Hamas is Gaza and Gaza is Hamas

Terrorists emerge from the tunnels flashing the victory sign as if they have won the war, and Gazans cheer them on.

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I just had to write one more short piece on this first day of the ceasefire. I am filled with hope and sorrow.

Hamas has emerged from the tunnels flashing the victory sign, showing they are now back in control. All the progress Israel made has been buried in screams of Allahu Akbar!

Across the world, hundreds of thousands celebrate the Hamas ‘freedom fighters’ victory over Israel.

From New York…

…to Paris, they demand with even greater fervor an end to the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

In Gaza and the West Bank, crowds celebrate as if they have won the war. Just as they celebrated the returning jihadists on Oct 7th. Just as they spit on the dead bodies of Israelis and gladly hid the hostages throughout all these months of horror.

After the massacre, across the Middle East, from Ramallah to Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, people distributed candies, danced and chanted prayers in support of the “resistance.”

And now they do the same, except the celebrations are even more emboldened, even more intense. No one is embarrassed that they are exchanging babies for terrorists. Rather, they are proud. And interesting how they don't look starved at all.

In Gaza, they have learned nothing. All this time they suffered, used by Hamas as human shields, aid stolen from them. And yet, here they are, bowing down to their real masters—Hamas, not Israel—all over again. It’s hard to understand such blind devotion to one’s abusers.

Hamas can now regroup, rearm themselves and bolster their ranks with new recruits from youngsters who look up to them as heroes.

Images of the “martyr” Yahya Sinwar can be seen, and his name is shouted among the throngs.

You can hear them shouting “Sinwar!”:

Sinwar is the monster who orchestrated the Oct 7th massacre; who murdered his own people with his bare hands; and who hid like a rat in tunnels, only emerging to save his own skin while trying to escape Gaza.

He was gunned down by a soldier who didn’t even realize it was Sinwar until he was dead. $10,000 and multiple passports were found on his body, proof he cared for no one but himself.

And yet, this monster is lauded as a brave leader of the resistance. Songs are song about him. Gazan children, indeed, Muslim children around the world, hear bedtime stories of his valor. They will grow up dreaming to martyr themselves just as he did.

I cannot help but feel anger towards these misguided people. A few months back I had some hope. I thought surely the tide was turning in Gaza. Surely, they were seeing the truth and would rebel against Hamas.

But here they are, celebrating Oct 7th all over again.

And when asked by Hamas, they will submit once again to being used as human shields. Mothers will gladly offer their children as sacrifices. They won’t mind when aid is stolen from them or when they are left above ground without shelter, their homes, hospitals and schools used to launch rockets. All over again, they will deny the truth, they will be complicit in spreading the lies. Just as an abused woman will say she fell off a chair instead of saying her husband beat her.

They will never ask themselves the difficult question of who their real abusers are. To honestly answer would mean the collapse of their entire identity. They would have to admit that everything they have been told about themselves, about “Palestine”, about Jews, is a lie.

This is the hardest thing for anyone to do. Anyone. An addict under the power of a drug will always tell himself stories to justify his habit. A woman abused by her husband will tell herself that she is to blame, not him. It is she who needs to do better. If only she learned to be more submissive, then her master would reward her instead of beating her.

When you are abused, you can never be good enough. You can never give enough. Work hard enough. Submit enough. You will always need to do more and more and more, even give up your life. Only then have you truly proved how much you love your abuser.

And like all abusive relationships, the Gazans will now get a reprieve. Their masters will pat them on their heads and reward them. Tell them they have done a good job. They will actually get the aid that is coming into the country, at least some of it. But then, the abuse will start all over again. And they will welcome it, the habit is so ingrained. They will even believe that it is through the abuse that they gain their salvation.

Over the next months, Hamas will pretend they care about their people. They will whine and demand aid to “rebuild. But what will they rebuild. They will rebuild their tunnels and restock their arsenals of weapons. You can be sure they are already busy planning their next attack. They dream of an even bigger one, even more outrageous tortures and deaths for the media to spread across the world in their fight against the “aggressor” who “stole” their land.

Meanwhile, in Israel there are no victory parades.

Hours before the first hostages were slated to be released, thousands of Israelis gathered in “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv. They were hopeful but cautious. They know they have not won this war. They are not a cult of death like Hamas and so they value the lives of the hostages, even the dead bodies that Hamas has kept in freezers to use as bargaining chips.

Hamas knows this is their best way to gain power over Israel. They take advantage of this “weakness” in Israelis, their love of life.

Yes, Israel wants their hostages to come home, their entire beings yearn for this. But they know the price they have paid will be more suffering, more horrors, more deaths to come.

Pray for Israel.