(National Review) Andrew C. McCarthy - There is no deal with sharia-supremacist Islam. Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, is conducting a jihad to destroy Israel - not to reach a more favorable arrangement with Israel - based on sharia-supremacist principles, which are 14 centuries old and steeped in Jew-hatred that goes back to Muhammad's wars of conquest. While Hamas has been hollowed out by Israel's combat operations, the problem in the region is sharia supremacism, not Hamas; if what is today called Hamas disappeared tomorrow, a new jihadist entity would rise quickly to take its place, and the objective would not change. The premise of the president's plan is that Hamas will stop being Hamas, and that will end the jihadist threat. What basis is there to believe that? During the second intifada, when Hamas was firmly established, there were around 150 suicide attacks. The jihadists who carried them out were celebrated and their families paid bonuses - and that includes being celebrated by the Palestinian Authority. Like the jihadists who carried out the October 7 atrocities, the suicide attackers were not looking for a better deal with Israel. They were looking to eradicate Israel. The proposal assumes that the culture and population that produced these people are now going to lay down their arms and commit to peaceful coexistence or, in the alternative, voluntarily leave the territory that their fundamentalist tenets - as mediated by the region's most influential scholars - tell them is Allah's land over which they are obliged to wage jihad until Israel is no more. What has happened in the last two years to make anyone think that's a possibility? We now have European nations and Canada claiming to recognize "Palestine" (its lack of borders or a real government notwithstanding). Why would Hamas and its sharia-supremacist support network surrender now when they have reason to believe the barbaric October 7 attack, far from turning them into pariahs, has advanced their cause? There isn't always an ideal solution available just because we'd like there to be one. There is no deal with people who will be satisfied with nothing less than one's annihilation. The fact that there may be many rational Palestinians who would be willing to live in peace does not mean they are anywhere close to being able to force their will against the region's dominant, entrenched sharia-supremacist adherents. Unless and until Israel's mortal enemies (and ours) are conclusively defeated, any peace negotiations are just a strategic pause that allows the jihadists to regroup and rearm.
2025-09-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive