tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post4334498675839951976..comments2024-03-18T22:21:33.261-07:00Comments on The Debate Link: RevelationsDavid Schraubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-34805434214135672862007-06-22T11:31:00.000-07:002007-06-22T11:31:00.000-07:00That's fine, PG, but it doesn't clash with the poi...That's fine, PG, but it doesn't clash with the point I was making: Hamas views all of Israel--not just the West Bank or Gaza, but all of it--as occupied territory, and all of its citizens as military targets. That's distinguishable on realpolitik grounds from al-Qaeda, but not moral ones. Trumpeting the fact that they are terrorists with a strictly local focus is the type of thing that nips whatever realist sensibilities I might have in the bud.David Schraubhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-36761392625316380122007-06-22T11:10:00.000-07:002007-06-22T11:10:00.000-07:00Some critics raise the red flag of "al-Qaeda" and ...<I>Some critics raise the red flag of "al-Qaeda" and say that Hamas and parliament are a stalking horse for Salafi jihadists. I defy them to demonstrate one instance in which Hamas's military structure has struck against any force outside the theater of the occupation.</I><BR/><BR/>If you read the "theater of the occupation" in context, Yousef clearly is referring to the difference between Hamas, which is focused on wiping out Israel, and international groups like Al Qaeda that pose a threat to all peoples all over the world, with particular emphasis on threats to the United States. Does that mean Hamas isn't a concern for U.S. and European policymakers? Of course not -- Israel is an American ally and a stable part of the Middle East. But Yousef legitimately distinguishes between Islamists that are training suicide bombers to attack NYC and those training suicide bombers to attack Tel Aviv, when we are talking about U.S. interests. No nation is so altruistic as to consider attacks on another country to be of equivalent or greater importance than attacks on itself. If we're getting realpolitik enough to consider engaging Hamas, this is a valid point to raise, given the Bush Administration's rhetoric of a global war on terror and tendency to conflate Islamist terrorists (albeit somewhat selectively, as I haven't noticed Bush fretting too much about support from Pakistan for Islamist attacks in Kashmir and India).PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-48678926346725367182007-06-20T19:20:00.000-07:002007-06-20T19:20:00.000-07:00It's shocking just how much a lot of the world see...It's shocking just how much a lot of the world seems to get out of bashing Israel. Instead of addressing more pressing, larger, and more <I>real</I> human rights abuses (take Darfur, for example), they condemn Israel for responding to the murder of its citizens by terrorists. It's almost like they think Israelis are rounding up Palestinians into camps and gassing them. Oh. Wait. Sometimes I think the only parts of the world that have outgrown their anti-Semitism are North America and Turkey.<BR/><BR/>It's ridiculous to say that Jerusalem isn't the capital of Israel. The only way to make that argument is to say that Israeli control over it is illegitimate, which is to say that Israel doesn't actually exist. I wonder whether the BBC would agree with that statement.Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04567385151688481202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-53984293046569386092007-06-20T13:45:00.000-07:002007-06-20T13:45:00.000-07:00they all share the same goals -- the end of occupa...<I>they all share the same goals -- the end of occupation; the release of political prisoners; the right of return for all Palestinians; and freedom to be a nation equal among nations, secure in its own borders and at peace</I><BR/><BR/>Interesting how he leaves off the goal that Hamas itself deems important above all others -- the genocidal elimination of "the Jews".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com