[mattmaroon]

Because they are a death cult. They sincerely believe exactly what they profess, everyone who Israel kills is a martyr and goes to heaven with extra benefits.

From their perspective it’s all wins. Every bomb Israel drops sends their people to heaven and makes Israel look bad to the world.

The hardest part of conversing with a lot of people about this situation is getting them to understand the idea of a death cult. Once you accept that some people not only don’t fear death but actively seek it for themselves and their tribe, the Middle East makes a lot more sense. There’s so much evidence both in what they say (they do not hide it) and what they do but so much of the west refuses to accept it.

[samjones33]

Well said.

What I try to emphasize is that Hamas has agency. They make the decision to keep fighting, or stop fighting.

To deny Hamas agency is to dehumanize them. They have as much agency as Israel or any other actor.

And they are a death cult.

With two million Gazans between their tunnels and the IDF.

There is no way to make that nice or neat or pleasant.

[mattmaroon]

Yep. The western liberal is well-intended and can’t get behind the idea that anyone should ever kill anyone. But Hamas’s order of preference is:

1. They kill you (because God will give them the eternal hookup)

2. You kill them (same as #1)

3. Nobody kills anyone

Suicide bombing seems crazy and far from rational to those of us who aren’t in the death cult. But if you look at the actions of radical Islamists from that perspective, it is entirely rational and in line with both their stated beliefs and their actions.