Since beginning of anti-terror operations of Israel Defense Forces (IDF), although few thousand Hamas terrorists have already been exterminated, according to media reports, some tens of thousands of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists remain in Gaza. There also are few more terrorist outfits which are spread within Gaza and other Palestinian cities, including Ramallah. These groups are: Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Popular Resistance Committees, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, Harakat al-Sabireen, Palestinian Liberation Front, and Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem.
According to February 2004 report of the US Department of Justice, “Hamas indicates that the organization’s name is Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia or Islamic Resistance Movement or Hamas. The brief history indicates that Hamas split from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood in 1987.
Almost all of these Palestinian terrorist groups are designated by the US Department of State. And according to the US:
It is unlawful for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to a designated FTO. (The term “material support or resources” is defined in 18 USC § 2339A(b)(1) as ” any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (1 or more individuals who maybe or include oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials”. 18 USC § 2339A(b)(2) provides that for these purposes “the term ‘training’ means instruction or teaching designed to impart a specific skill, as opposed to general knowledge”. 18 USC § 2339A(b)(3) further provides that for these purposes the term ‘expert advice or assistance’ means advice or assistance derived from scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge’.
Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances, removable from the United States (see 8 USC §§ 1182 (a)(3)(B)(i)(IV)-(V), 1227 (a)(1)(A)).
Any US financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which a designated FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury.
Under such circumstance, can someone ask the US administration, what actions it has taken against those countries which are openly supporting, funding and harboring Hamas and other designated Palestinian terrorist groups?
In my opinion, the so-called Palestinian statehood should be outlawed similarly as statehood of Islamic State or Al Qaeda. Moreover, any nation maintaining relations with terrorist entities in Palestine or expressing solidarity with terrorist agendas of Palestinians should fall under US sanctions and designations.
As to Israel’s ongoing anti-terror operations in Gaza, the IDF has acknowledged that it is taking some heavy hits, including ambushes against an armored personnel carrier and a tank, but this is expected in urban war, and generally, the losses have been low given the challenging urban invasion setting. Hamas has fired hundreds of anti-tank missiles at IDF forces, mostly without success. Under such circumstances, it is essential that every nation that stands firm against terrorism extend their all-out support to the State of Israel. At the same time, hooliganism in the name of anti-Israel protests should be immediately outlawed and stern punitive measures should be taken against Palestinians and their cohorts who are spreading anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred within the societies. America or any other Western nation should not allow rise of religious extremism, radical Islam and jihadism within their societies.
