I want to roll my eyes every time I see somebody take this stance, not simply because it is tiresome and it takes no courage to say, but mostly because it ignores the context. Every time. It not only overlooks how and why neocolonialism lead to Hamas, it overlooks why Hamas would resort to crude tactics like taking hostages (as if the Zionist régime was always open to dialogue), it overlooks why a substantial percentage of Palestinian adults support Hamas, it overlooks the decades of atrocities that Zionist authorities have been committing against the Palestinians since day one, and most of all, it overlooks the overwhelming amount of power that the Zionist ruling class has in this situation.
My response: fine, you don’t have to like Hamas, but to focus on condemning it repeatedly is to lose sight of the very conditions and the ruling class that gave rise to Hamas in the first place; it’s a bland inaction that gets us nowhere. If you say ‘Hamas is the real problem’ or ‘Hamas is just as bad as the IDF’ then I’m afraid that you have missed the point completely.
tbf i can sort of see why brian berletic takes this stance and i agree that normalization would probably have been the easier regional W for the anti-imperialist bloc as well as likely the better option for overall development in the region, but telling me that normalization is the best way to pressure israel to provide a two state solution def smells like
i know fuck all about the middle east but at least to me normalization here is uncomfortably close to capitulation and the end of palestine as a polity.
“I support ideas but I am against thinking”
Let’s also not forget that Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed on multiple occasions his de-facto support of Hamas in what he hoped would hinder hopes of reconciliation between the Palestinian factions- “Whoever opposes a Palestinian state must support delivery of funds to Gaza because maintaining separation between the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said during a meeting with his Likud party-members in 2019! This is literally just one instance.
Stand your ground and keep calling this shit out. Lots of people who claim to support Palestine and originally held these views are learning the flaw in that line of thinking.
