Even more remarkable than what Suheib Yousef said is where he said it. The son of Hamas founder Hassan Yousef appeared in an interview with an Israeli television broadcaster to tell the truth about his father’s creation. Not only is Hamas a “racist terror organization,” Yousef told journalist Ohad Hemo, its leaders live high on the proverbial hog on monies intended for those they oppress.
In fact, they make that money by turning poor Palestinians into cannon fodder for Iran:
“Hamas leaders [in Turkey] live in fancy hotels and luxury towers, their kids learn at private schools, and they are very well paid by Hamas. They get between four and five thousand dollars a month, they have guards, swimming pools, country clubs,” said Suheib, who worked for Hamas’s political branch in Turkey.
“When I lived in Turkey, I was shocked by the behavior of the Hamas members. They ate in the best restaurants, in places where one course cost $200,” he said. “A family in Gaza lives on $100 per month.”
In hiding in an unnamed Asian country, Suheib also said Hamas was working for a “foreign agenda,” selling information about Israel to the Iranians in exchange for financial assistance. He said the group’s operation in Turkey was run under the guise of a civil society organization but was gathering intelligence on Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, as well as leaders from other Arab countries.
He also said the group actively recruited young Palestinians in the West Bank to carry out attacks against Israel, not to liberate Palestinian land or for resistance, but to spread the crisis from Gaza to the West Bank.
The Washington Post’s coverage omits one key detail from Yousef’s description of “spreading the crisis.” Yousef told Hemo that Hamas recruits children for terror attacks against you know who:
He said the setup in Turkey was also used to conscript people, including children, in the West Bank to carry out terror attacks against Israelis.
“The point of the attacks in the West Bank is to kill civilians, not for the aim of resistance, nor Jerusalem; not for liberating Palestinian land, and not even because they hate Jews,” he told the TV channel. “They send out these innocents because they want to export the crisis [from Gaza] to the West Bank.”
Yousef has a suggestion for Hamas’ leadership on that score:
“I want them to send their own children to carry out attacks if they have to. Why doesn’t [Hamas leader] Ismail Haniyeh go to the fence to throw stones?” he asked, referring to weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel border organized by Hamas.
“How does Hamas benefit from these attacks? Nothing,” he said. “It is a racist terror organization that is dangerous for the Palestinian people.”
Yousef is the second son of Hassan Yousef to turn on Hamas. His older brother Mosab defected over a decade ago, working for Israel at first before coming to the West and converting to Christianity. Known as “the Green Prince,” Mosab wrote his memoirs, Son of Hamas, and has actively campaigned against his father’s organization. Suheib sounds distant from his brother, emphasizing that he himself never worked for Israel and never intends to do so, but that he wants to work against Hamas and its corruption.
For the US, the most intriguing part of Yousef’s declaration might be the spy ring operating under the auspices of our supposed ally, Turkey:
Now, he reveals how the organization’s political bureau operates, which actually serves as a spy center for Iran.
“Hamas operates security and military institutions on Turkish soil under the guise of civil society,” Yusuf explained. “They have security centers, and from there they use sophisticated listening equipment to listen to people and leaders in Ramallah, using sophisticated equipment and software on the computers, and some people are experts on this.
“They use state-of-the-art equipment to promote a foreign agenda and that’s what I want to expose,” said a former Hamas official. “The movement uses this information not for the benefit of the Palestinian people – it sends the intelligence information to Iran in exchange for financial support, even money being transferred through Turkish banks under the guise of civil society centers.”
That revelation comes at a particularly bad time for Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He’s trying to eat his cake and have it too with purchases of both the F-35 and Russian anti-aircraft systems, plus maintain his status within NATO. If Erdogan is allowing Iran to penetrate Turkey, it’s not going to be just to target Israel. This puts the US at risk as well as its European allies.
So what will happen to the man who made all this public? Yousef seems more fatalistic than his older brother. “If Hamas wants to turn me into a shahid, then I will be a martyr,” he told Hemo. “I prefer to be the victim and not the one who hurts [others].” Hamas will want to accomplish that before Yousef can pass along the details of these intelligence operations, if he has not already done so. The US should work to put Yousef under our protection quickly — even if it won’t necessarily bring the two brothers any closer.
Yousef speaks for himself in this video, which is entirely in Hebrew and Arabic. It’s worth it for a look at the man who dared to tell the truth about Hamas, even while many prefer to live in denial.
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