IL MOVIMENTO FILO-PALESTINESE NON SOSTIENE PIÙ LA PACE E "DUE STATI"
Seth Frantzman
Il movimento “filo-palestinese” è stato quasi interamente catturato da visioni pro-Hamas. Non sostiene più la pace e due stati.
[...] The "pro-Palestinian" movement has been almost entirely captured by pro-Hamas views. It no longer supports peace and two states. [...]
One of the interesting things about Hamas and the Oct. 7 war is that in the past Hamas was often seen by some/many in the progressive, left, liberal and human rights community as part of the problem, part of the rise of extremists or "far-right" that weakened the Oslo peace process. You'd hear arguments such as "Hamas and the Israeli Right are against peace" which posited that the Israeli center and left and the PA or Fatah were partners for peace.
Over time this narrative changed and there was a quiet attempt to infiltrate pro-Hamas messaging throughout the global far-left. This was openly stated by one western intellectual who said Hamas and Hezbollah were part of the global left. The goal was to portray the most fanatic and murderous groups, the armed groups, the ones attacking civilians, blowing up buses and raining rockets down on civilians as "left" and thus "good."
This dovetailed with a coordinated push among human rights groups (HRW and Amnesty) to define all of Israel as "apartheid." Their reports erased the Green Line and defined Israel in the pre-1967 borders as "apartheid."
The reason these organizations sought to define all of Israel as "apartheid" was to pave the way for a one state solution. It used to be that the left and human rights groups supported two states. The argument was that the "problem" was the "occupation." In those days Hamas was also part of the problem because it rejected Israel entirely.
In order to normalize Hamas, its agenda of exterminating people and mass murder had to be turned into acceptable "resistance" as in "they have a right to resist." To make this palatable, all of Israel had to be defined as "apartheid" and thus attacks inside the Green Line were "resistance."
The attempt to create this shift from supporting two states to supporting one state is clear. Recall how back in the day a more normative position on the far-left would have been encapsulated by what Zeev Sternhell wrote in the early 2000s, “Many in Israel, perhaps even the majority of the voters, do not doubt the legitimacy of the armed resistance in the territories themselves. The Palestinians would be wise to concentrate their struggle against the settlements, avoid harming women and children and strictly refrain from firing on Gilo, Nahal Oz or Sderot; it would also be smart to stop planting bombs to the west of the Green Line.”
The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 was directed against Sderot and Nahal Oz, among many communities, and it's clear that the road to Oct. 7 and the reason Hamas believed it would work in the long-term is that Hamas believed it had now fully infiltrated the global left's narrative and Hamas thus believed it could unite its own MB backers, and state-backing from Ankara-Doha-Tehran with its friends in the West.
This is why, within hours of the Oct. 7 attack, the activists were already mobilizing in the West to support Hamas and condemn Israel. No longer was the discussion about the "pro-peace" and "anti-peace" camps. There was no talk of peace and two states in the protests that swept the West, there was only support for mass murder and genocide.
You no longer hear support for two states in the sectors you used to. This was a key part of what Hamas was doing on Oct. 7. The road to October 7 was paved a long time ago and it took around two decades to get to this point and it represents a fundamental shift in the dialogue about peace.
The "pro-Palestinian" movement has been almost entirely captured by pro-Hamas views. It no longer supports peace and two states. That's why you don't see any pushback against Hamas atrocities in the sectors that used to be the most vocal pro-Palestinian types. It's why they ripped down the posters of the hostages, their goal was complete genocide.
