If Netanyahu is a War Criminal, Then What Does That Make Hamas?

There is a piece in The New Republic which caught my attention. The piece is written by Hafiz Rashid and is titled, "Benjamin Netanyahu Is The War Criminal of the Year":

The man who bears the most responsibility for these war crimes is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It’s really rare for war criminals to just openly announce their actions,” said John Cox, professor of global studies and history at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, who also directs the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies. That’s what’s “unique about Israel’s bombing in Gaza.”

Cox noted that this month marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the U.N.’s Genocide Convention. “[The war in Gaza] literally does take on genocidal proportions and potential, along with daily humiliations and affronts to human rights that Israel has been engaging in for 75 years,” Cox said.

On October 28, for example, Netanyahu referred to Gazans as Amalek, invoking a Biblical enemy. In 1 Samuel 15:1-35, the prophet Samuel tells the king, Saul, to “attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

When Rashid states, "Netanyahu referred to Gazans as Amalek" he links to an article in Mother Jones  penned on November 3rd by Noah Lanard who writes:

On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israelis were united in their fight against Hamas, whom he described as an enemy of incomparable cruelty. “They are committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew. He then added: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” 

To be clear, Lanard is no fan of Bibi. Yet Lanard makes it equally clear that Netanyahu is referring to Hamas, not to all Gazans much less all Palestinians. 

All of which begs this question. If Netanyahu is a war criminal, then what does that make Hamas?

After all, let's consider this portion of the Hamas Charter:

This Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), clarifies its picture, reveals its identity, outlines it stand, explains its aims, speaks about it hopes, and calls for its support, adoption and joining its ranks. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realised. 

And let's further consider this passage:

The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939, to the emergence of the martyr Izz al-Din al Kissam and his brethren the fighters, members of Moslem Brotherhood. It goes on to reach out and become one with another chain that includes the struggle of the Palestinians and Moslem Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Moslem Brotherhood in 1968 and after.

Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews."

On October 7, 2023, Hamas wantonly kidnapped, raped and killed civilians, Jews and non-Jews alike, in their opening salvo of war. Hamas made it very clear there would be more of these attacks. In an appearance on Lebanese television in October, Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad stated:

We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight. Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs. 

The existence of Israel is illogical. The existence of Israel is what causes all that pain, blood, and tears. It is Israel, not us. We are the victims of the occupation. Period. Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000 – everything we do is justified.

So, when students at Harvard claim that Israel bears all responsibility for what happened on October 7th they are speaking Hamas' language and arguing that Hamas actions against Jewish civilians is justified. 

In that same spirit of malevolence, Hafiz Rashad and The New Republic become Hamas mouthpieces by claiming Netanyahu is a war criminal intent on genocide while pretending the genocide of Jews isn't Hamas' raison d'etre. 

To be sure, Benjamin Netanyahu has a great deal for which to answer regarding Israel's preparedness (to be precise its lack thereof) and there is justification for his resignation on those grounds. 

While Benjamin Netanyahu can be accused of many things, a war criminal is not among them. The same, however, cannot be said of Hamas.