All right. Thanks so much, Carly.
Our next guest grew up in the West Bank,
where his father was a founding member of Hamas.
He was groomed to take a senior role before he
turned on the terrorist group in prison,
spying for Israel, now converting to Christianity and ultimately seeking
asylum in the US.
Masab Asan returns to us now as he came a
few years ago,
and now we got more than ever.
Masab, it's great to see you.
We'd love to know the insight of this group
and how they were able to pull off what they
did October 7th,
1st. Can you tell the audience,
your background people that didn't read your book?
You know, I was born at the heart of Hamas
leadership,
you know, and I know them very well.
They don't care for the Palestinian people.
They don't regard the human life.
And I saw their brutality first hand back in
1996, when I spent about a year and a half
in Megiddo prison.
You know, they killed so many Palestinian people at that
time.
And this is when I decided that I I cannot
be together with this movement.
In fact, I asked myself a question.
What if they become a ruling party at some point?
What will they do if they succeed in destroying Israel
and building their state?
What will they do? They will kill our people.
And this was the first question,
you know, that actually I had to be honest with
myself,
even though Hamas gave me advantages.
You know, I was like a Prince in that world
and but I did not like them,
you know, And I turned against even my own blood,
you know, because this is how much I did not
like Hamas.
And today, 25 years later,
they are the rulers of Gaza
and we see what they are capable of doing.
We saw what happened October 7th.
We saw them do what they did to Holocaust victims.
They have now over 200 hostages,
murdered, babies in their cribs and we see the horror
of what they're capable of now.
They've retreated back to Gaza and a a ground incursion
is about to happen.
Would you recommend Israel do this?
And what will they find when they go in?
OK, first of all, we need to evacuate civilians as
much as we can.
You know, this is an ugly war and Israel did
not start it.
Hamas did. First of all,
we need to encourage civilians to go into Egypt,
possibly women and children, maybe men over 50 years old.
These need to get out of the picture,
you know. Then the strip need to be cut two
pieces,
North and South, two parts.
The northern part, this is where most of the tunnels
are.
They we need to have a solid siege,
OK, for long enough to deplete the enemy and to
starve them.
After that we may need to explore using gas.
This is like sounds horrible,
but I don't see any other option.
The tunnels are interconnected and gas could be one of
the solutions,
but this has to be in the right time.
We cannot just rush into Gaza,
you know. There is no modern army that is prepared
for this type of war.
And most importantly, we need to get the civilians out
of the picture.
As long as there are civilians there,
then the operation might be incomplete.
But Musab, you also say it's it's almost impossible for
us to give aid to the Gaza Strip,
$100 million. We're about to give them and keep it
away from Hamas,
don't you? You agree that that can't work?
Look, after we destroy the tunnels,
we need to
finish Hamas rule in Gaza Strip.
This is priority number one.
Then we need to replace the regime.
Could be the Palestinian Authority,
could be the Egyptian government,
could be Arab League force.
We need to replace their
rule in Gaza. After that we can talk about aid,
but as of now, sending any aid is a mistake.
So you also believe that this isn't about the Palestinians
fighting for their rights and their sovereignty.
What is the real mission of
Hamas and what do they really think of the Palestinian
people?
You know, Hamas is not a national
movement. Hamas is a religious movement
with a goal to establish an Islamic state.
They don't care for nationalism.
Actually they are against nationalism.
With that said,
my understanding that they are using the Palestinian cause only
to achieve their goals.
So the long term goal,
you know, transforming the Middle East and the world into
an Islamic
state, this is Hamas agendas and they are not heading
by the way.
So
Hamas is serving foreign agendas.
We're talking about Iran and we're talking about Russia lately.
Hamas serve
those parties and Iran pays them close to a billion
dollars annually.
Iran is the real master in this picture.
Hamas does not serve the Palestinian people.
Hamas serve Iran. Those are the masters of Hamas.
So
they lie about nationalism, that they are a national movement
and they care for the Palestinian people.
Look at them, They are using Palestinian people as human
shield.
We need to free Gaza from Hamas.
This is what Israel is doing.
It's doing the Palestinian people the greatest favor by
bringing Hamas down. When the Palestinian people,
they just want to live a normal life.
They don't want missiles in the most populated area on
earth to be launched from under hospitals,
from crowded areas and going suicidal and endangering the life
of the entire population of Gaza.
Who does that? You've got to be insane to do
such an operation,
right? And and you're talking about your family that used
to have your family used to believe that and you
used to believe that that was OK and but you
don't. Mossad now. Quick exit question.
Around the globe and even in our capital,
people are protesting for Hamas.
They're saying for the Israel to back off and stop
with the airstrikes.
Well what do you say to those protesters?
What is it about their mindset?
OK, listen, I cannot convince
the entire world of truth
right now. People are emotional.
They hate to see children dying,
even though, you know, Hamas is killing the people at
the hospital.
And we have evidence of that.
But they still blame Israel.
People can blame whoever they want,
you know. But now we have to concentrate.
We have to focus. Public opinion is very important.
But unfortunately, it's not the time to win the public
opinion.
It's the time to win the war against the most
brutal terrorist organization living today,
you know. And later on,
when people look back at the situation,
they will understand what we were doing.
We should not be afraid of the public opinion.
We have to explain as much as we can,
and you're doing that now.
We have to concentrate on our goals.
And Musab, that's why your perspective is so vital and
you're unique.
You see, you grew up in Hamas family.
You broke from it, and now you're speaking to stop
it.
Musab Hassan Youssef, thanks so much for what you're doing.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, Brian.