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Hamas Sees Peace as Weakness
(Wall Street Journal) Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib - I was 12 and living in Gaza City on March 27, 2002, when a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up in a hotel in Netanya, Israel, on Passover, killing 30 Israelis and injuring 140 others. I vividly remember the glee with which Hamas leaders, supporters, religious clerics and enthusiasts in Gaza celebrated this horrendous attack. The group's propaganda, which I experienced firsthand in Gaza, glorified its terrorism and demonized the word "peace," claiming it was equivalent to betrayal, weakness, surrender and the embrace of Jews. I remember signing up for a summer camp in 2002, though I hadn't realized this camp was organized by Hamas propagandists who proselytized the virtues of armed resistance. I told my mom that I wouldn't be attending the rest of the camp. Even as a child I saw through its cheap propaganda. Through its indoctrination and Islamization of Gaza's youth, Hamas was breeding future generations of radicalized Palestinians. Hamas has been a disaster to Palestinian aspirations for freedom and self-determination. It must be ruthlessly criticized and rejected. Weakening Hamas begins with normalizing criticisms of its ideology, its violent agenda and its subjugation of the Palestinian people. The writer is a nonprofit administrator and a writer on Middle East issues based in the U.S.