Azadi Tower in Tehran
The first and most basic thing from the Hamas viewpoint, and all of its strategic ideas, based on Iranian plans, is to weaken Israel from within. This is the insight of Eren Lahav, a major researcher of the security movement, and expert on terror, world Jihad and Iranian proxy organizations.
In reply to a question, he says, "For many years already, the Iranians have tried to split the Israeli society, and we see this all the more relevant in the course of this present war.
"Hamas is aware of the potential division of the Israeli society, and strums upon the most sensitive harp strings with everything connected to the release of the hostages and the price which Israeli will pay in blood. We must understand that the Hamas people, and certainly its top men, are 'graduates' of Israeli prisons, masters of Hebrew, written and spoken. Sinwar, incidentally, is an excellent example of an intelligent person, like Nasrallah, who understands us, as he is fed by the local media.
"Those selfsame prison alumni," Lahav reminds us, "were witnesses in their youth to previous agreements, like that of Jibril, and the lion share of the Hamas prisoners were released in the Shalit exchange. The price which Israel pays is understood by them as weakness, an altogether different take than our own. Hamas does not accord any value to human life; this can easily be seen by their treatment of their own citizens of Gaza and the extent that their fate interests them.
"Therefore, the exploitation of the enemy's weakness, that is, our concern and fear for the loss of human life, and surely the large number of hostages, is considered as a great tool which can be used to weaken and divide Israeli society. Again, like Iran, they are experts in identifying societal splits and developing them in order to create chaos.
"At the moment that major divisions are created in Israeli society, a vacuum develops, which extreme Iranian powers can easily infiltrate. Look at what Iran is attempting to do in Jordan, in order to shake up the royal rule of Adalllah by supporting the Sunni powers, like Moslem brothers!"
And back to Hamas: "By them, it is necessary to add the ceaseless attempt within the social networks, to widen the Jewish-Arab rift and incite Israeli Arabs to make terrorist attacks against Jews in order to crumble the Israeli State from within."
"What is certain is that the Middle Eastern approach is altogether different from the Israeli one. This latter one is considered in our area as weakness. On the other hand, we feel obligated to redeem the captives. Those who are being held there are in danger of their lives; they are our brethren and we hold their lives as sanctity. But to our regret, our enemies know how to exploit this factor through brutality."
