(Quillette) Susie Linfield - In recent years, you won't find many defenders of al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, or Boko Haram. The notable exception has been groups devoted to the destruction of Israel: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations swept through the capitals of the West before Israel dropped a single bomb on Gaza. Horrific massacres of unarmed civilians are taking place right now in South Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Syria, and Darfur. The international community usually ignores them. But none inspires cries of esteem for the perpetrators and acclaim for their crimes. And nowhere are the victims blamed for being murdered. I imagine that the usually stern Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran must be smiling in amazement as he sees just how many protestors in the West echo his thoughts and subscribe to his plans to destroy the "Zionist entity." Those who imagine that Hamas' slaughters may have promoted "liberation," "justice," and "freedom" for Palestinians have a big surprise in store. There's no mystery as to what kind of state Hamas aims to create; we need only look at what it already has created. There's little liberation, justice, or freedom to be found in Gaza, where there are no opposition political parties, no elections, and no freedom of religion, the press, or protest. Opponents are arrested, tortured, and sometimes executed. Aside from the Taliban, Hamas has established the least progressive pseudo-state on Earth. The writer is a journalism professor at NYU.
2023-11-29 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive