"The so-called peace path is not peace and it is not a substitute for jihad and resistance"
About this Quote
A hardline veto dressed up as a definition. By calling negotiations the "so-called peace path", Ahmed Yassin doesn’t argue policy so much as invalidate the category itself, framing diplomacy as a rhetorical scam rather than a contested strategy. The line is built to collapse nuance: peace is either real (meaning, in his terms, rooted in struggle) or it is counterfeit (meaning, a capitulation marketed as pragmatism). That’s not an accident; it’s a recruiting logic.
The sentence works because it treats "peace" as a brand owned by opponents and their patrons. Yassin flips the moral script: the side offering talks isn’t the responsible one; it’s the side abandoning duty. "Not a substitute" is especially telling. It concedes that a peace process might exist as theater or tactic, but insists it can never replace the legitimizing core of the movement - "jihad and resistance" - the language of obligation, not preference. That phrasing also polices internal dissent: anyone tempted by compromise is recast as someone trading in the authentic currency of sacrifice for a cheap, foreign-backed alternative.
Contextually, the quote sits in the era when Oslo-style negotiations promised statehood-through-process, while realities on the ground - occupation, settlements, arrests, and economic control - made "peace" feel like management of conflict rather than its resolution. Yassin’s intent is to keep the movement’s center of gravity away from bargaining tables and toward mobilization, casting endurance and violence as the only credible leverage, and delegitimizing rivals who claim the language of peace.
The sentence works because it treats "peace" as a brand owned by opponents and their patrons. Yassin flips the moral script: the side offering talks isn’t the responsible one; it’s the side abandoning duty. "Not a substitute" is especially telling. It concedes that a peace process might exist as theater or tactic, but insists it can never replace the legitimizing core of the movement - "jihad and resistance" - the language of obligation, not preference. That phrasing also polices internal dissent: anyone tempted by compromise is recast as someone trading in the authentic currency of sacrifice for a cheap, foreign-backed alternative.
Contextually, the quote sits in the era when Oslo-style negotiations promised statehood-through-process, while realities on the ground - occupation, settlements, arrests, and economic control - made "peace" feel like management of conflict rather than its resolution. Yassin’s intent is to keep the movement’s center of gravity away from bargaining tables and toward mobilization, casting endurance and violence as the only credible leverage, and delegitimizing rivals who claim the language of peace.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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