Peloni: While shocking seems to mischaracterize this interview with Erin Molan, how Mosab “The Green Prince” Yousef describes growing up inside Hamas will likely surprise some. He notes that Hamas presented itself as a justice movement but was in reality a death-centered culture built on martyrdom, oppression of women, abuse of the citizens, and generalized use of brutality. He recalls that the turning point for him came while being imprisoned in Israel in the 1990s, when he witnessed Hamas torturing and killing fellow Palestinian inmates. This led Yousef to question what a Hamas-run state would actually look like and he ultimately rejected the movement despite the personal cost. He explains that many Palestinians adopt a victimhood mindset, while Western supporters project a savior complex which only serves to fuel the conflict without grasping the relevance of the true horrors of Hamas’s violence. Seeing the October 7 atrocities led Yousef to severed the last emotional bond with his father, a co-founder of Hamas, stating that he could not maintain any connection with someone who would support such barbarism. Explaining that ideological identity traps people in continuing the conflict, Yousef rejects all ideological labels for himself while also refusing any dialogue with anyone who clings to a Palestinian identity built on grievance and denial of Jewish legitimacy. Mosab’s fight against Hamas is moral and existential rather than political, and he explains that he prefers freedom, even in defeat, over any victory achieved under violent ideology. He goes on to also note that he considers it to be his responsibility to confront the movement’s cruelty with clarity, honesty, and courage.
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Once in a while a person comes along who has a unique capacity to bridge two different cultural worlds. Mosab Yosef is one such individual.
He was imprisoned as a member of Hamas in an Israeli prison and while there he learned about the cruelty and thuggishness of Hamas. He realized that the treatment of Hamas leaders towards those members of Hamas who decided to work with the Israelis was sadistic. It changed him. This was 30 years ago.
This seems to have been only one of the multiple turning points in his life.
To have gone from being the son of one of the founders of Hamas to becoming a supporter of Israel is an unlikely life’s journey.
Sometimes we can be in stressful situations in which we feel close to a breaking point. At that breaking point or close to it we attempt to spark a fire with a flint, and on the first try a spark lights the wood afire.
It didn’t have to be this way, it could have been otherwise. It could have been that his response to seeing the depravity on the part of Hamas could have been filed away as just one of life’s “unfair” moments. Instead it lit a flame in him that he is still dealing with to this day.
He is still learning, and still working on mastering the life changing nature of his prison experience because it was not just about Hamas, it was about his father. It was about what it means to be a father. It was about what it means to be a man. It was about what it means to be a good human being. And it was about what it means to have integrity and live that integrity no matter what the risks to your physical being.
Something like this happens to many young men, maybe not as dramatically, but similarly, in which a young man has to learn through painful experience what it means to have integrity and what it takes to keep that integrity.
I also think the issue of courage is part of this whole experience. Because a moment comes in anyone’s life, man or woman, in which you must act and make a decision as to how you are going to act, which takes courage and is fraught with danger. You either take the risk and act with courage, or you spend the rest of your life regretting that you didn’t take the risk.
Mosab Yosef has so much rich and deeply emotional experience to share for those who are interested in learning from others who have had a trial by fire. Every time I listen to him I learn something new.
I think there is going to be a great need for people like Mosab Yosef because Qatar has been spreading the gospel of hate throughout the US and other western countries attempting to indoctrinate generations of our young people. It is unforgivable to destroy a young person’s mind by making them think Israel is racist and Jews should be hated. There are going to be tons of young people who will need to hear from someone like Mosab Yosef. We might even need a curriculum of a number of people who can help them heal their minds, Mosab Yosef, being one of the most articulate, but also Douglas Murray and Eylon Levy come to mind.
@EvRe1
This was a really thoughtful and insightful comment. Thank you for sharing it.
Maybe the whole room was shocked. I wasn’t. However, we need more people of this caliber to reindoctrinate those with Palestinian mentality. He can’t do it on his own.