Trump: ‘The Fight Between Israel and Hamas is Between Civilization and Savagery’
Trump: ‘The Fight Between Israel and Hamas is Between Civilization and Savagery’
"Every single life lost in this conflict is on the shoulders of Hamas, Hamas alone.”
Robert Spencer - NOV 2, 2023
Many people are seeing the war between Israel and Hamas as an apocalyptic showdown between good and evil, and there is good reason to see it that way. And as has so often been the case, Donald Trump enunciated what many others were thinking but didn’t dare to say.
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Trump said Saturday: “The fight between Israel and Hamas is between civilization and savagery, between good and evil. There is no comparison between a group that worships death and a group that cherishes life. Every single life lost in this conflict is on the shoulders of Hamas, Hamas alone.”
He had abundant reason to make this assessment. The UK Express reported Monday that among the footage that Israel recently released of the Hamas jihad massacres of October 7, there is an audio file of “a Hamas terrorist ringing his mother with one of his victim’s phones, saying: ‘I killed 10 Jews with my own hands. I’m using the dead Jewish woman’s phone to call you now.’” The proud mother responds: “May Allah protect you.”
Now, imagine for a moment that you were the mother or father of a young man who had murdered ten people. What kind of person would your son be if he not only committed these murders, but called you to boast about them? What kind of person would you be if you were proud papa or mama in that situation? What could possibly account for this mindset? And how could anyone think that these savages (because that is what they are) have the moral high ground? Yet it is clear now that all too many people in the West assume that they do. Few understand how deep this love of death really goes.
The young mass murderer was not singular. He was proud because he has been taught to love death. Back in April 2020, a Syrian opposition journalist, Khatib Badla, explained that Muslim Arabs “have a trait that distinguishes us from all the other peoples of the world, which is a love of death. We dream of it, regard it as a source of inspiration and think about it every day. We love death and love the dead. Instead of hoping for longevity, for [a life of] giving and loving, we say, with defeatism… ‘God, [help me] go to battle and reach my grave. This is in addition to the grand slogans we [like to chant], such as: ‘death to America,’ ‘better death than humiliation’ and ‘seek death and you shall be given life [in the next world].’”
In line with this, Islamic jihadis generally tend to idolize murder and love death. As police were closing in on him, Boston Marathon jihad murderer Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote on the wall of the pleasure boat in which he was hiding: “You are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven.” In a similar vein, Muslim teenage girls from Austria who traveled to Syria for jihad announced: “Death is our goal.” Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said: “I’m even longing for death, you vagabond.” In 2021, as his enemies closed in on him, Shekau treated himself to the object of his longing.
A Muslim child preacher back in 2012 taunted those he has been taught to hate most: “Oh Zionists, we love death for the sake of Allah, just as much as you love life for the sake of Satan.” In France that same year, jihad mass murderer Mohamed Merah, who murdered little children inside a Jewish school, said that he “loved death more than they loved life.”
Some guidance for the ladies on this issue came from al-Qaeda top dog Ayman al-Zawahiri’s wife, who once advised Muslim women: “I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instil in them a love for religion and death.”
One jihadist summed it up: “We love death. You love your life!” Afghan jihadist Maulana Inyadullah years ago said the same, while demonstrating a gift for a memorable phrase: “The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death.”
This idea is not the strange opinion of a gang of “extremists.” It comes from the Qur’an itself: “Say, O you who are Jews, if you claim that you are favored of Allah apart from mankind, then long for death if you are truthful.” (62:6)
Trump is right. And precisely because of their savagery, Hamas and its allies can never win in the long run: loving death is not natural. Loving life is. The young man who happily called home to boast to his mother about having murdered Jews has as his unwitting opponents the multitudes of people, Jews and non-Jews, in the West who are thrilled when they can save a life, not destroy one. When the lovers of life face off against the lovers of death, they have multitudes of silent allies: every living being stands as a rebuke to those whose only love is carnage and destruction, simply by virtue of having life. When the lovers of death have wreaked their destruction and have been brought to heel, the lovers of life will, as always, rebuild again.
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Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 26 books including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad. His latest books are The Critical Qur’an and The Sumter Gambit. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.