The Problem Isn’t Hamas, It’s Palestinianism

At a press briefing on November 22, 2023, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari told the world that “Israel is at war with Hamas. We are not at war with the people of Gaza.” Hagari lied.

The problem Israel faces is not merely Hamas. Hamas is a symptom of a larger phenomenon: Palestinianism. The movement did not begin with Hamas, nor would it end if Hamas disappeared tomorrow. Hamas is simply one expression of a political and national ideology that has defined itself for more than a century primarily through opposition to Zionism and the existence of a Jewish state.

The use of the word “Palestinian” as a nationality has been, since its international adoption in the 1960s, nothing more than a clever use of linguistics to grant the Arabs who had lived here before the creation of the State of Israel a tool to delegitimize this country and replace it with their own. This land was called “Palestine” for centuries, but an independent state did not exist here after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291.

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For more than 600 years, the land erroneously called ‘Palestine’ was controlled by various Muslim empires that stretched across the Middle East, primarily from Cairo and Istanbul. The people who lived here – Muslims, Christians, and Jews – did not attempt to establish an independent state of their own. Zionism changed all that.

Historically, Arab nationalism in the Land of Israel cannot be found before Jewish immigration. The ‘Palestinian’ movement began as opposition to Zionism, and more than 100 years later, little has changed.

It is time for Israel to recognize this reality. October 7 shattered Israeli confidence in the two-state solution and drove public support for it to historic lows. A September 2026 Pew Research poll shows that only 17% of Israelis still believe that an independent ‘Palestinian’ state can coexist alongside Israel. The “Palestinian” national identity is, as a national matter, meaningless.

Palestinian children spit on the corpses of dead civilians.

Never forget October 7th. https://t.co/YcVDJPyCzV

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) October 6, 2026

The areas where Arabs have been allowed to govern themselves, the Gaza Strip and parts of Judea and Samaria, have proven oppressive to the people living there, not only to minority groups like Christians, but to Muslims as well. Hamas and the ‘Palestinian’ Authority have kidnapped, tortured, and murdered dissenters, while Muslims and Christians living in Israel enjoy far greater freedoms and standards of living.

Liberals abroad who criticize Israel for its crackdown on Islamic terrorism claim they do not want ‘Palestinians’ to die. Yet by supporting Palestinianism, they, in fact, embolden groups like Hamas and the PA, which continue to fight to destroy Israel. In doing so, they enable the continued indoctrination of their citizens into violent struggle and terrorism. Throughout the history of the conflict, this cycle has resulted in the deaths of many Jews, but even more ‘Palestinians.’

Palestinianism, much like transgenderism, is a false identity that aims to replace something true and good while severing a bond created by God: the bond between body and soul and the bond between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.

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On March 4, 2023, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), American conservative commentator Michael Knowles took the stage and uttered a phrase that caused liberals to, much like they do to Israel, falsely accuse him of genocide:

Knowles was not calling for transgender people to be eradicated. He was calling for the ideology of transgenderism to be removed from public life.

The distinction matters.

“For the good of society and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this delusion, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely—the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”

With the reelection of President Trump, transgenderism has collapsed in public life thanks to its public repudiation. The answer to Palestinianism must be the same: cancel the Oslo Accords and end the unprecedentedly long status of Arabs as refugees. They must be allowed to immigrate to countries that share their culture and try to build a different life, one in which their children are not indoctrinated by tyrannical leadership to murder Jews.

In other words, the objective should not be to eradicate Arabs or ‘Palestinians’ as people. It should be to eradicate Palestinianism as a political Islamist ideology.

For the good of society, and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this delusion, Palestinianism must be eradicated from public life entirely, the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.

The problem isn’t Hamas. It’s Palestinianism.