Why Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7?

There are many theories, some say it is Netanyahu conspiracy to find pretext to destroy Gaza, some say it is response to Israel brutal occupation to Palestine, some say it is result of the hate of Palestinians to Israeli successful democracy, etc.

I decided to investigate this problem by looking how Hamas explains it.
First I decided to read Hamas chapter, and here is what I found:
https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/hamas-2017.pdf

Original Hamas chapter is written in italic font.

The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas”
A Document of General Principles and Policies
[…]
“Palestine is a land that was seized by a racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project that was founded on a false promise (the Balfour Declaration), on recognition of a usurping entity and on imposing a fait accompli by force.
Palestine symbolizes the resistance that shall continue until liberation is accomplished, until the return is fulfilled and until a fully sovereign state is established with Jerusalem as its capital. “

Conclusion: Hamas does not plan to recognize Israel. Israel, a democratic country where Arabs have full rights, where Arab judge sentenced Jewish president to jail, where majority Jewish population elected an Arab woman as Miss Israel, according to Hamas is “racist, anti-human”.

The Movement:
The Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” is a Palestinian Islamic national liberation and resistance movement. Its goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project. Its frame of reference is Islam, which determines its principles, objectives and means.

Conclusion: Hamas want to replace Israeli democratic state into Muslim country with Muslim laws, where infidels, women and homosexuals will have the same rights as defined by Muslim laws.

I found in Hamas chapter one great jokes too:

Islam and Palestine:
[…]
Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.
[…]

The position toward Occupation and Political Solutions:

18. The following are considered null and void: the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate Document, the UN Palestine Partition Resolution, and whatever resolutions and measures that derive from them or are similar to them. The establishment of “Israel” is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah; it is also in violation of human rights that are guaranteed by international conventions, foremost among them is the right to self-determination.

19. There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Whatever has befallen the land of Palestine in terms of occupation, settlement building, Judaization or changes to its features or falsification of facts is illegitimate. Rights never lapse.

20. Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

21. Hamas affirms that the Oslo Accords and their addenda contravene the governing rules of international law in that they generate commitments that violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Therefore, the Movement rejects these agreements and all that flows 7 from them, such as the obligations that are detrimental to the interests of our people, especially security coordination (collaboration).

26. Hamas rejects any attempt to undermine the resistance and its arms. It also affirms the right of our people to develop the means and mechanisms of resistance.

Final conclusion: Oct 7 attack was not Netanyahu conspiracy, was not response to Israel brutal occupation of Palestine or result of the hate of Palestinians to Israeli successful democracy – it is religious belief that Allah (believed to be the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful among Gods) demands Oct 7 type actions from every devoted mujahidin.

Another evidence my conclusion is correct:

 

I'm afraid you wasted your time. This has very little to NOTHING to do with religion. You have illustrated how NOT to do research. You started with the conclusion, and then cherry-picked for anything that would confirm your pre-established pre-canned conclusion. As such, all this research you did is of no use.

I'm sure Hamas can use religion to bamboozle some of the terrorists into believing that religious beliefs is why they do it. But they are a minority. It also fools anybody who does inadequate research. They can also use religion to appease the conscience of a few. If there were enough fanatics son the Israel side, a superficial research could find just as much justification in the Bible for Israel taking over Gaza.

The reasons for the attack are multiple and complex. And they might even vary from one participant to another. A much more reasonable motivator is that maybe an Israeli attack, at some point in their lives, killed their mother, father, brother, son, daughter.... somebody they cared about. These attacks, though occasional, have not ceased on either side. And yes.... you might even find some fanatical nut whose motivation is purely religious. But that would be a tiny number.

It's a cycle of violence. And terrorists are not going to break the cycle. Not terrorists on the Hamas side (the majority), not terrorists on the Israeli side (Netanyahu). An adult will have to take over at some point and end this once and for all. And I personally think this is most likely to happen on the Israeli side.

 

If the purpose of my post was to change someone's opinion, then, of course, I might be wasting my time, just like many other participants here. The reasons for the October 7 attack are multiple and complex. Anytime we discuss thousands of people engaging in a collective action, there are plenty of motivations. Some may have sinister intentions, like hoping to commit acts of violence (in some Muslim societies where sex is a taboo, there are cases of honor killings ordered by fathers). Others may be seeking personal gain or excitement, or perhaps seeking revenge for the loss of family or friends. The leaders of Hamas also have multiple and complex motivations.

However, there is one common factor among all these individuals – religion. If you want to understand the reasons behind Hamas's behavior, you need to read their charter. In the Hamas charter, they clearly explain the organization's purpose and goals, repeatedly expressing them through various media outlets.

Do all individuals check if their behavior aligns with the Hamas charter? Of course not, just as some Democrats do not always adhere strictly to party rules.

 

So your reply..... " nuh uhh, you are wrong and revenge killings " followed by more of your opinion. Great " research "

 

I have had a different experience. I've found you can change another's opinion, sometimes even here, with PROPER research. They might not admit it. But after a while you don't see them again mentioning their old mistakes.

But proper research NEVER starts with a conclusion, and then trying to cherry-pick facts that you can accommodate to that conclusion, while ignoring everything that doesn't. That does the opposite. It reaffirms what the person believed before, given the lack of proper arguments.

The attackers might have had a common religion (maybe). But to claim that, because of that fact, then religion HAD to be the reason... is exactly what I'm criticizing: starting with the conclusion and then finding something... anything... to justify that conclusion.

If that's what you wanted to say, why all the verbiage? You could have just said "these people had the same religion and, therefore, that was the cause of the attacks"

It would be equally FALSE. But it would have taken only one line to say it.

As I said, terrorist use religion as an EXCUSE. NOT as the motive. And by believing their excuse, you are only giving them more credibility than they deserve but, at the same time, you're not contributing anything that might help identify or solve the problem. THEIR excuse has been used for decades as an excuse to attack them. And absolutely NOTHING has been accomplished.

Here's a revolutionary idea: how about if we start looking at what REALLY motivates such attacks so maybe... just maybe... the problem may be solved. The terrorists don't want to. Netanyahu doesn't want to.

 

You're pretty much on target - after all, Hamas is an Islamist group - but you left out the most relevant parts of Hamas' Charter:

Article Eleven:
The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day. This being so, who could claim to have the right to represent Moslem generations till Judgement Day?

This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgement...

This is why you hear Hamas calling for conquering places like Spain, which it also considers an Islamic waqf. An explanation of the term is in this article, and Bharat refers to India:

Article Thirteen:
Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion....

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with...

Pretty straightforward: "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad", and that's because Hamas considers Palestine an Islamic waqf.

As for the timing - the date October 7 - Hamas and its Iranian benefactor will pick any time they deem advantageous. There's been speculation that the timing had to do with the talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but it may have involved other factors, such as the weakness of the Biden Administration.

 

Your second sentence illustrates that, once again, it is you who hasn't done their research.

For those of us who actually do our research, we know that 1) Hamas is an Islamist group and 2) not only is Hamas an Islamist group, it is an off-shoot of the largest and oldest Islamist group in the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood - al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin, founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928 - so your claim "This has very little to NOTHING to do with religion" is ignorant nonsense. Furthermore, those of us who have done our research, and zalekbloom appears to be one of them, have already read Hamas' Covenant (or Charter) and are familiar with its contents. Obviously, it's time you did the same:

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement
18 August 1988

Definition of the Movement
Ideological Starting-Points

Article One:
The Islamic Resistance Movement: The Movement's programme is Islam. From it, it draws its ideas, ways of thinking and understanding of the universe, life and man. It resorts to it for judgement in all its conduct, and it is inspired by it for guidance of its steps.

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

In Post #6 you can learn what an Islamic waqf is, and how it relates to religion, religious law, and the Islamist group Hamas. It also mentions a thing called jihad, which you probably haven't researched, either. In this case, I would recommend Gilles Kepel's Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam, which is a good primer. After you read that, you might want to consider reading Sayyid Qutb's Milestones, since he was one of the Muslim Brotherhood's chief ideologues and wrote extensively about jihad

 

What's the problem? He did the research. What did you do? You criticized his research and then in the same post you showed your amazing research that was based on what, a "MAYBE" with some opinion sprinkled in?

"A much more reasonable motivator is that maybe an Israeli attack, at some point in their lives, killed their mother, father, brother, son, daughter."

Oh gee, or maybe a Jewish kid stole one of those peoples lunch money when they were children. Maybe one of them spilled hot coffee on their Nintendo Entertainment System? I do like your method of research much better than the OP's. Its definitely way more fun go off maybes and assumptions than actual fact like the OP did. SHAME ON HIM! Thanks for showing him the light.

 

That Hamas charter is dead.

The majority of troops fighting terrorism in the ME are Muslim. Your comments about Muslim society are nonsense. Muslims don't like terrorism any more than we do.

I don't believe there is ANY population in this world who would tolerate the treatment that Palestine suffers under Israel.

And, that certainly includes Christianity.

 

Apparently, you have NO IDEA what's been going on in Gaza. And, West Bank is enduring humanitarian atrocities from Israel as well.

 

Apparently, you have no idea what's going on in the Qur'an

 

Exactly my point. The OP, just like your post, started with the conclusion, and then "mimicked" the movements you do when you do research. The poster even CALLED it "research". But research is worthless if you already determined the conclusion before you even started researching. I'm not saying it's wrong, or that it's bad. To call that "research" is counterproductive. It's not! And this is obvious to anybody who would NOT start with a pre-established conclusion.

If you want to say that Hamas attacked on October 7 because of their religion... that's all you have to say: one sentence.

That's easy.... all you have to do is find some violent passages in writings. Ignore the ones calling for non-violence and.. voila... Research-a-la-Mode.

If you REALLY want to know why these attacks happened, you would need to do way more research than that. And you would quickly find that religion was NOT the reason, but just an excuse. And that the REAL reason is not as binary as you thought.

 

He's right. Israel is by far the most diverse country in the region. The rest of the region is being cleansed of Jews, Christians, atheists, gay people, non-Muslims, and those critical of religion/government. If you did your research, you would know that there was no occupation in Gaza prior to the terror, rape, murder, and kidnapping attack.

 

What I did was show him how to PROPERLY do research. Which is NOT by starting off with a conclusion, and then chery-picking passages that CONFIRM the pre-canned conclusion, while ignoring those that don't.

That's all I did.

 

In my opinion?

The Oct 7th terrorist attack was gopro'd and incredibly barbaric and violent to incite a reaction from Israel which they knew would go full bore as a response and then Hamas would hopefully gain sympathy from the surrounding Arab nations and the world to wipe Israel off the map.

Hamas is totally fine with martyring the entire Gaza strip to do this.

 

No, it's not dead, Will. Hamas never repudiated the 1988 Charter and the 2017 Document of General Principles and Policies is essentially a rehashing of the original charter with some new material added to it.

On every level, Hamas remains the genocidal Islamist group it has always been....

 

Our points have nothing in common. You posted a claim that was ignorant nonsense and I refuted it.

Do you have any idea what an Islamist group is? One can only conclude from your posts that you don't.

Fallacious twaddle. This must come as a shock to you, but you do your research before you make a claim, not after.

Clearly, the OP had done his research before he even opened the thread. Then he started the thread with an assertion and backed up his claim with his research.

I'll respond to that as I see fit, and I saw fit to explain Hamas' motives as an Islamist group in support of my response.

Hamas made it easy on October 7th. Anyone who wants to dispute that it meant what it wrote in its covenant/charter is on a fool's errand.

I've done more research, and it's obvious that religion plays a central role in Hamas' jihad to reclaim the territory it considers an Islamic waqf. It's you who needs to do more research, and tossing the word "binary" around is a poorly played red herring.

 

It IS being cleansed of all those. Problem is that it's being cleansed by Israel. They won't stop until there is nobody else there. The ONE thing they will never cleanse it of is terrorists. Those will survive and attack another day.

 

Making a claim has nothing to do with what I said. I'm talking about starting by reaching a conclusion FIRST, and doing the research to support that conclusion SECOND.

Already explained it too many times. If you didn't get it, you didn't...

 

Oops, you did not do your research again. Israel has no voice in the region outside Israel. Israel is the only place in the region where its safe to be Jewish, Christian, atheist, gay, non-Muslim, or critical of religion/government. The rest of the region has been cleansed of these people. Meanwhile, Israel is by far the most diverse country in the region. Arab-Israelis are happy living there in safety.

Can you point out a thriving population of Jews, Christians, atheists, gay people, non-Muslims, and people critical of religion/government in the surrounding region?

 

I keep asking the usual suspects here: anti-semites, sjws and, I suspect undisclosed Palestinians - what the motivation for the October 7th terrorist attack was - and what the Palestinians hoped to gain. I am yet to receive an answer to that question.

So your opinion at this stage trumps any non answer. I would also add Iran contributing, by goading chaos - so that it doesn't become sidelined by more moderate Arab states.

 

If Israel is not going to stop then I suggest the best way forward is for the international community to allow all the Palestinians that want to go, to leave - and then disperse/ integrate them in a humane manner somewhere else.

This would presumably leave just those who want to fight to the death.

 

But they do have a lot of bombs... Those can accomplish quite a bit of this "cleansing" that you speak of.

 

"That Hamas charter is dead"? Tell this to Ismail Haniyeh and I will buy you life insurance if your your family are ready to split it with me.

You don't believe there is ANY population in this world who would tolerate the treatment that Palestine suffers under Israel? And what about Uyghur in China? They killed few Chinese and you can see how China responded. And what about Rohingya in Myanmar? And what about Indians in Amazon? And what about Blacks in Darfur? And what about illegal immigrants in South Africa? And what about Tuareg people in Niger? And what about
Yazidis in Iraq?
I think Palestinian propaganda is the best in the word - there are minorities persecuted, expelled, murdered and raped in huge numbers, but Palestinians convinced the world that they are in the worst situation! Their propaganda is so efficient that they even convinced UN to create special agency who sole purpose is to help Palestinians.
Yes, not every Muslim is jihadist, but for sure the is enough jihadist to make waves. Here the list of Muslim terrorist acts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks

 

I love your conviction that you changed someone's opinion, even they might not admit it. My wife also knows that she always convince, even I don't admit. Wait, wait - Karen, its you?

Wrong, I don't started with conclusion - I come to conclusion AFTER presenting evidence. So let me repeat my original post: