“When I use a word… it means just what I choose it to mean.” Hamas has heeded Humpty Dumpty. When thousands of Gazans march shouting anti-Hamas imprecations: “Hamas claims growing Gaza protests against its rule actually aimed at Israel,” by Nurit Yohaan, Times of Israel, March 27, 2025:
Hamas responded Thursday to growing public protests inside Gaza by insisting the demonstrations are directed against Israel and the ongoing war, rather than against the terror group ruling the Strip.
Thousands of Gazans have taken to the streets this week in rare displays of public anger against Hamas, chanting for the end of the group’s nearly two-decade rule after it plunged the enclave into war by attacking southern Israel on October 7, taking hundreds of hostages, many of whom it is still holding.
The demonstrations against Hamas began with a few hundred people marching in Beit Lahiya. Two days later, the demonstrations have gotten much larger, with 3,000 turning out in Beit Lahiya alone, and thousands more demonstrating in villages and cities across Gaza. They show no signs of stopping.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told the Qatari channel Al-Araby that “demonstrations are expected from people facing extermination, against war and destruction.”…
Basem Naim ascribes the demonstrations to rage at Israel. Forget all those shouts of “Hamas out.” In his view, it is Israel that threatens Gazans with “extermination,” even though only 13,600 civilians have died in Gaza from combat-related causes. The “war” in Gaza was started by Hamas, when 6,000 of its operatives smashed into Israel on October 7, 2023 and proceeded to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder 1,200 Israelis. The “destruction” of so much infrastructure in Gaza is a direct result of Hamas deliberately embedding its men and weapons in civilian buildings — schools, apartment houses, offices, mosques.
“We understand well that our people are politically diverse, and we protect both opinions and opposing views,” he said. “No one has the right to forbid anyone from expressing their opinion. But the people took to the streets calling to stop the war and end the aggression.”…
Naim says that Hamas protects “both opinions and opposing views.” Nonsense. Hamas began its rule in Gaza by murdering hundreds of Fatah members. Since 2007, it has ruled the Strip with an iron fist, imprisoning or killing anyone in Gaza who has expressed opposition to its corruption and despotism.
“They made the residents into rabbits, and now they have broken free of the fear because they have nothing to lose,” a Gazan man named Sami Ubayed told Israel’s Ynet news outlet.
“Residents have no water or electricity. Hamas is destroying Gaza and making us into stones, they must be removed from power. We won’t stop demonstrating, Hamas needs to be flexible and release the hostages.”…
Note Sami Ubayed’s words: “Hamas is destroying Gaza.” Hamas is “making us into stones ”(that is, mute and helpless beings). Hamas “must be removed from power.” Nothing could be clearer.
The terror group has violently cracked down on previous protests. This time, no outright intervention was apparent, which some saw as a sign of Hamas’ waning power in the wake of Israel’s military campaign. The group’s armed personnel are also thought to be keeping a low profile since Israel resumed military action in Gaza earlier this month following the two-month ceasefire….
Hamas simply has far fewer operatives at present to crack down on protesters than it had in the past. More than 22,000 of its men have been killed by Israel since the war began. And for now, Hamas personnel, scared of being hit by Israeli airstrikes, have been lying low. But most important, Hamas is worried that it wouldn’t be able to frighten into submission these angry crowds of Gazans at the end of their tether, that any use of force on its part would simply make more people angry with it, and that news of any Hamas crackdown, and possibly videos of Hamas thugs beating demonstrators, would travel all around Gaza and inflame still more thousands to take to the streets. The previous fear of Hamas that paralyzed so many has now disappeared.
Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns the 59 hostages it still holds — 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel is also demanding that the group give up power, disarm, and send its leaders into exile.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a complete end to war, and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Hamas appears to not fully appreciate the situation It is in. It has lost more than half of its prewar fighters, while a few thousand untrained and inexperienced young recruits hardly make up for that loss. It has seen 80% of its weapons destroyed by the IDF, including rockets, missiles, and mortars. It can no longer receive the weapons that used to be smuggled in from Egypt, for the IDF now has destroyed the Egypt-Gaza tunnels, and IDF soldiers remain guarding the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, to prevent above-ground smuggling of weapons.
What can Hamas do about these protesters, who believe that their misery is such that they have nothing left to lose, and are willing to risk their lives to protest in public against Hamas — “Out, Out Hamas”? They demand that Hamas put an end to the war it started, calling on it to free the last Israeli hostages so that Israel might be willing to extend its ceasefire. Hamas is now condemned to do exactly what its spokesmen such as Basem Naim are now doing: claiming that the protesters shouting “Out, out Hamas” have been deliberately misrepresented by the Zionists who control so much of our media. “Out, out Hamas” really means, in Hamas’ interpretation, that the demonstrators really are calling for the downfall of Israel.
“When I use a word… it means just what I choose it to mean.”
Yes, that is what Humpty Dumpty did, and that is what Hamas is now doing: “Out, out Hamas” really means, according to Hamas, “out, out, IDF.”
And just like Humpty Dumpty, Hamas — I don’t mind breaking it to the terror group — will soon have a great fall.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Daniel Greenfield was right. Don’t take the anti-Hamas protests in Gaza at face value
somehistory says
I thought this before hamas said it.
Not that long ago, hordes, mobs, crowds, were celebrating what hamas had done to those two small boys….one only an infant, the other very young…and the old man who had worked to help the ‘palestinains.’
mozlums don’t change. Unless they aren’t really adherents to islime, they don’t change their character. They helped hamas rape, torture, hold hostage and murder innocent people. They chanted, and marched, and grabbed at the hostages who have been released.
Now they are supposedly ‘tired of hamas.’ Give me a break. They want hamas to continue until there is not a Jew left living.
James Lincoln says
somehistory,
The so-called “Palestinians” are just upset that their “beloved” Hamas did not kill every last Jew in Israel.
JDow says
But but but – Allah is on OUR side? How can this be happening? How can Allah be turning on us? This is horrible. We have to try even harder if Allah wills!
Yup, that happens when you place your faith in fables.
{^_-}