Are they stupid or just wilfully ignorant?
I think there are many good arguments against the Israeli attacks on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but it seems few of them are reflected in the many reports I have seen from the pro-Hamas demonstrations held around the world (I am sure the organizers have no wish to so characterize them so, but the evidence suggests otherwise).For example:
That anyone living in the West could hold such a sign stuns me.
To cite Andrew Ian Dodge, from whose blog I stole this picture,
It would actually help if you realised that: 1. Hamas was elected to run Gaza 2. Hamas clearly states they hate all Jews and want to see Israel wiped of their face of the earth…its in their charter. 3. Hamas are not keen on gays (they kill them), have brought back cruxifiction and don’t like women much either.
Now if you want REAL willful ignorance, consider this one, from the Jawa Report:
I doubt they are stupid enough to plan to move to Palestine under Hamas real soon now.
h/t SnoopytheGoon on the above.
For a more reflective, and somewhat depressing look at similar points, one can hardly do better than Terry Glavin this morning,
So why does any of this matter, all this horror in such a tiny, faraway place? Because the sundering of the "left" unto barbarism and senility matters. Because Palestinians matter. Because Israelis matter. Because this little "war" is a much greater struggle than it appears.
"This is a war for the future of Islam," writes Bradley Burston. "Specifically, it is a war over the future of radical Islam, which for the past decade, has vigorously and skillfully labored to surpass settlements, Palestinian misrule, and a host of other factors to become the pre-eminent obstruction to peace in the Holy Land. "
It is also the pre-eminent obstruction to peace in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, and quite a few other places I could name.
Too bad the "anti-war" movement hasn't noticed.
Oddly enough, I am getting the feeling the Arab leadership is not so stupid as our Western left. Despite Israel's claims of limited goals, useful so as to control expectations and try to avoid having the whole effort labeled yet another failure, my own guess is that the real goal of the mission is to end Hamas' ruling role in Gaza, and that they have the tacit agreement of the major Arab countries, for the simple reason that those leaders have no wish to continue dealing with Hamas. What on earth becomes of governance in Gaza is hard to say but it is difficult to imagine it could be worse than what they have today. But heaven knows, I have been wrong before.
There is a funny irony - amidst all the demands that Israel engage in a dialogue, it seems to me that the only way to arrive at any sort of dialogue is to do just what Israel is doing - remove the Hamas leadership from the process. There is absolutely no way a guy like Rayyan could have engaged in a useful dialogue.
posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:10 AM
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