The Lessons of the "Palestinian Cause"
I have a new piece up at Discourse examining the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, from the perspective of the lessons we should take from this for our domestic politics.
From the perspective of the Palestinians themselves, of course, these lessons are not abstract, but I am afraid that little can be done for them. One cannot ask or expect Israel to stop defending itself, or to stop attempting to rescue its remaining hostages. Nor can one expect Hamas to suddenly reform itself, show some remorse for its bloodlust, and relinquish the power to hold its own people hostage. So the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza is, for the foreseeable future, irremediable.
And while my sympathy is clearly with Israel in this war, I can also recognize that, while a majority of Gazans voted for Hamas in the last Palestinian elections, the median age in the territory is about 18 or 19, meaning that the majority of those currently living in Gaza grew up after Hamas seized power and have lived under their rule without ever choosing them.
The focus of my article, though, is on what lessons the Palestinian plight has to teach for those of us who do have a choice in our leaders. It is “a cautionary tale on an epic scale, because the leaders of Gaza represent a synthesis of two of the dominant illiberal ideas offered across the world today.”
Despite their widespread support on the far left, I argue that Hamas “offers all the elements we would recognize in the West as belonging to the farthest of the far right: fanatical religious traditionalism, xenophobia and authoritarianism.” Hence the lesson of the disastrous war they initiated against Israel.
This is all a cautionary tale about religious authoritarianism. These movements are not oriented toward the ordinary politicians’ goals of providing their people with benefits and security or being able to boast about peace and prosperity. Hamas leaders draft their citizens as religious martyrs. Their goal is that the people suffer for a religious cause.
Compare this to Israel’s attitude toward the remaining hostages held by Hamas. For the sake of about 100 Israelis still remaining in captivity, there is increasing pressure within Israel to cut a cease-fire deal, and the government just might do it. But no one questions the determination of Hamas to keep endangering two million Palestinians effectively held hostage to its war, exposed to bombing and gunfire and rapidly running out of food and medicine.
Yet Hamas represents a synthesis of the far right with the far left.
Hamas displays all the worst characteristics of the cultural far left, which defines itself primarily in opposition to Western culture and political systems and is determined to overthrow them in favor of—what?…
Similarly, Hamas offers no vision for peace, no strategic goals, no plan for how two peoples are going to live side by side in peace. It offers a fantasy of armed conquest followed by genocide or ethnic cleansing, in which Hamas will rise up and push out the Jews. But it’s only a fantasy.
This is why modern, highbrow Western intellectual constructs such as “decolonization” end up looking like plain old unreconstructed antisemitism in practice. Like the old Marxists before them, this faction of the left is very clear on what it wants to tear down but has no notion of what to build—and thus tends to fall back onto the most primitive existing sentiments and prejudices. This is essentially a nihilistic movement, in which the tearing down is the point.
There has been renewed talk recently about “horseshoe theory,” the idea that the supposedly opposite ends of the left-right political spectrum actually bend back to meet each other. Hamas is a real-world example of the meeting point at the ends of the horseshoe. Yet we still cling to political categories so misconceived that they all lead to the same dead end.
One of my inspirations for writing this was an article published a while back by British-American Palestinian writer John Aziz with the eloquent title, “All My Life, I’ve Watched Violence Fail the Palestinian Cause.” It’s worth reading, but what struck me is that it’s actually the Palestinian cause that has failed the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian cause has not been conceived in terms of peace and prosperity for its people. It has not been conceived as the building up of the Palestinian nation but as the destruction of Israel. The welfare of the Palestinian people, which is what ought to be the Palestinian cause, has consistently been undermined by the quest for death and revenge that has been embraced as “the Palestinian cause.”
In a follow-up in December, Aziz warns, “If Palestinian public opinion does not change path, the abyss beckons.” He does not hold out much hope for it, but here is one small sign: a recent protest in Gaza against Hamas rule.
Marches took place in Gaza City, the southern town of Khan Younis and other locations, chanting “what a shame” and in one place burning Hamas flags, before police moved in and broke up the protests….
The demonstrations were organized by a grassroots online movement called “alvirus alsakher,” or “the mocking virus.” It was not immediately known who is behind the movement.
Hamas rules Gaza with an iron fist, barring most demonstrations and quickly stamping out public displays of dissent.
See a story by a reporter in Gaza who remains “anonymous for their safety.”
The Daily Beast was told to stop reporting and forced to delete videos while working on this story, but we can report that residents of Gaza say they have been robbed, silenced, and betrayed by Hamas….
“There is no democracy in Gaza when you want to speak against Hamas or its de facto government. We fear they will arrest us during the war, or after the war if we spoke against them. They can easily kill us even, and tell the world we are spies,” said Hasan Ahmed, 39, who was in the hospital with his injured brother….
Salam Tareq, 33, said food costs had skyrocketed in the Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, and that he was unable to feed his family properly.
“The bakeries stopped operating. My children aren’t eating,” he said. “Thieves are spreading in our area. They are going to the evacuated houses, even the partially destroyed ones, and they steal everything possible. Canned food, wheat packages, gas cylinders, solar energy panels to sell in the market.”
He blamed Hamas for failing to prepare for the ramifications of its assault on Israel on Oct. 7…. “Before they went to attack Israel on Oct. 7, they should have ensured that Gaza was flooded with food and medical items. People here will die of hunger.”
See also a Muslim doctor’s plea to recognize the October 7 Hamas attacks as crimes against humanity.
These signs of dissent are too small to have much impact now. They are seeds for a potential change in the future—but that can only happen after Hamas is defeated.
Meanwhile, as if to prove my point, some Arab-Americans seem to be driven by the same kind of self-destructive fanaticism as Hamas.
Muslim leaders from several swing states on Saturday descended on Dearborn, Michigan, to launch a national campaign against the reelection of President Joe Biden—a response to his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict….
“We’re looking into finding ways to build a mechanism of coordination between all the swing states so that we’re constantly working together to ensure that Muslim Americans will come out in all of these states, and that Mr. Biden will lose each and every one of them,” said Hassan Abdel Salam, a professor at the University of Minnesota and a member of the #AbandonBiden National Coalition during a press conference Saturday. “Right behind me, what Mr. Biden should see is 111 electoral votes. And he won last time with 74.”
No, I don’t think this movement is big enough to actually tip the next election. But are these people thinking they will be better off under the president who imposed the “Muslim ban”?
That’s a trick question. They’re not thinking—and the importance of thinking is the other big lesson we need to learn from the failure of the “Palestinian cause.”
I’m getting tired of complimenting you all the time.
But perhaps once more.
This is such a good, well thought out piece I am almost embarrassed to admit that I myself couldn’t find the words to say something nice about regular—younger—Gazans and in the doing treat them with some human benefit of the doubt, but you did do it in this piece while property refusing to surrender to the Hamas mentality of kill humans for the glory of God.
Fantastic article.
I don't expect it to happen, but a favorable outcome would be for the U.S. and regional powers to agree to have the U.A.E. directly administer a post-Hamas Gaza. It has the potential to become another Dubai. It might even become so prosperous that Israelis would want to work there.
No, it would not be a "democratic" regime--yet it would be an immense improvement for the people of Gaza. After many years, it might even be ready for independence.