Hamas vs Israel..A Little Background

This poster depicts the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (killed in 2004 by missiles fired from an Israeli helicopter gunship). He founded Hamas in 1987 as a social and religious organization, an off-shoot of the pan-Arabic Sunni organization known as The Muslim Brotherhood. This particular group, founded during the early part of the twentieth century, has been the inspiration for many extremist and terrorist groups across the Middle-East.

The core belief of Hamas, and most of the terrorist groups spawned by The Muslim Brotherhood, is that God has taught the world, through the Quran, the perfect way to live. This makes it the duty of all true believers to fight for the ultimate establishment of a world-wide Islamic state. This, of course is the long-term goal of groups like Hamas and Al Qaida. In the short-term Hamas wants the complete destruction of Israel and an Islamic Palestinian state to replace it.

The Israelis, surrounded by unfriendly governments who harbour and support numerous terrorist organizations dedicated to their obliteration, are always prepared to bring the battle to their enemies. Countless missiles and attacks have been launched upon Israel, by various terrorist groups over the years, from behind the borders of Israel's neighboring states. Over the years this has led to numerous incursions by the Israelis into their neighbors homelands in pursuit of their enemies. Only recently has Israel been persuaded to retreat from territories they have taken from their neighbors...Gaza is one such territory. But now Israel finds itself once again on the point of incursion. But will they stay in Gaza once more? Or is it just Hamas, and not the whole of the Palestinian people, that Israel is determined to confront?

The fact that Hamas feels free and justified to attack Israel at will, and to kidnap, bomb, and murder Israeli citizens is outrageous. But even more outrageous is that they then cry to the rest of the world when Israel strikes back...and attempt to portray themselves as victims of Israeli aggression.

And the wars go on..and on..and on