At Bastiat’s Window: Nazi Germany was the incubator for what would become Hamas and Hezbollah.

In brief, Hamas is as an especially fervent local chapter of an organization whose early funding, rituals, and philosophy came directly from Nazi Germany. Hamas’s spiritual mentor was a cleric employed by Hitler to organize Jihadist SS squads to murder Jews in Europe. Hamas’s 1987 founding charter maintained the Nazi/Jihadist goal of exterminating Jews worldwide. Hezbollah’s pedigree differs somewhat from Hamas’s, but they share goals and forebears.

This history is essential to comprehending October 7, 2023, its lead-up, and its aftermath. It explains the Bibas family’s torment—the manual strangulation of a 4-year-old and a 9-month-old, perhaps before the eyes of their soon-to-be-murdered mother; the jubilant community celebration that surrounded the parading of the babies’ desecrated remains; the three-card monte game played with the mother’s corpse; the emotional torture of the father.