Hamas, Palestine and the Confines of Reality

Hamas’ maximal leaders are a group of brutal and kleptocratic rulers who do not care about ordinary Palestinians. That this position is controversial to many who claim to uphold socialist principles and ideals—the kind of people who extol State Communist regimes and any adversary of Western powers—is a monumental tragedy and indicative of those who lack critical thinking abilities. Marxism doesn’t cease to be a tool we can use to examine socioeconomic and political realities in places that are enemies to the American empire, nor can only the Western world be considered colonizers.

As someone who has been to more than a couple dozen direct action events centered on Palestinian solidarity and self-determination since the October 7th attacks and dozens more in the decade prior (I was first woken to the genocide during the 2014 Gaza War when I read Gaza in Crisis from Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé and went to my first demonstrations), it pains me to be viewed by contemporaries as supposedly unsupportive of Palestinian liberation because I don’t run interference for the war criminals in Hamas and the kleptocracy their leaders preside over. When left minded individuals don’t live within the confines of this reality, not only does it reveal glaring flaws in their own moral sensibilities but also makes it far more difficult to organize others who aren’t in tune with or aware of the ongoing crimes against humanity taking place in Palestine.

It really cheapens our position of possessing principles and integrity in light of the American-Israeli conquest. Hence, it’s then harder to get people engaged enough to consider supporting direct action to help Palestinians. I’ve had thoughts myself about whether or not I really wanted to continue my presence in the movement with people who are Hamas supporters and those waving Iranian flags at the Palestinian solidarity protests. These people, though a minority element at the demonstrations, nonetheless are every bit as ignorant as pro-Zionists, just not nearly as morally repugnant.

The Iranian regime are by definition colonizers, only far less prolific than their rivals at the current moment in time. If you understand the ruthless killing machine that is the American empire but are not equally mindful of the much smaller Iranian empire that uses its mercenaries to indirectly attack US interests in order to expand its own hegemonic influence, then you don’t understand how international politics works.

And if you aren’t aware the goals of the Iranians and their proxy in Gaza were to siphon more profit to elites in Tehran and Hamas’ maximal leaders via arms trafficking while fighting their enemies in the IDF, as well as to prevent Israeli-Saudi normalization that would be hostile to both Iran and Palestine, and to weaken Israeli and western standing in the region with a propaganda campaign of treating hostages verifiably well, then you don’t know why something like the operation on October 7th even happened in the first place.

This is the rather painful aspect of a having clear and lucid understanding of how geopolitics actually functions—they (corporate states and the non-state actors like Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, etc.) are all pursuing strategic objectives at the expense of the general populations they rule over. That is how international politics works; you foster relations with your friends to enrich your own set of domestic elites, the general populations be damned, and you then work to destroy your enemies in an anarchic international system where power rules the roost and whatever countries hold the greatest economic influence and most lethal military forces get to decide what happens.

If Hamas cared about the masses of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, then they wouldn’t have launched an operation guaranteed to kill thousands of them. This is a reality many can’t seem to face.

All I know is what my responsibility is as an American citizen and that’s to dissent against US policy in hopes of changing my governments actions in Palestine. We should all beware of Hamas supporters who aren’t actively dissenting for Palestine outside of an instance once or twice and who would rather posture in the public sphere or online. This trend is dangerous and there are far too many grifters on even the left who are seemingly more intent on instigating a cash flow than tangibly trying to help Palestinians by protesting outside weapons manufacturers, blocking arms shipments from leaving, occupying college campuses and financial institutions, etc.

I seriously wonder how many people even believe in affecting real change in Palestine. Chris Smalls, who has been sharing content online frequently about Gaza, comes to mind. As do so many of the most popular left wing social media pages that fundraise to sustain themselves and their online presence while not actually working like everyone else. I personally feel there’s a significant degree of ‘instigating a cash flow’ that’s truly the primary factor. I think it goes hand in hand with these types of people.

Chris Smalls, for example, has been accused by Amazon Labor Union (ALU) members of pocketing union funds for his own personal benefit. The union has been facing a funding crisis in recent months as he’s been misusing donations and, according to some ALU members, he’s “lost support from workers and former union officers who have said he appears more interested in globe-trotting and fame than in his initial goal of unionizing Staten Island warehouses…the membership has rejected him…he has no support in the building.” These people are posturing to the world while not really doing much besides making their “brands” more visibly in support of Palestine—therefore more eyes and traction on their pages with the heightened attention on Gaza—which means more money, and then they get to feel as if they’re helping by “spreading awareness”.

Many of these people who support Hamas generally and advocate for Palestinian liberation like to ask “where has peaceful resistance ever gotten Palestinians?” in response to suggestions that the methods and tactics of the resistance are ineffective. My response would be referencing the EZLN/Zapatista approach for Hamas and Palestinian leaders to refrain from carrying out military offensives but still retaining such capabilities and the right to self defense while attempting to build up more international support and truly isolate the apartheid Israeli regime. This has worked well for the EZLN to maintain control of Chiapas and prevented the Mexican state, armed with 50% American weapons, from exercising the military option to crush them and their supporters.

And honestly, what have violent methods ever gotten Palestinians? October 7th got Gaza leveled and there are, in all likelihood, around 200k people dead when factoring in excess deaths caused by the “war.” Every offensive launched by Hamas or radical Palestinian militants has proven time and time again that the Israelis are far more barbaric and prolific at killing Palestinians than the other way around. It has to do with the monopoly on violence that the Israelis possess in the situation.

So if you’re suggestion is violent methods of resistance and campaigns to defeat the IDF militarily and you think that’s actually possible with Israel’s nuclear weapons and stringent US Government backing, and you suggest in the future that there wouldn’t even be an Israel, as is the implication made by many dogmatic Hamas sympathizers, then I must say you are ignorant or don’t live in the confines of reality. A place people need to be if they’re serious about helping the oppressed. The only real hope of ending the occupation and achieving Palestinian self-determination is for the governments supporting Israel, across the world, to face sustained pressure from their citizens to end such support, a la the apartheid South African regime in the 1980s that was toppled with mostly nonviolent methods.

I would also argue to proponents of a one-state solution that even if such a situation were possible one day, as it’s sure not right now unless one disregards what they’re seeing in real time, it would have to first be proceeded by a two-state solution because it’s clear Palestinians need to be self-governing to ensure their rights, which is a precondition before they can unite with an Israeli society that is, because of its ongoing and historical persecution of the Palestinians, far more technologically and militarily advanced.

Take Ireland for example. The differences between people in the North and the rest of Ireland were or are far less stark than the cultural, religious and political differences of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, and the Irish got their “independence” over a century ago. It took nearly 80 years to make peace in the North and they still aren’t one country. A one-state solution simply isn’t possible right now and even if it is one day, as I said, Palestine would need to self govern and develop to the point that they can realistically stand up to the Israelis. That’s reality and most often reality isn’t sexy and the absolute most righteous in the moment. It is nonetheless the reality we have to work with.

Another historical connection I’d like to discuss here is the linkage between the Warsaw Uprising (the Ghetto uprising itself and that of the general uprising across Warsaw) and the resistance in Palestine launching October 7th. Conventional wisdom is that the Warsaw Uprising was legitimate as they fought back and this is obviously very true on the surface. The Nazi’s were persecuting and gassing them, hence the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is absolutely the case of a last ditch effort to avert being exterminated. They quite literally had no other choice.

However, regarding the general Warsaw Uprising overall, what happened as a result? The German Nazi empire completely destroyed Warsaw. 200k+ people were killed in mass executions and the city was leveled. Now, what would have happened if not for the uprising? I can’t say for sure and anyone saying otherwise is frankly selling snake oil, though one can reasonably assume repression and deportation to death camps would’ve accelerated once the Soviets were marching in, but we do in fact know how the general uprising played out and it was an ill advised course of action that got many, many more killed than perhaps would’ve occurred. So that was a consequence of that action and as Noam Chomsky says, “we are responsible for the predictable consequences of our actions.” The Germans massacred Warsaw in an entirely predictable response.

I’ll quickly go over another tidbit of history regarding the Warsaw Uprising that is surely relevant given those supporting endless military confrontation for Palestinians against the Israelis tend to be Marxists and supporters of State Communist regimes. Scholars have routinely questioned Soviet motives during the events and suggested their lack of support for the Warsaw Uprising represented their imperial ambitions in Eastern Europe. The Red Army did not reinforce resistance fighters or provide air support as was thought would happen. Declassified documents indicated that King Stalin had tactically halted his forces from advancing on Warsaw in order to exhaust the Polish Army and aid his desires of turning Poland into a Soviet colony. So much for Marxian State Communism and its solidarity.

Stalin even refused to allow Western powers to use airfields in Soviet controlled territory to drop supplies to the resistance. The real purpose of the uprising was to have an indigenous polish resistance seize the city and welcome the Soviets in the hopes of maintaining polish sovereignty; for exactly that same reason Stalin made sure to let the Nazis crush them first. The Polish would have been better off disappearing into the forest and then resisting the Soviets once the Germans were defeated. Anyone who sees Stalin as anything other than a fascist and imperial war criminal is incredibly ignorant or at best a poorly read revisionist of history who says the USSR would’ve been a successful communist revolution if not for Western capitalist encirclement. I’m sure most contemporary Marxists have no idea about this but their intellectual deficiencies and inability to ingest better information is no excuse.

Now in terms of October 7th, the people actually in charge of Hamas’ decision making didn’t even reside in Gaza and were billionaires living in Qatar, UAE, etc. So from their perspective, what do they really care about innocent Palestinians being massacred in response any more than our rulers care about ordinary Americans on the receiving end of the blowback our empire causes? It’s giving Hamas’ elites more military support, more weapons, more cash flow, etc. And if you can embarrass Israel as a result while weakening their standing in the region, then that’s a win-win in their point of view. And if they didn’t understand the difference between taking a few hostages or blowing up a bus and killing 1100+ Israelis, in turn underestimating the IDF’s response, then at best they are stupid and at worst absolutely evil while making gambles and more profit with innocent Palestinian lives used as cannon fodder.

In terms of the Hamas fighters on the ground taking up arms, of course I understand their plight. It’s American and Western bombs killing their loved ones. So it’s a natural response to take up arms and fight back. Just like I understand Menachem Begin getting to Palestine, pleading that his father and family had just been shot and dumped in a river, and why this turned him into a monster. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but you understand why people do what they do. Killing over a thousand mostly innocent Israeli citizens on October 7th was a war crime and simultaneously an act of resistance but it can’t be condoned by any sane person concerned with getting humans off this destructive path of profiteering from endless war and death in a quest for resources and political power. And certainly not by anyone who values innocent Palestinian lives who are being slaughtered.

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