What is the fundamental difference between Hamas and Russia?
On this day we mourn the horrifying death of six captives of Hamas, including an American citizen, who were shot at close range by the Hamas terrorists after nearly one year in captivity. On this same day, Ukrainian civilians were targeted and killed by Russians engaging in a campaign of terror which has lasted two and half years. Some Americans have compassion for Israeli victims of Hamas, but little for Ukrainian victims of Russia. In this article we ask: What is the fundamental difference between Hamas and Russia?
Let’s begin with the similarities.
Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas mastermind and organizer of the murder, rape, torture, beheadings and crimes of October 7, died in Tehran, Iran, on July 31. He frequented Moscow and was an ally of Vladimir Putin.
Both Hamas and Russia approach terrorism as virtue. Both use terrorism as a military strategy. Both engage in horrific war crimes. Both have called for ethnic cleansing. - Hamas in their formal documents, and Russia in their commands of Zachista in locations like Bucha. Both are political organizations. Both deny the cultural identity of a people and territorial integrity of a sovereign nation. Both have engaged in mass rapes, executions of civilians, tortures, kidnapping, beheadings, murder of children, civilian prisoners and invasion. Both engage in disinformation campaigns to cover their tracks and shift blame.
What then is the fundamental difference between these terrorist organizations?
The answer is scale.
Russia has committed similar forms of terrorism against Ukrainians at a scale exponentially greater than Hamas has committed against Israel.
October 7 will go down in history as the greatest evil since WWII against the Jewish people. But every day in Ukraine is October 7, or a potential October 7, as Russians continue to kidnap and abuse children, use civilians for target practice, torture innocents, destroy the infrastructure, occupy land which is not theirs, and use terror as a military and political tool. There were more atrocities committed in the City of Bucha alone, than in Israel on October 7. And Bucha is one of thousands of incidents of Russian atrocities and terror in Ukraine.
And here is the point: If you correctly have compassion for the Israeli victims of Hamas, but little for the Ukrainian victims of Vladimir Putin, your compassion is worth very little. In the end, you are not really opposed to terrorism.
There is a second point. Hamas and Russia are allies. Russia and Communist China are allies. China rejects the delineation of Hamas as a terrorist organization and has sponsored them in Beijing. Russia, and Tehran are allies. Tehran and Hamas are allies. Do you see a pattern? There is an axis of terror made up of allies with roots in Communism, Soviet thinking, or Islamic Jihad. A similar analysis can be applied to North Korea. Each view themselves at war with the West. Two are formally committed to the destruction of the Israeli state. In one way or another, each have been supportive of the Russian war on Ukraine.
Know that the Marxist-Leninist trained KGB agent for the former Soviet Union now sitting in power at the Kremlin, likely the wealthiest man in the world, smiles as he repeatedly welcomes leaders of Hamas to Moscow this year and last, knowing that Lenin's "useful idiots" are alive and well in the United States.
Today we mourn again with the children of Israel. Please mourn also for the free people of Ukraine.
Russia's Lavrov meets with terrorist leaders from Hamas at the Kremlin this year.
DW Phillips, Esq. is a film director, attorney and writer with Jewish family members who emigrated from Lviv, Ukraine, a century ago to escape anti-Semitism and Russian aggression. He produces reports and films for Ukraine Story on the faith, courage, defiance and unity of the people of Ukraine. He recently covered Ukraine at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
