‘This Is How Hamas Is Seeing This’
About this episode
Klein interviews Tareq Baconi, author of 'Hamas Contained,' to trace the history of Hamas and understand how the movement sees the war. Baconi explains Hamas's founding in the late 1980s amid mounting Muslim Brotherhood pressure, its foundational opposition to the PLO's recognition of Israel, and its role as a spoiler during the Oslo years — arguing Hamas opposes negotiations it deems fundamentally unequal, not all negotiation. They parse Hamas's 2017 charter: its refusal to recognize Israel, the demand for 'full and complete liberation of Palestine,' and the centrality of the Palestinian right of return. Baconi argues that Israel cannot militarily destroy Hamas, that ignoring Palestinian demands produced the current catastrophe, and that responsibility for a political solution falls on the international community, especially the United States.