

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