Over the course of only a few days in June, Hamas violently overthrew the forces of the Palestinian Fatah party based in Gaza. Now with Hamas reigning there, and Fatah retaining control of the West Bank, the Palestinians are split into two distinct bodies.

Why this bold move by Hamas? Many analysts say it was a blunder: that it gained Hamas little of strategic value and actually cost the organization in terms of diplomatic cover and international legitimacy. Some believe optimistically that Hamas, saddled with full responsibility of governing the Gaza Strip, will crumple under the weight of its own ineptitude.

It is true that the Gaza coup provided a clue as to the demise of Hamas—and that of its most powerful foreign benefactor. But to dismiss the enormous strategic implications of this move is naive. This rash, violent overreaching terrorist organization has just lurched the Middle East closer to sparking a world war.

Hamas is full of thugs—witness their brutal murders when they took over the Strip—but extremely dedicated thugs. Though Fatah had more numerous forces with superior weaponry and infrastructure in Gaza, they quickly fell simply because Hamas had fiercer determination and stronger will. Hamas’s success proves an important point: “Fanaticism trumps numbers,” Ralph Peters wrote in the New York Post. “At the height of [the] fighting in Gaza, one Palestinian in 300 carried a weapon in support of Hamas—a third of one percent of the population. Now Hamas rules 1.5 million people” (June 19).

Remember that. Regardless of popular support, a small group can punch far above its weight if it’s gritty and ruthless enough. Even if the West isn’t learning this lesson, Islamist radicals certainly are.

Such violent fanaticism has a historical record of success. Thankfully, however, this success is destined to be short-lived. The facts of history, a clear-eyed look at Hamas today, and biblical prophecy all point toward immediate, small victories that will soon end in catastrophic defeat for this organization.

Already it is plain that Hamas’s success will not extend into the political realm. Unfortunately for Gazans, under Hamas leadership conditions are virtually guaranteed to go from miserable to intolerable. Hamas is skilled at destroying—but terrible at governing. Its twisted ideology entraps people in poverty and drives them to kill themselves. Hamas couldn’t turn the Gaza Strip into a healthy, thriving, happy community if it ruled there for 500 years.

But it isn’t even interested in that goal. It seeks primarily to destroy and oppress. To pursue those aims, since it is unable to support itself with productive, wealth-building activities, it needs continued sponsorship from an outside source—a source that supports Hamas’s radical agenda and is flush with cash.

Iran fits the role perfectly.

“God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted June 3 at ceremonies marking 18 years since the death of the Islamic Revolution’s father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Citing last year’s Lebanon war, he said, “With God’s help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine.”

Most Westerners dismiss such statements as bluster. But events show that Tehran is growing increasingly brash, even reckless, in pursuing its ambitions and converting such rhetoric into action.

Many in Israel and the West see weakness and rot within the world of radical Islam. The Gaza Strip under Hamas rule, for example, is a squalid, impoverished refugee slum. Iran is plagued by economic problems and popular resistance against the religious ruling class. It is true that in these weaknesses lay the seeds of these entities’ destruction.

However, it is a common mistake to assume that these radicals, given time, will simply flame out.

Hamas, Iran and their ilk view the world through the distorted lens of their Islamist ideology. They see themselves as being on the cusp of defeating Israel and the West and bringing about a new golden age of Islam. The West’s continuous backpedaling provides plenty of evidence to support their belief, and thus this dangerous fantasy grows more vivid in their minds; as it does, it increasingly trumps reality and logic.

This explains why economic punishments will not prevent a war. Religious zealots simply do not act according to the same economic incentives that Western nations tend to. Yet Israel and the U.S. continue to use them as a primary weapon. Addle-headed European leaders recognize that sanctions haven’t worked—and want to “solve” the problem by re-funding Hamas, hoping that will wheedle the group into becoming more moderate! This is first-class idiocy. Hamas and Iran cannot be bribed or talked out of giving up the fundamental principles and ambitions that define them.

Sensing deep down the fruitlessness of these approaches, Westerners fall back on the hope that eventually the radical forces will somehow implode. They look at Iran, for example, and see an isolated regime doomed to collapse. The problem is, this thinking overlooks the enormous damage Iran can do in the short run. Going back to Ralph Peters’ point, “The people of Iran want change, but the fanatics have the guns. And sorry, folks: Fanatics with guns beat liberals with ideas” (op. cit.).

True, these fanatics do not have the wherewithal to sustain themselves successfully over time. But they have more than enough determination and religious fervor to cause a heap of trouble in the immediate future—which is clearly what they intend to do.

There will come a point, however, when this policy will backfire, with catastrophic results.

A Bible prophecy in Daniel 11:40 describes a radical Islamist power (“the king of the south”) that has a pushy, provocative foreign policy—a policy that dares other nations to retaliate. The verse goes on to state, “and the king of the north [a European superpower led by Germany] shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.” This European power will launch a blitzkrieg attack that will utterly overwhelm its enemy and grind it into the Middle Eastern sand.

A conclusion we can draw from this prophecy is that the king of the south is a power with extraordinary weaknesses. Other prophecies indicate that it could play a significant role in damaging Israel, America and Britain through terrorist acts (these are expounded on in our free booklet Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet). But the king of the south appears in end-time prophecy for only a blip—not so much as a power in its own right but more as a catalyst to a far more formidable power, the king of the north.

It is easy to see how easily—and how rapidly—Iran, supported by its growing collection of protégés in the region, could step into this role. It embodies what Hans Morgenthau called a “policy of bluff”—a policy built more on the appearance of power than the substance of it. The current Iranian president’s repeated announcements of his nation’s attainment of nuclear capability fits this pattern.

The king of the south is simply not a superpower that will dominate the world, or even the region, for a generation or better. It is going to be a loud, pushy, violent entity that will create enough havoc and stir up enough alarm that it provokes a real superpower to rise up and wipe it out. When the moment comes that it faces a determined and ruthless enemy unconstrained by the stupidity of political correctness, it will be crushed—soundly, swiftly and decisively.

Though the demise of the delusional zealotry of Hamas and Iran and their allies will introduce a brutal period of world domination by that European superpower, even that empire will meet its end after only a few years. All of these events presage the imminent introduction of a King whose empire will never be destroyed—a King who will restore the hope of the oppressed peoples of the Middle East and around the world as He ushers in the prosperity and peace that eludes them today. That is Jesus Christ, the King of kings.