Is Hamas the new ISIS?

Since October 7, Israelis have been searching for words strong enough to convey the trauma they have caused what happened that day. Many have spent the past few weeks watching Israeli generals, hospital and rescue workers and forensic experts testify about the horrific ways in which Hamas killed 1,400 people.

Many Israelis, trying to make sense of the horror of October 7, have turned to comparing Hamas to the Islamic State (ISIS). The hashtag “#HamasisISIS” has been posted on social media as Israeli leaders – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – have often equated the two organizations.

But scholars of Islamist movements like myself, as well as counterterrorism officialshave long understood that the comparison is pointless. As Gerson Baskin, who has been Israel’s chief hostage negotiator with Hamas since 2006, told me recently: “Their terrorist actions are similar to ISIS, but they don’t have the same ideology.”

The first and most important difference is that Hamas is a Palestinian nationalist Islamist movement. This fused dual identity differentiates it from ISIS, which is an international pan-Islamist movement that wants to gather a global umma, (world Muslim community), into an “Islamic state” without any nationalist agenda.

Hamas’s claims, on the other hand, are more local: it identifies the “liberation of all of Palestine” from what it calls the “Zionist enemy” as its main goal. There is also the inconvenient fact that ISIS ‘literally views Hamas as apostates’ because of its support from Shia Iran, as he mentioned in a recent post on X.

A second key difference it is their relative religious extremism. Hamas is religiously conservative, but it does not mercilessly harass or kill non-Muslims in Gaza simply because of their faith or religious behavior.

It tolerates women who don’t wear hijabs, people with tattoos and teenagers who listen to American music. Christians and churches coexist with Muslims in the Hamas-run enclave. None of this would be possible under ISIS, a far more religiously extremist organization that tortured and maimed people to force their adherence to an extremely radical version of Islam.

But comparisons between Hamas and ISIS abound in part because they can be politically useful. Insisting that Hamas is ISIS enables Israeli leaders to stifle criticism of the country’s treatment of Palestinians, including air strikes on Gaza since October 7 that have left at least 8,000 dead, two-thirds of them women and children.

Confusion could also help support from their leaders USA and public opinion. “Since 1973, every Israeli war has ended early, from Israel’s perspective, because of declining US support,” a former Israeli diplomat told me recently. “Keeping the US on our side is very important, so this is useful hasbara [δημόσιες σχέσεις] for Israel”.

This narrative helps to convince the world that Hamas is not only a threat to Israel, but also to French promenades or American nightclubs. As happened with ISIS.

Unlike ISIS, Hamas has existed for decades and is no mystery. It was developed by a Muslim charity founded in 1973 and has a large social service wing. It split from the Palestine Liberation Organization as a result of the failures of the Oslo peace process and seeks conflict with Israel.

It won the 2006 Palestinian elections in Gaza and remains, along with its rival Fatah in the West Bank, one of the two main political forces in the Palestinian territories. It has negotiated continuously with Israel for years over borders, prisoner exchanges and the governance of Gaza. He is also, to some extent, Frankenstein’s monster, to be exact, of Netanyahu, as his policies empowered Hamas in an attempt to divide and weaken the Palestinian territories for years.

Hamas justifies horrific acts of terrorism as a resistance to Israeli occupation and traditionally exploits the trauma caused by Israeli violence to strengthen itself. To recruit new members, she attends funerals and contacts relatives of members killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Its fighters also take advantage of the deprivation, isolation and prison-like conditions that have prevailed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its blockade 16 years ago.

Despite this, Israel last week dropped leaflets declaring “Hamas=ISIS” and warning civilians – who remain trapped in the Lane with nowhere to hide safely– to “surrender”. But that approach likely falls on deaf ears in Gaza and across the Arab world, where most see Hamas as a religious-nationalist Palestinian resistance movement that directly challenges Israel’s ongoing blockade and occupation.

Israel could – with time, blood and power – dismantle the main political and military structures of Hamas. But the cost to the Palestinians in Gaza of Israel’s methods – which so far have included cutting off water, food and fuel to civilians – is astronomical. The remnants of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or some other yet-to-be-formed armed movement can and will exploit this simmering resentment to foment future attacks on Israel.

To effectively combat security threats, Israeli leaders must resist simplistic comparisons and consider the fact that, at the heart of Hamas and among many of its recruits is not religious extremism but anger, anguish and despair. A Lernian hydra fed on embittered youth will not be defeated creating more destruction and despair.

Ensuring that the Palestinians gain the freedom, dignity and self-determination they have demanded for more than 75 years would be the most effective way to ensure Israel’s long-term security. Unfortunately, for millions of Palestinians and Israelis, that outcome seems increasingly distant.

• The article by Monica Marx, an assistant professor at NYU Abu Dhabi specializing in Middle East Islamist movements, was published in Time