The best examination of Hamas that I’ve read comes from Mark Perry writing in the Palestine Internationalist:
“…If it is in fact the case that it is more appropriate for Western political theorists to understand Hamas as a political movement that falls within the mainstream of historical understanding — if Haniyeh is more like Samuel Adams than, say, Robespierre — and, if it is the case that Hamas is interested in good governance and an emphasis on constituent services (as they claim), then why has the West so purposely attempted to strangle the Hamas Palestinian government? If, as it now appears, Hamas might be willing to reach an agreement, or long-term hudna with Israel (in which recognition of the Jewish State is the end product of negotiations, and not a precondition of negotiations) then what exactly are we afraid of? The answer, of course, is contained in Bernard Lewis’s initial description of the Iranian revolution — as rooted in a “religiously formulated critique of the old order, and religiously expressed plans for the new.” That is to say, we in the West are not afraid of Hamas at all. We’re afraid of Islam.
The need for sensible and rational understanding is vital, unless, of course, we want to rely on this kind of hysterical “analysis.”
It is a pity articles like this will not reach a larger western audience. If they did people would realize why it is so important we join with the Jews in smashing such organizations.
‘we join with the Jews’. What do you mean ‘we’, white man?
And the ‘Jews’ generically? A little presumptuous.
A little more thought is needed to delineate just who is on each side of the divide.
ej
Oh, I know that you are not on our side. You and your fellow fools were the Useful Idiots of Marxian Fascism during the Cold War. Now you are the Useful Idiots of Muhammadan Fascism. But don’t worry, they know who “we” are. And they consider infidel scum.
I have read nonsense in my time, but I think the above items by the unidentifiable anonymous blogger calling himself by the ridiculous pseudonym of “Viva Peace” when his inclinations are neither – all he wants is WAR! WAR! WAR! – just about reaches the depths of rhetoric in relation to reasonable argument and discussion!
The hysteria of the right wingers in Israel and elsewhere who still claim the exodus as fact, who still believe the tripe peddled in the old testament and still believe they are “finally safe in Israel” are the most deluded bunch of people on earth.
Gideon Levy says today “israel doesn’t want peace” and he is spot on.
The truth is that Judaism is a religious cult – that is all that it is.
It is not a “race” of people, a nation, a breed of cat or dog, not a country, not a piece of dirt.
It is a cult. Like christianity, like Sabean Mandaean, like islam.
They are all just cults but I would defend with my life the right of any person to believe in their imaginary friends and fantasies.
Having said that – Jews live in about 100 countries, 40% in Israel and there is only one place they are not “safe and free” and that is Israel because Israel is a military dictatorship with a woeful human rights record built on land stolen in one of the world’s worst modern cases of ethnic cleansing.
People like Uri Avnery, Gideon Levy, Gisha, B’Tselem, Gershom Gorenberg, Jennifer Loewenstein, Sara Roy, Virginia Tilley, the late and amazing Tanya Reinhart and Ilan Pappe keep the world hoping that one day in Jeruselum the leaders will see the light.
Mind you we are not holding our breathe.
Marilyn
Gideon levy? ROFL> About as influential as Phillip Adams. Ilan Pappe? A failed academic who has moved to the bosom of the imperialist power that created the problem in the first place. Too funny. Hypocrites.
Did anybody watch “Anti Semitism in the 21st Century” on SBS yesterday. I knew things were bad, but the footage it showed covering the whole 20th century of anti Semitism in the Middle East was truly frightening.