A Lebanese-Christian expert on Arab affairs recently stated that taking over Gaza was the first step in Hamas’ plan to wage war on the Christians in the USA.
Walid Phares was quoted by Fox News on Wednesday as saying that Hamas took over Gaza as an initial staging ground for its ultimate battle against Christians and the US.
“Hamas is using Gaza as an umbrella to be legitimate,” Phares said. “The reality is this is a jihadist movement, and it is manifesting itself in America and Canada, and in Western Europe. We have never been at this level of danger for our democratic world.”
Phares is a Lebanese-born American scholar and conservative political pundit who worked on Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.
Phares based his assertion on the Hamas Charter also known as the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, which was adopted on August 18, 1988. . While the Hamas Charter explicitly calls for the violent destruction of Israel and the genocide of all Jews everywhere in the world, Article 22 identifies Christian organizations and Western sociopolitical movements as the “enemies”.
“The enemies have been scheming for a long time … and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth,” Article 22 states. “With their money, they took control of the world media… With their money, they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe… They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution, and most of the revolutions we hear about… With their money, they formed secret organizations – such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, and the Lions – which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests… They stood behind World War I … and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains… There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it.”
While these social organizations seem banal to most Americans, Hamas sees them as an existential threat.
“They are part of what the Jihadists consider a sin, a national sin,” Phares explained. “They will go against them; they will go against the Freemasons and they will go against every entity that is a social organization.”
Phares has written the new book, “Iran, An Imperialistic Republic and U.S. Policy,” that explains how Tehran’s proxies, like Hamas, spread their message of hate.
“Israel is just a thick skin though the rest of the international community that happens to be blocking them,” he wrote. “They know our society very well. They are here.”
A Maronite Christian, Phares has gained notoriety for being a Chairman of the Social Democratic Christian Union in Lebanon in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War, and for his expertise in counter-Jihadism. Phares “regularly warns that Muslims aim to take over American institutions and impose Sharia, a legal code based mainly on the Quran that can involve punishments like cutting off the hands of a thief.” Phares has also asserted that jihadists are posing as civil rights advocates.
The Former Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Dr. Ali Gomaa posted a video on his YouTube channel on November 11, 2023, in which he claimed that the destruction of Israel will lead to the battle of Gog and Magog. He said that with “divine intervention” described by the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus will descend and kill Gog and Magog, and the Muslims will vanquish the Byzantines. He added that when Israel is thrown into the sea, the Americans will move into the region, followed by the Russians, and in response the Muslims will fight them. Gomaa explained that the Americans represent the Byzantines described in the Hadith, whereas the Russians represent Gog and Magog.
This was also stated explicitly last year by senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar.
“We believe in what our Prophet Muhammad said: “Allah drew the ends of the world near one another for my sake, and I have seen its eastern and western ends. The dominion of my nation would reach those ends that have been drawn near me,” Zahar said in the video that was published on MEMRI TV in December of 2022.
“The entire 510 million square kilometers of Planet Earth will come under [a system] where there is no injustice, no oppression, no Zionism, no treacherous Christianity and no killings and crimes like those being committed against the Palestinians, and against the Arabs in all the Arab countries, in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries,” he said.
The FBI also perceives Hamas as a threat to the US. Lasy week, FBI Director Christoper Wray told the House Committee on Homeland Security that the bureau is running extensive investigations into Hamas in order to disrupt any potential Hamas-related attacks in the US. The FBI is also looking to cut off any financial support flowing to the terrorist group.
“We’ve kept our sights on Hamas and have multiple investigations into individuals affiliated with that foreign terrorist organization,” said Wray.
“We’ve seen a rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies,” he told the panel. “We cannot — and do not — discount the possibility that Hamas or another foreign terrorist organization may exploit the current conflict to conduct attacks here, on our own soil.”
Tom Feeley, a former director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in New York, told “Fox and Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones that Hamas operatives have already crossed the southern border.
“We currently turn a blind eye to literally millions of people crossing this border including terror groups like Hamas,” Tom Feeley said. “When I was a director, I actually interviewed some of the Hamas that are here,” Feeley responded when Jones asked how he knew Hamas was in the country. “They are here, amongst other terror organizations.”
