By Ohad Merlin
On October 12, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a warning on their first page, which read: “This is the most difficult image we’ve ever posted. As we are writing this we are shaking. We went back and forth about posting this, but we need each and every one of you to know. This happened.” The Telegraph then gave their readers the choice either to view the “harrowing” picture hidden in page number 3, or skip to the next page. However, the “blood-stained infant, still dressed in a babygrow and nappy, lying inside a small body bag” had no such choice. He was mercilessly butchered by Hamas militants during the horrendous October 7th massacre.
In these past two weeks the Hamas-ISIS Einsatzgruppen have shown their true face as a barbaric, unsophisticated, arrogant and disloyal mob of murderers. Barbaric – for the horrendous atrocities they committed, from kidnapping babies to downright slaughtering them; unsophisticated – for their sickening urge to document and upload these acts; arrogant – for their sheer audacity to gaslight the world by attempting to claim that none of these acts ever took place in the first place; and disloyal – for the insidious attempt of Hamas leaders such as Saleh Al-Arouri to throw “the Gazan people” under the bus by blaming them – not their own militants carrying the weapons – for some of the atrocities committed.
Additionally, the past two weeks also became a watershed moment across the Free World, as decision makers, influencers, organizations and movements found themselves facing a simple question: would they be able to fully condemn Hamas for the most genocidal onslaught against Jews since the end of the holocaust; or will they juggle and struggle with their words, “pointing at root causes”, “providing necessary context”, “reminding of the history of the conflict”, or any other babble to directly or indirectly justify the carnage and whitewash any Palestinian responsibility for it. And, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, many of these verbal acrobats originate in self-proclaimed Jewish, liberal or progressive organizations.
The mind struggles to to even begin to fathom the sheer amounts of hatred and incitement which must be instilled within a human being’s psyche in order to dehumanize and demonize their target to the extent that they’d be willing and capable to stab, shoot or burn a baby from zero distance – or to justify and cheer for these acts in any way. The constant emergence of footage from the horrors, as well as descriptions told by the survivors, including scenes of bloody carnage with entire families and communities erased in the most brutal ways, evoke familiar memories from the recent history of the Jewish people, and this is no coincidence. See, classical antisemitism, which indoctrinated the generations that allowed these atrocities to take place eight and nine decades ago, are also the core of the Hamas ideology.
Hamas, short for the “Islamic Resistance Movement”, is described by its leaders as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a political movement founded in Egypt in 1928 as an answer to the question posed by the collapse of the last Islamic Caliphate in the form of the Ottoman Empire. The Brotherhood’s founder Hasan Al-Banna strived to promote his version of political Islam as a pillar for a new identity and political strategy for the Arab and Islamic world, believing that Islam in its earliest and most untouched – and hence undistorted version (“Salafiya”) – is the answer to all political and social questions, and should be placed at the core of any Muslim’s political aspirations.
Al-Banna’s disciple Syed Qutb developed an even more extreme version of this political Islam, believing that this sort of Islam should be spread not only by preaching or “Da’wah”, but rather also through Jihad (literally “effort”, also accepted as religious warfare). This is what ultimately gave birth to what today is known as Salafi Jihadism – a genocidal ideology targeting the West, the Jews and the “heretics”; the ideological drive behind terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS and Hamas.
This terror-supporting tendency, among other ideas and actions, is the main reason for which the Brotherhood alongside its arms in different countries were announced as terror organizations years ago by countries friendly to Israel such as Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia; while enjoying political and material support, as well as vast media propagation, from shady actors such as Qatar and Turkey.
In our context, the most often overlooked but intrinsic trait of the Muslim Brotherhood, is its inherent promulgation of antisemitism – and especially its chief role in the dissemination of classical antisemitism across the Arab world. This role is widely accepted by a consensus of Middle East scholars, who claim mostly that though some Muslim text feature anti-Jewish sentiment – they were never salient nor acted upon until the rise of political Islam.
Examples for this antisemitic tendency are abundant. In their early days, years before the establishment of Israel, Muslim Brotherhood founder Al-Banna called on his followers to “hate Jews”, and even accused them, how fitting, of “ritual murder”. His movement also organized riots against the Jewish community in Egypt, labeling them as traitors who control the West. Likewise, Al-Banna’s aforementioned disciple Syed Qutb wrote an entire pamphlet titled “Our Battle with the Jews”, where he quotes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, calls to “destroy Jews”, and accuses Jews of everything from murdering prophets and instigating the Crusades, to promoting moral, political, and sexual corruption.
Another key player of these Islamist circles, whose ideology majorly overlapped with the Brotherhood’s, is the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin Al-Husseini. Al Husseini was among the propagators of classical antisemitism among his followers in Mandatory Palestine and called in his speeches and writings for “eternal enmity” with the Jews, regarding them as new “crusaders” and as “mortal threat” to the Islamic nation, and culminating with the infamous meeting with non-other than the Fuhrer himself.
Finally, these anti-Jewish sentiments were also carried on to the Palestinian incarnation of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas officials, militants and mouthpieces have for decades sounded their wicked antisemitic ideologies and genocidal calls to harm Jews for anyone who was only willing to listen; and the educational system in both Gaza and the West Bank still oozes with antisemitic content – textbooks and instructors alike – indoctrinating the youngest of Palestinians to despise the Jewish people and rejoice when they are slaughtered.
Unfortunately, on October 7th, the world witnessed how, just like in Nazi Germany of the 1930s and 1940s, an entire generation indoctrinated to see Jews as a cosmic evil arrived at the conclusion that Jewish babies are not human enough to be worthy of their mercy. On that terrible Sabbath we were faced with a sneak preview of the new holocaust that the likes of Hamas are planning – and some actors are justifying – if they were only given a chance.
But this is not the only way in which Hamas can be compared to Nazi Germany. Indeed, Hamas’s atrocious massacre was carried out in a style transcending anything ISIS had done before; but it wouldn’t be accurate to compare the two on a political level. As recalled, ISIS was imposed on the local populations in Iraq and Syria by waging war and terror. This is a different situation to that of Hamas, an elected party which enjoys at least 53% support among Palestinian citizens as a whole, according to a poll from 2021; and faces almost no criticism from within. Additionally, with the exception of a very loosely-worded denouncement of “violence against civilians” by unelected President Mahmoud Abbas, not one word of denouncement to the carnage was to be found from the different Palestinian fractions, politicians or citizens (if anything, Fatah and the PFLP only celebrated this “achievement”). This widespread social and political support for Hamas’s atrocities, as well as the documented participation of “non-combatant citizens” in the massacre, kidnapping and looting, leads to the conclusion that the political equivalent of Hamas would be more reminiscent of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy or Imperial Japan – all of which were tyrannical and brutal political powers which rose to power from below and which enjoyed vast popular support.
Indeed, Israel and the entire Free World are faced with a genocidal, supremacist, fascist political entity, intrinsically and inherently antisemitic and anti-Western, brimming with bloodlust bottom-up, whose only aim is – and always has been – to murder as many civilians possible, with a special priority for Jews. Needless to say, this is completely antithetical to Israel – and the West – who are countering their enemies while actively attempting to reduce civilian casualties to the minimum possible.
To conclude, anyone trying to provide “history”, “context” or “roots”, to whitewash Hamas-ISIS’s lust for the butchering of a baby “in their babygrow and nappy” must be reminded of Hamas’s “history” intertwined with the antisemitic ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood long before the existence of Israel; the “context” of the vast political support that these bloodthirsty mercenaries enjoy; and the “root causes” for the need to obliterate Hamas, and their northern brethren Hezbollah – for the sake of humanity; just like ISIS, just like the Nazi regime.
About the Author
Ohad Merlin is an analyst team leader at the Argyle Consulting Group specializing in social media, online campaigns and hate speech; with a B.A. in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies and an M.A. in Government, Diplomacy and Conflict Studies.