Hamas is not Daesh: Ideological, political and operational divergences
https://arab.news/5ztjy
Following the October 7 multiple coordinated, land, sea and airborne attack against Israel, Tel Aviv has been comparing Hamas with Daesh. For instance, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in a statement, “The civilized world defeated Daesh, we will eliminate Hamas.” Likewise, Israel has also run the hashtag #HamasisDaesh which trended on social media and dropped leaflets Daesh=Hamas. Moreover, Hamas’ attack has been compared with Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack and Daesh’s 2015 attack in France. However, despite some similarities, Daesh and Hamas are two separate groups, and their conflation is a deliberate attempt by Israel to justify disproportionate use of force in Gaza under the garb of counterterrorism.
Daesh and Hamas have no love lost between themselves. They are two completely different militant organizations in their ideological goals, strategic ambitions and political narratives. Daesh is a transnational movement which espouses a self-styled global Caliphate and excommunicates those who do not subscribe to its austere worldview. Hamas, on the contrary, is a Palestinian group which emerged in 1987 during the first Palestinian Intifada as a spin-off of the Muslim brotherhood. Daesh denounces territorial nationalism, while Hamas believes in the nation-state system and geographical borders. Since 2006, Hamas has been governing the Gaza strip. Contrary to Israeli conflation of Daesh and Hamas, the former considers the latter as “apostate” for embracing democracy and territorial nationalism.
For Hamas, the liberation of Palestine is the sine qua none of its existence as per its 2017 charter, while for Daesh, Palestine is not a top priority and believes that the Palestine-Israel conflict has been over-exaggerated. In the latest issue of its biweekly newsletter Al-Naba, Daesh has disagreed with Hamas’ operational strategy. Daesh, without naming Hamas, has criticized it for engaging in national and pan-national alliances. Daesh maintains that Hamas is delusional if it believes it can achieve its strategic objectives through such alliances. Daesh has also objected to Hamas’ links with the Iran-backed so-called axis of resistance. On sectarian ground, Daesh is Iran’s sworn enemy and ideological arch-foe. Furthermore, Daesh upholds the view that as long as Western states supporting Israel are not encountered, it is impossible to defeat Tel Aviv.
Israel’s disproportionate ‘war’ in Gaza is counterproductive because the consequent death, destruction, displacement and dispossession will create a new generation of Palestinians who will resist Israel.
Abdul Basit Khan
Daesh is an underground organization which operates in the shadows, while Hamas’ existence is well known for decades. Daesh excommunicates those who do not subscribe to its austere ideological framework and indiscriminately targets minorities and those it considers as non-believers. On the contrary, Hamas does not target those not strictly observing Shariah law in Gaza and people belonging to different faiths. For instance, Hamas does not punish women for not wearing hijab or teenagers listening to music in Gaza.
Daesh is an exclusionary organization and rules out negotiation with those not subscribing to its ideological doctrine, let alone Israel. Hamas does not have absolutist positions. Over the years, Hamas has continuously negotiated with Israel on prisoners’ swap, border issues as well as governance in Gaza. Ironically, Netanyahu empowered Hamas in Gaza by allowing Qatari cash to flow through Israeli borders and increasing permits for Gazans to work in Israel. In doing so, Israel wanted to undermine the Palestine Authority in the West Bank and keep Palestine divided by Hamas-dominated Gaza and Fatah-controlled West Bank. However, the strategy badly backfired on October 7.
Israel’s insistence on equating Hamas with Daesh has a two-fold objective.
First, it is politically expedient for Tel Aviv to conflate Daesh and Hamas, despite glaring differences, to justify its disproportionate use of force in Gaza. Since October 7, Israel has killed more than 8,000 Palestinians, half of them women and children, as it is preparing for the second phase (ground operation) of Gaza’s invasion. Israel will use this narrative to stonewall public criticism of its war crimes.
Second, since 1973, the duration of Israel’s wars against Palestine has been short due to dwindling US support and strong criticism of its brutal military tactics. Hamas’ October 7 assault which left around 1400 Israelis dead has outraged public opinion in the West. The “Hamas is Daesh” narrative helps Israel strengthen the rhetoric that Hamas is not just a threat to Israel but to other Western countries as well. This persistent conflation helps Israel win over the opinions of US leaders and the public.
Israel has declared the complete elimination of Hamas as the objective of its ongoing war in Gaza. Hamas is a para-militant organization comprising of 30,000 fighters which melts away into the public after its attacks. If the outcomes of the US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan are anything to go by, the elusive goal of eliminating Hamas is unrealistic and an excuse for an endless aggression in Gaza. Finally, Israel’s disproportionate ‘war’ in Gaza is counterproductive because the consequent death, destruction, displacement and dispossession will create a new generation of Palestinians who will resist Israel.
- The author is a senior associate fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore. X: @basitresearcher.
