August 27, 2014 – Middle East
The Times of Israel online newspaper August 27, 2014 headline reads,
“Is Hamas really ISIS? – Netanyahu insists it is. In fact, there are key similarities and differences between the two terror groups, as well as costs and benefits to the comparison”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to The Times, stated,
“They’re branches of the same tree, …”
Daniel Byman, counter-terrorism expert at The Brookings Institution and professor at Georgetown University, and Scott Kleinmann, a terrorism expert at King’s College London, think the differences between the two Sunni groups outweigh the similarities.
The Times also quoted an Israeli expert, Yoram Schweitzer, senior research fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. He, instead, believes the similarities are greater.
The American, Byman, emphasized the differences in the two groups’s roots and strategy while the Israeli, Schweitzer, focused on their shared core dogma and the ultimate goal.
Byman, however, did say,
“Both, of course, favor an Islamist state and consider themselves religious organizations. Both oppose Israel.”
And Schweitzer,
“The core beliefs are not different. The strategy is different, the pace is different. Both of them are looking for eventually establishing an Islamic caliphate.”
