By Andrew L. Jaffee

From the group that brought you the Passover bombing in Netanya, babies dressed up like suicide bombers, and kindergartens run to train children to become homicide bombers… Today, JPost reports:

…A senior Hamas leader in Gaza declared that it was signed and sealed within his party that Israel would be wiped off the map and replaced by a Palestinian State, Israel Radio reported. He added that rockets and missiles were the means of removing Israel from the picture. …

Not only does Hamas offer bellicosity, it adds hypocrisy:

…Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, called on the IDF to keep civilians out of the circle of violence. At the same time, he called on Palestinians to attack anything that could be considered Israeli, since, he claimed, it was Israel that declared war on the Palestinians. …

The best summary of Hamas comes from the Council on Foreign Relations:

What does Hamas believe and what are its goals?
…Hamas combines Palestinian nationalism with Islamic fundamentalism. Its founding charter commits the group to the destruction of Israel, the replacement of the PA [Palestinian Authority] with an Islamist state on the West Bank and Gaza, and to raising “the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.” Its leaders have called suicide attacks the “F-16″ of the Palestinian people. Hamas believes “peace talks will do no good,” Rantisi said in April 2004. “We do not believe we can live with the enemy.” …

What attacks is Hamas responsible for?
Hamas is believed to have killed more than 500 people in more than 350 separate terrorist attacks since 1993. Not all Hamas’ attacks have been carried out by suicide bombers. The group has also accepted responsibility for assaults using mortars, short-range rockets, and small arms fire. …

Related: Palestinian civil war, full profiles of Hamas and Fatah

---

---

Related: Israel, Palestinians, Terrorist Groups

---