Time to face the truth: Hamas is a unified terrorist entity - opinion

It is time for the world to recognize the entirety of Hamas as a terror organization.

In the wake of the daring assassination of Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh and the ascension of Yahya Sinwar to the top job of political chief of Hamas, the false division between the political wing of Hamas and the military wing of Hamas has been exposed.

Haniyeh, who started his terrorist career as aide-de-camp of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, held the position of political chief since 2017 and was seen as a moderate in the eyes of many around the world. Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip around the same time to help strengthen ties with Hamas’s strategic allies, and since then he has mainly led a life of luxury in Qatar and has traveled between Hamas’s allies, mainly Qatar, Iran, and Turkey with forays to Lebanon, Russia, and China. 

Recently his escapades came to an abrupt halt following a mysterious explosion in a Revolutionary Guards guesthouse in Tehran that killed him and his bodyguard. Following his elimination, Hamas decided to give the top job to Sinwar, the head of the so-called military wing of Hamas, which is considered more radical.

In the past, many countries have made an artificial divide between the military wing of Hamas, which is seen as hardline radicals and is sanctioned and outlawed in most Western countries, and the political wing of Hamas, which is seen as a more moderate and dovish faction of the group with which agreements could be reached. 

This has led some countries to leave the political wing out of their sanction regime in the hopes of strengthening their hand against the radical military wing. The position of the Israeli government and a small number of foreign entities and analysts is that such a distinction is arbitrary and has no basis in reality, rather both wings form a synergetic relationship that furthers the overall goal of Hamas, which is the destruction of the State of Israel.

This is not by any means a unique position the West has taken against Hamas. Similar distinctions have been made with other malign actors such as Hezbollah, the Taliban, and different elements within the Iranian regime. Yet, in no other case, is the distinction so blatantly false as this one – as has been shown following Sinwar’s ascension to the job. 

Sinwar, the terrorist who masterminded the October 7 massacre that saw some 1,200 Israelis murdered and some 250 abducted, has now taken the position of the head of the political wing of Hamas while simultaneously holding the position of top military leader of the group. This shows without a shadow of a doubt that the political and military leadership are complementary parts of this machine of destruction.

Action must be taken

Based on this evidence, the State of Israel must take diplomatic action and demand that all parties, governmental or otherwise – including the UN – recognize the entirety of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

To paraphrase the words of Bill Roggio, editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’s Long War Journal: “There is no good Taliban and bad Taliban, there is The Taliban.” 

The same must be said for Hamas: there is no moderate Hamas and no radical Hamas – there is only Hamas. It is not enough to theoretically declare Hamas as a terrorist organization. It must be fully treated as such. 

The writer is an IDF combat veteran and analyst of current affairs, commencing a degree in history and political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.