I’ve been paying attention to what is going on in the Middle East not the reaction of people in the US and Europe to it. So I’ve been late to see some of the horrible reactions here and and there.
If you are a critic of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians and a supporter of Palestinian statehood–or even of a one state bi-national solution–you should be appalled by and furious at Hamas’ attack this week.
Not just because it was a deliberate and brazen violation of the rights of non-combatants and because the murder of innocent men, women, and children violates the rights of the same moral code and religious beliefs that serve as the basis of any call for justice for Palestinians.
But because the attack was not aimed at securing Palestinian rights but rather at killing every Israeli Hamas soldiers encountered. The nature of the attack confirms that that founding documents of Hamas still guide its actions. Hamas aims to eliminate every Jews who lives in Israel / Palestine today.
Those of us who have long supported Palestinian rights utterly reject the legitimacy of that aim. A Palestinian movement with that goal does not deserve anyone’s support.
And you should also reject it because it is a strategic disaster for who seeks a just settlement between Israel and Palestine.
This attack may lead to the downfall of Netanyahu, it empowers those to his right in Israel who will fight even harder against Palestinian rights.
That is a setback for anyone who does not share Hamas’ goal of exacerbating the conflict with the hope that they will someday be powerful to carry out their exterminationist aims.
People on the left in the United States and elsewhere who support Hamas’ attack are betraying the peaceful goals they claim to stand for.
It is one thing to acknowledge that Israel’s policies have been unjust and counter-productive and to seek to change them. It’s an entirely other thing to stand with a radical Islamist movement bent on killing every Israeli Jew.