Obama does not seem to get radical Islam

Jennifer Braceras:

In the wake of 9/11, it seemed undeniable that the United States and Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, were at war with a common enemy — radical Islamic terrorism. It seemed obvious that the Islamic terrorists who attacked America shared the same barbaric, anti-Western ideology as the fanatics that seek to wipe Israel off the map.

And yet, 13 years later, the equation of anti-American Islamic terrorism with anti-Israeli Islamic terrorism remains inexplicably controversial.

Witness the collective gasp from the liberal elite when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated bluntly last week that, “Hamas is ISIS. ISIS is Hamas.”

“Not so,” they protested. “Hamas is a national liberation movement.” And, to some extent, it is. But like ISIS (and al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other radical Islamic groups), Hamas is comprised of fanatics that use violence, summary executions and terror to achieve their objectives. And what, exactly, are those objectives? For ISIS — Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — and Hamas, which are both Sunni groups and both off-shoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, they are the establishment of an Islamic theocracy, the imposition of Sharia law, the purge of apostates and the blood of Westerners (Americans or Israelis, depending on the group in question).

To say that “Hamas is ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas” is not to turn a blind eye to the varying geopolitical interests of different Islamic terrorist groups. Hamas — like the Shiite group Hezbollah — seeks primarily to annihilate Israel and “expel the Jews from Palestine,” while ISIS wants to expel Jews, Christians, Shiites, and all secular Muslims from the entire Middle East.

Hamas’ target may be smaller and its goals less ambitious. But the two groups share common ideologies, objectives and tactics. Most importantly, they share a common enemy — the West and its ideal of liberal, secular democracy.

“Many countries are beginning to understand that [Islamic terrorism] is one front,” Netanyahu said Sunday, and that “[ISIS and Hamas] are branches of the same poisoned tree.”

The Saudis get it. The Jordanians get it. Even Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gets it.

But our Golfer-in-Chief and his Secretary-of-Wind-Surfing do not. Even the barbaric beheading of journalist James Foley is not enough to wake this administration to the interconnected threat of radical Islam.
...

Both ISIL and Hamas are death cults based on weird religious beliefs.  Ignoring their stated goals is a mistake that has already cost lives in Iraq, Syria and Israel, not to mention the cost to Palestinians used as human shields.  We should be on teh side of those looking to destroy this evil, not trying to save them.