Not everyone in the Hamas leadership agrees with the decision to renew relations with the Assad regime in Damascus. As soon as military considerations collide with religious demands, there is a bang. And this is happening within Hamas. The so-called “return to Syria” exposes the true face of the Hamas terrorist organization, which markets itself as an ideological movement for the liberation of Palestine on the one hand, and is on the other hand as brutal as the Assad regime.

After several months of wrangling and bickering, Hamas has decided to resume relations with Syria after an 11-year hiatus. This will include the reopening of the Hamas offices in Damascus. The decision has sparked divisions within Hamas as influential figures on the terrorist organization’s religious wing disagree.

When the Syrian civil war broke out in March 2011, Hamas chief Khaled Mashal closed the Hamas headquarters in Damascus and returned to Qatar. Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria have announced they would support Assad’s opponents in the “Arab Spring.” In so doing, they turned their backs on the Assad regime after many years of patronage. Even then, not everyone in the terrorist organization was happy with the sudden turnaround that saw it abandon its partnership with the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah. This was seen as a tactical error.

But as Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain renewed ties with Assad, Gaza-based Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar understood the need to make things right with the Syrian dictator. There is a need to restore close cooperation with Hezbollah and Iran on the ground in Damascus.

But that does not seem to be easy to implement, and there is even a risk of a split in Hamas. The main argument of the Gaza-based leadership against the “return to Syria” is that Hamas, as an ideological movement, cannot reconcile itself with a dictator who has butchered his own people and destroyed his homeland. Spiritual leaders in Hamas deplore the unnecessary bowing to Assad, and fear the Syrian leader could make numerous demands of Hamas before allowing it to open its offices in Damascus. In the stormy discourse, the leaders in Hamas’ so-called military wing are accused of ignoring strict prohibitions in the Koran and thus demonstrating to the Arab world what an unprincipled organization Hamas has become. “An organization that has no self-respect,” is the criticism among the Palestinians.

Famed Palestinian cartoonist Umayya Juha stressed, “Our hearts are with the heroic rebels in Syria and with Assad’s victims.” Even released Hamas prisoners are opposed to a reconciliation with Assad. The Palestinians have not forgotten how the Syrian Army under the Assad regime shelled Palestinian refugee camps because Hamas and other Palestinian organizations aligned themselves with the rebels. Thousands of Palestinians have lost their lives as a result in the 11 years of the Syrian civil war. This, of course, angers all jihadi organizations in Syria. Hamas was initially on their side, but is now turning its back on these anti-regime groups by returning to the arms of Bashar Assad.

Hamas, meanwhile, is being heavily criticized not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in Syria, by Assad’s opponents. The Hamas regime and the Assad regime have both sacrificed their people, each in their own way. For years, Hamas has been sacrificing the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for its own anti-Israel campaign of terror. Ideological values ​​must first be respected in the family and among the people before they are asked of others. Let’s see if a Palestinian return to Damascus is really possible given that Assad and his Syrian army are responsible for the deaths of so many Palestinians over the past decade (for more, by the way, than have been killed in 70 years of conflict with Israel).