To defeat radical Islamist terror, the ideology of hatred must be uprooted.
This morning’s bloodshed in Jerusalem—where terrorists opened fire on civilians at a bus stop, killing six and wounding seven—reminds us of a painful truth: fighting terrorism is not merely a battle against gunmen, militias, or armies. It is a battle against a death-worshipping ideology, a doctrine that teaches martyrdom as glory, hatred as duty, and murder as salvation. Until that poison is confronted at its root, every fallen terrorist will be replaced, and every apparent victory will prove to be only an illusion.
Each time a terrorist leader is hunted down, each time a militia is bombed into rubble, a familiar illusion returns: perhaps this time we’ve won. Yet history tells us otherwise. Hamas could vanish from Gaza tomorrow—its tunnels flooded, its commanders killed, its arsenals dismantled—and still, the threat of terror would not end. The fighters would be replaced, the weapons restocked, the hatred reborn.
Why? Because terror does not reside solely in weapons or organizations. It lives in a death-worshipping ideology. An ideology more resilient than armies, more viral than propaganda, more enduring than regimes. That ideology—the radical Islamist doctrine, seeded by the Muslim Brotherhood nearly a century ago—remains undefeated. And until it is, no battlefield victory will last.
In Washington, glossy proposals are once again circulating: transforming Gaza’s coastline into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” where glittering skyscrapers, tech hubs, and AI-driven megacities rise from the rubble. These dreams are not new. They echo Jared Kushner’s 2019 “Peace to Prosperity” plan, championed by President Trump, which envisioned tens of billions of dollars in investment, a doubling of Palestinian GDP, and the creation of a million new jobs.
The theory was simple but bold: prosperity is the antidote to extremism. Build businesses instead of bunkers. Offer hope instead of hatred. Replace dependence with dignity.
And yet, October 7, 2023, obliterated that hope in a single day of horror. Hamas’s slaughter of nearly 1,200 Israelis was not just an act of war. It was a declaration that no economic promise, no diplomatic vision, no “Riviera” could substitute for ideology. Because ideology—not poverty, not unemployment—is what fuels the cult of terror.
Radical Islamism: A Cancer of the Mind
We must confront a brutal truth: terrorism is not born from deprivation but from indoctrination. Millions of impoverished people around the world do not strap bombs to their chests. What distinguishes the terrorist is not his misery—it is the poison poured into his mind.
That poison is radical Islamism, a doctrine forged by the Muslim Brotherhood and spread through mosques, schools, charities, and satellite TV networks. It teaches that martyrdom is salvation, that violence is duty, that killing is sacred. It sanctifies death and sells it to teenagers as glory.
Destroy Hamas, and another group will rise. Defeat one militia, and another will recruit. As long as this ideology endures, terror regenerates like a Hydra.
The Real War with the Muslim Brotherhood
The West still refuses to fight the real war—the war of ideas. We have mastered drones, missiles, and cyberweapons. Yet we are timid, almost apologetic, when it comes to confronting the ideology itself.
The Muslim Brotherhood continues to operate openly, with affiliates and front groups spreading its doctrine worldwide. Its leaders write books, preach sermons, and shape curricula. Its message floods social media platforms that censor far less dangerous content. Its networks raise funds under the guise of charity, funneling money to indoctrination pipelines.
This is madness. Imagine fighting communism during the Cold War while allowing the Comintern to run schools in Europe. Imagine defeating Nazism while printing Hitler’s speeches in every newspaper. That is precisely what we are doing with radical Islamism.
The United States has the tools to change this. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has long pushed to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. That step is overdue. It should be followed by a global strategy to bankrupt the Brotherhood’s networks, strip them of legitimacy, and expose its lies.
President Trump’s Abraham Accords proved that bold leadership can redraw the map of the Middle East. But the next frontier is not geographic—it is ideological. The fight is no longer about borders. It is about brains.
If America wants to lead, it must lead here: by naming the death-worshipping ideology for what it is, cutting off its funding, dismantling its propaganda platforms, and empowering Muslim voices who reject death cults and affirm life.
Because no amount of investment, no gleaming city on Gaza’s coast, no “Riviera of prosperity” will survive if the cult of terror hijacks the minds of the next generation.
The Choice Before Gaza
The people of Gaza stand at a crossroads. Down one path lies continued slavery to terror: a cycle of destruction, where leaders exploit suffering and militias glorify death. On the other lies a chance—fragile, conditional, but real—for dignity and prosperity. But prosperity will not bloom in soil poisoned by ideology. Unless the ideology is uprooted, Gaza’s children will inherit only rubble, rage, and funerals.
The question is not whether Hamas can be defeated; rather, it is whether Hamas can be defeated. It can. The question is whether the world has the courage to fight the deeper war: the war against the death-worshipping ideology that fuels Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and every successor that waits in the shadows.
About the Author: Ahmed Charai
Ahmed Charai is the Publisher of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune and serves on the boards of directors of the Atlantic Council, the International Crisis Group, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the Center for the National Interest.
Image: Anas-Mohammed / Shutterstock.com.
