(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi - Hamas defined the day of violent clashes at Israel's border with Gaza on May 14 as proof of a victory for jihad and the armed struggle against Israel. It openly admitted these were not spontaneous demonstrations but a campaign orchestrated by Hamas. Hamas explained the goals of the "Great Return March," which are the elimination of the State of Israel and ethnically cleansing any Jewish presence from the land: "Our people set out today to react to the new American Zionist aggression and to tell the world with its blood and limbs that it is the one that will draw the map of return and the map of victories....The blood that has been spilled in resisting this crime will arouse a revolution until the occupation is removed, and the embassy is removed from Palestine forever." If, in the past, Hamas counted its victories according to the number of Israeli casualties, today it measures victory according to the number of Palestinian casualties.
2018-05-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive