Netanyahu missteps on Hamas, Islamic State comparison
In his UN General Assembly speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Hamas to the Islamic State, ignoring Israel's ongoing negotiations with Hamas in Cairo.
“We don’t believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu or anyone else from Israel is suggesting that the United States launch a military campaign against Hamas,” came the first response of State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comparison of the Islamic State (IS) and Hamas movement in his address to the UN General Assembly Sept. 29.
Most world leaders who addressed the UN General Assembly in the last few days have voiced outrage at the actions of IS and concern over the organization's takeover of territories in Syria and Iraq. Netanyahu, who arrived in New York about a month after the end of Operation Protective Edge, sought to include Hamas in the same package.
“Last week, many of the countries represented here rightly applauded President [Barack] Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS,” Netanyahu said. “And yet weeks before, some of these same countries, the same countries that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree,” said Netanyahu.
Netanyahu's address was designed not only to mobilize the world against the organization that rules the Gaza Strip, but also to fend off international criticism of Israel following Operation Protective Edge, which led to the appointment of a UN commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of Israeli war crimes.
