In Qatar and Egypt — far from the fighting in Gaza — Hamas leaders live in luxury. They make their considerable money working as administrators of a giant terror machine. These leaders show little consideration for the people of Gaza, or even for their most fervent followers. Their loyalty is to themselves and the continued wealth brought to them by the war.
On March 18th, Palestinian human rights and peace activist, Hamza Howidy, wrote about these Hamas leaders on X. “They are not the ones searching for food in the rubble. They are not the ones watching their children die. They sit in safety while others pay the price…. The suffering of Gaza has never been their concern, only their weapon.”
Hamas leaders spur and sustain suffering in Gaza because suffering is their business. Concerned nations and NGOs see Gazans’ misery and send money that makes its way into the pockets of already wealthy Hamas leaders. That’s why those leaders do everything they can to sustain and increase human suffering — keeping the war going and making sure of a high casualty count.
Polls show that a vast majority of Palestinians support Hamas terrorist activities. Two reasons for this come to mind. First, for a hundred years, Arabs living in the holy land have been saturated with false data in order to keep them compliant, and to make martyrdom a way of life, even for children. It is propaganda to the point of brainwashing.
Also, polls can be flawed. That’s especially true in places where people fear that a “wrong” answer might be reported and get them killed. Free countries don’t require a pretense of loyalty to keep one’s family safe, but Gaza and the West Bank are not free. Many Palestinians don’t dare say what they really think, even to someone claiming to represent a poll.
Hamas profits from Palestinian suffering, but Israel does not. For a long time, no one pushed for a two-state solution harder than Israel’s leaders. In the quest for peace, Israeli Prime Ministers twice offered to give East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority, even though that includes the Temple Mount and other places precious to their Jewish heritage. Yet even when Israeli negotiators were willing to give Palestinian leaders what they said they wanted, Yassar Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, refused peace.
Hamas, at least, has been consistent — never even pretending to want two states. In March, senior Hamas official, Khaled Mashaal said, “The path of jihad and resistance is the way to regain the homeland, honor, and freedom…. The world respects only the strong.” But Hamas is no longer strong. It is a shell of what it was when it launched its October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel. The war they started that day has brought them to their knees, along with their Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. Another ally, the government of Syria, has been toppled. Their financial backers in Iran have been weakened and humiliated. Most of all, the people of Gaza stand devastated.
Yet the Hamas leaders still choose war over peace. As of this writing, they hold 59 hostages — most of them believed to be dead. They see even dead hostages as leverage, and they refuse to stop their unjust war of terror no matter the cost in human lives.
Today, however, an increasing number of individual Palestinians are awakening to the truth about the identity of their real enemy. It is not Israel, but Hamas and its martyr-terrorist-military complex. One Gazan wrote on X, “I appeal to Hamas to hand over the hostages and step down from any role in governing Gaza. Saving our blood is more important than your future.”
Another wrote, “Anyone who has even a grain of faith, conscience, patriotism, or morality, anyone who has even a grain of love for the people of Gaza, must raise their voice now and demand — immediately and without delay — that Hamas free Gaza… by handing over the hostages and lifting its hand from Gaza. We are dying because of Hamas.”
Tom Gilbreath is an author and a contributor to the Hal Lindsey Report.
Editor’s Note: ‘At The End Of The Day, This Is A Spiritual Battle’
This week, rare mass protests have taken place across the Gaza Strip, with the population voicing their opposition to the continuation of the war, placing the blame on Hamas and their refusal to release Israeli hostages. Thousands of Gazans are participating, with footage of the large-scale anti-Hamas crowds including the presence of white flags.
Erick Stakelbeck, in his latest episode of Stakelbeck Tonight, discussed the demonstrations:
It’s a movement that we’ve all been waiting for: Palestinians rising up and protesting against Hamas—finally. Over the past few days, we’ve seen thousands of Palestinians take to the streets of Gaza and call for an end to Hamas’ rule, chanting, “Hamas get out!” And it’s not hard to see why.
When Hamas launched its brutal invasion of Israel on October 7th, 2023, they brought a whirlwind down upon the heads of every Gazan. The longer Hamas holds hostages and fires rockets, the longer the misery of the people of Gaza will continue. It seems they’re finally starting to realize this.
One protester interviewed stated, “We demand peace and security for this town, and we say ‘no’ to this town being ruled by brute force. We will be the ones to decide who will rule this town.”
While this is very encouraging, I am cautious not to overstate these protests. We shouldn’t forget that poll after poll shows that the majority of Palestinians in Gaza still support Hamas and approve of what happened on October 7th. They also voted for Hamas overwhelmingly back in 2006.
There is a deep demonic bondage there. At the end of the day, this is a spiritual battle.
Still, the protests these past few days have been significant enough to catch the eye of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told the Israeli Knesset: “We saw something that we’ve never seen before. We saw large, open demonstrations in the Gaza Strip against Hamas rule. We’ve already seen many pro-Hamas demonstrations—we saw them in European capitals, in campuses in the US—but demonstrations like these in Gaza against Hamas, such a thing we haven’t seen… more and more Gazins understand that Hamas brings destruction and doom upon them—and it is important. All this shows that our policy is working.”
