Tensions were high on Thursday’s edition of Hannity, as host Sean Hannity repeatedly pressed a Palestinian guest, Yousef Munayyer, over whether Hamas is a terrorist organization. Munayyer refused to answer the question several times, which prompted Hannity to dismiss the executive director of the Jerusalem Fund.
“You had your chance,” Hannity said to Munayyer. “You didn’t say Hamas is a terrorist organization. Goodbye.”
Watch the segment courtesy of Fox News below:
“This is the best thing that you need to do… [to] anybody who is anti-Israel, just ask them a few questions. The biggest one they will never answer is: Is Hamas a terrorist organization.” Glenn said on radio this morning. “It is a known, recognized terrorist organization. It is an organization that says… in their charter, they desire to kill all the Jews and destroy Israel, wipe it off the map. So it's a really easy answer… [but] they will never answer that question. Never.”
Using the logic of Simon Sinek – the author of Start With Why – Glenn proceeded to demonstrate the fundamental difference between Israel and Hamas. It all comes back to a simple question: Why do you exist?
Below is an edited transcript of the conversation:
GLENN: Now, let me switch back to Palestine, and the Palestinian argument versus the Israeli argument. This is why you will never have peace – because Hamas will never answer their why. You will never get Hamas to say, ‘Why are you sitting here with the Israelis and you want peace?’ ‘Well, we want our kids to stop being bombed.’ Okay, so the way to do that is to live side-by-side with Israel. ‘Do you recognize Israel as a state?’ ‘Well, you don't have to answer that.’
Well, yes, you do, because your charter is your why. Why does Hamas exist? In their charter, they exist to wipe Israel off the face of the map… And nobody wants to talk about that. But that's the most important thing. I don't know if you saw what the Ayatollah Khamenei said in Iran, but Iran said yesterday, ‘The only way we'll bring peace is to wipe out Israel and kill all the Israelis.’ That's their why.
Now, you can go a level deeper on Iran’s why. Their why is because of the Twelfth Imam. They believe they are commanded by God to bring chaos to the world, to return the Twelfth Imam, their savior. He can only return at a time of great bloodshed and great strife and great chaos. So that's what they are doing. Unless you know what the why is from Iran, you will never be able to deal with them.
Same thing with Hamas. And the way you get to it is to ask a few simple questions. ‘Does Israel have a right to exist as a state?’ I don't answer to the United Nations. I don't like the United Nations, but the left does. Israel is the only state ever created by the United Nations.
PAT: Wasn't the only state they tried to create, however, because they also tried to create a Palestine for the Palestinians. But again, they don't answer the why of ‘why did you refuse the state in the first place?’ ‘Because we don't accept that Israel has any right to exist.’ They will not answer that question. They will not go there. And no one ever asks them anymore.
GLENN: Do you have the Hamas charter?
STU: Yeah, it is not exactly calling for destruction of Israel, I will say. It says, ‘Hamas has been looking to implement Allah's promise, whatever time it might take. The prophet prayer and peace be upon him said, ‘The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them. Until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry, oh, Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me come and kill him.’
So it’s not the destruction of Israel, as much as killing all the Jews. However, they do end it with: ‘This will not apply to the gharqad,’ – which is a Jewish tree. So there will be Jewish trees remaining in this world, just not Jewish people.
GLENN: That's their charter. That's like our U.S. Constitution. That's like ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident.’ That's what that is. Hamas says we hold these truths to be self-evident: The Jews will hide behind the rocks and the treed and the trees and rocks will cry out and say, ‘Hey, right here. Kill him.’ That's the truth they hold self-evident.
If that's your self-evident truth, ask any American. When we are in a war. And you say, ‘Why, do you believe this? Why are you fighting?’ ‘Because we hold these truths to be self-evident, that hall men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.’ That's why I do what I do for my country because I believe those things. Ask that of a Palestinian supporter. ‘Why do you do these things? Why are you fighting?’ If you're a Hamas member, ‘Because Allah said there's going to come a time where even the trees and rocks will turn over the Jews for us to kill. So we know it's right to kill all the Jews.’
So it's not about free Palestine. It is about killing all the Jews. It is not me saying that. That's them saying that. Hamas, answer the question: What truth do you hold self-evident? That's it.
Now, I don't think all Palestinians believe that. I don't think all Palestinians, all Arabs, I don't think everybody believes that. I'm telling you, that's what Hamas believes. That's why Sean Hannity was right. ‘Is it a terrorist organization?’ ‘I don't need to answer that.’ Yes, you do. Here is their charter… And it is not just their charter. They're quoting from the Koran. So if you are a Palestinian, if you are a Muslim of that ilk that doesn’t believe yes, this is what Allah said, this is what he means, kill all the Jews. They can't say that. They will be killed. They will have betrayed Allah. There will be a fatwa on them.
That's why they will never answer that question. That's why good Muslims have been crying out to us, ‘Please help us stand up because we don't find that self-evident.’