Yesterday, Noah Pollak asked “Why Is Hamas Fighting?” The answer is simple: because that is their nature.

The shark is the closest thing to a perfect predator. But it is also a tremendously primitive creature. It stopped evolving and ages ago simply because it didn’t have to. One of the hallmarks of the shark is that it must always be moving. It literally cannot breathe when at rest. A shark that stops moving stops living. Likewise, Hamas and violence.

Its name is an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement.” It is defined by that which it opposes and resists. And its very charter affirms this fundamental truth; it is filled with declarations of violent intent, violent goals, violent methods. It constitutionally rejects peaceful settlements.

Hamas’s charter on Israel and the Jews:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.

The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.

Hamas’s Charter on compromises and settlements short of total victory:

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day.

Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion.

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with.

As forthright as these declarations are, they are perhaps most valuable in documenting what Hamas does not address. And that would be their current situation.

At no point does the Charter address Hamas’s role in a government beyond its responsibility to wipe out the Zionists. It preaches a replacement Islamist state to succeed Israel, it promises “Islamic tolerance” towards other faiths — within limits, of course, and as long as they don’t get too uppity and forget their place as subservient to Muslims:

The Islamic Resistance Movement is a humanistic movement. It takes care of human rights and is guided by Islamic tolerance when dealing with the followers of other religions. It does not antagonize anyone of them except if it is antagonized by it or stands in its way to hamper its moves and waste its efforts.

Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – to coexist in peace and quiet with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam. Past and present history are the best witness to that.

It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region, because the day these followers should take over there will be nothing but carnage, displacement and terror. Everyone of them is at variance with his fellow-religionists, not to speak about followers of other religionists. Past and present history are full of examples to prove this fact.

So, in the ideal Hamas state, everyone is a Muslim or properly defers to Muslims. The non-Muslims don’t have to actually convert, but it would be wise of them to not proselytize, not make too big an issue of their non-Muslim status, and obey Muslim laws and tenets in addition to their own.

But how will this society be organized? What form of government will there be? What are the rights of the individuals? What limitations are placed on the state? What responsibilities are entrusted to the state?

Those are questions Hamas doesn’t feel overly obligated to answer. And those are the questions that they find themselves having to face, now that they are the legal, duly elected government of the Gaza Strip.

There is an old aphorism that when your only tool is a hammer, after a while all your problems begin to look like nails. And in this case, Hamas’s “hammer” is armed conflict. That is its solution to these challenges: keep the fighting with Israel going at a sustainable pace, so it can continue to use the fighting as its excuse to ignore the other issues and challenges and problems.

Hamas’a policy is simple: fight all the time. There will be open conflict every now and then to remind Israel and the world that they are to be taken seriously, “truces” when they cut back to rearm and consolidate their gains, and increases in attacks to provoke enough of a response to rationalize another major conflict. The constant here is that there can not and will not be a true, lasting peace, because Hamas has literally no idea how to deal with that.

Hamas can never be a true “partner in peace” as long as its Charter remains  as written — and, more importantly, as long as Hamas remains as committed to it as it is now.

Don’t take my word for it. Just read their Charter for yourself.