The reason for asking this question comes after the leader of a genocidal Islamic group Hamas Ismail Haniyeh, along with two Egyptian terrorists, were recently declared by the State Department as ‘specially designated global terrorists’. This decision could indicate a marked change in attitudes towards the Hamas group by the US State Department. It could also be a sign that the Trump administration, unlike the previous Obama government, isn’t going to give groups like Hamas too much of an easy ride.

This is a move by the State Department that for me is long overdue. Any reasonable study of the Hamas group will show that Hamas are not ‘freedom fighters’ or part of any ‘resistance to oppression’, but are instead long standing promoters of the genocide of Israelis. In addition the Hamas group run their terrorist statelet in Gaza with an iron hand subjecting dissenters, potential peacemakers and any who offends the Hamas leadership to violent retribution.

Hamas and their deep seated, intransigent, Islamic hatred for non Muslims, especially Jews, have long been a big problem not just for Israelis but for anybody who believes that the Middle East deserves some semblance of peace. I must admit that I’m surprised that the State Department has not declared Ismail Haniyeh and the rest of the Hamas leadership to be ‘global terrorists’ before. However, the fact that they have not may tell us a little bit about where the sympathies of the previous Obama administration lay, or about their naivety if they thought that Hamas could be honest peacemakers.

This decision by the State Department is bound to have implications elsewhere and not just in the Middle East. I do wonder how this decision will play in the councils of government of those nations that have treated Hamas with either some degree of respect or have sat on the fence and refused to out rightly condemn these genocidal savages? This new policy by the State Department could quite possibly come into conflict with the views of some of the more Arab appeasing elements in Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This in my view would be a good thing as the pro-Arab mindset of the FCO does need some political challenge.

For too long the Western world has played far too nicely with groups such as Hamas whose intentions and mindsets are thoroughly bad, in some cases these terrorist groups have been allowed to literally get away with the murder of Israelis and others. I can only hope that the decision by the US State Department to deal more harshly with the leadership of Hamas marks a new realism in the minds of the US Government about the threat posed to the West by political Islam. This decision is an important political and economic weapon against the murders and genocide promoters of Hamas and other governments should follow suit in treating Hamas and its leadership with a harshness that Hamas have both earned and deserve.