Pamela Geller: Obama administration refuses to admit that Hamas is the same as the Islamic State

Robert Spencer    Aug 26, 2014 at 10:50am Barack Obama, Hamas, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, willful ignorance 8 Comments
HamasStill more denial and obfuscation of the reality of Islamic jihad from the Obama Administration. “Obama admin refuses to admit Hamas is ISIS,” by Pamela Geller, WND, August 24, 2014:

On Wednesday, a reporter asked State Department spokesperson Marie Harf this question: “Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Hamas and ISIL were one and the same. Do you agree with that premise?”

It was a premise that I recently articulated at our American Freedom Defense Initiative, or AFDI, rally for Israel and persecuted religious minorities. On Sunday, Aug. 17, in New York City’s Union Square, we held a rally in support of all religious minorities that are being persecuted, oppressed and slaughtered in jihadi wars. Jews, Christians, Hindu, Buddhists, Sikhs, Yazidis: All converged on Union Square to protest Islamic supremacism and conquest. In my opening remarks, I said Hamas was ISIS in Gaza (minute 1:10).

Netanyahu recently said the same thing. Hamas is ISIS. ISIS is Hamas. But Marie Harf made it clear that she did not, saying: “I think by definition they are two different groups. They have different leadership, and I’m not going to compare them in that way.” Of Netanyahu she said: “I’ll let him speak for himself, but I’m not going to use that comparison.” Harf concluded: “They’re both foreign terrorist organizations designated under United States law, but I’m not going to do any more comparison of them. Obviously, they’re quite different in some ways.”

In which ways? Of course, when Netanyahu says Hamas and the Islamic State are one and the same, he is talking about the fact that they share the same beliefs, the same goals, the same outlook. They are both Islamic jihad groups dedicated to imposing Shariah by force and terrorizing infidels. This is something I have been saying for years: nationality, ethnicity, race, etc., matter no more than the color of their socks. It’s all jihad. It’s all Islam.

A is A. Jihad is jihad. And the Muslims fighting to establish an Islamic state in Israel have the same ideology and follow the same playbook as the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (Islamic State – ISIS), and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in Lebanon (Hezbollah), and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in China (Uighurs), and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in Nigeria (Boko Haram), and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in Russia, and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in the Philippines (MILF), and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in the Maghreb and Arabia (al-Qaida), and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in Afghanistan (the Taliban), and the Muslims fighting for an Islamic state in Somalia (al-Shabaab), and so forth.

In his unending quest to protect the global jihad and Islam, Obama takes exception to this wicked truth. Once again, Obama’s State Department shows its breathtaking denial of reality. And the consequences of this Islamophiliac fantasy to Americans will be catastrophic.

Because of answers like Harf’s, and the Obama administration’s general weakness, fecklessness and denial in the face of the jihad threat, the world is looking at America with contempt and scorn.

Meanwhile, this is not the only way in which Benjamin Netanyahu is standing for the truth. I am heartened that he and others (even FBI Director James Comey) are using the term “savage” to refer to the jihadists of the Islamic State, despite the media’s jihad against that word. Who can forget the frenzy in the media and the Muslim world when we posted our now famous pro-Israel signs in 2012? The signs read: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”

It took a while for people around the world to catch up, but they have – except the jihadi in the White House and a few others. Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority refused to run our ads, claiming they were disparaging to … savages. We are suing.

The mainstream media and the Obama administration are on a continuing quest to obscure, deny and obfuscate the truth about Islam and jihad. But that’s the thing about the truth: It cannot forever be hidden. And with every day’s headlines about the newest jihad attacks, it becomes more obvious.