It’s one of the limits of mainstream ‘progressive’ politics in imperial countries that support Israel.
In some ways I think the whole ‘war on terror’, despite the fact that the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are increasingly widely regarded as failures and crimes even in imperial countries, has been like a red scare against all kinds of guerilla/resistance fighters across the world (but especially Muslims).
The labels ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ have become tools for short-circuiting thought and discussion, and that’s very deeply ingrained. The Israeli media strategy surrounding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood understands this well, and takes full advantage of the fact that mainstream journalists in the imperial core will never call Israel a terrorist state or the IDF a terrorist organization despite the fact that for many decades now, for multiple entire generations, their primary ‘opponents’ have been not the armies of other nations but civilian populations (sometimes in neighboring countries, like Lebanon, and sometimes in land that Israel claims for itself, like Gaza and the West Bank).
The goal is to paint ‘Hamas’ (really the al-Qassam Brigades, and practically speaking the whole armed resistance) as brutes with a monomaniacal obsession with their own brutality. That’s what the equation to ISIS is trying to effect. And it has succeeded pretty well, imo. Liberals aren’t condemning Hamas as an explicit scheme but because they feel like doing so is totally obligatory, even for those opposed to the horrors that we see now unfolding.
That’s all speaking, of course of ordinary liberals. Liberal propaganda functionaries on TV, and elected officials are certainly sometimes more cynical or self-serving, more actively invested in the false equivalency. But whether they’re speaking sincerely or cynically, when liberals condemn ‘both sides’ in Palestine, the ‘terrorist’ label is doing its job.
It’s one of the limits of mainstream ‘progressive’ politics in imperial countries that support Israel.
In some ways I think the whole ‘war on terror’, despite the fact that the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are increasingly widely regarded as failures and crimes even in imperial countries, has been like a red scare against all kinds of guerilla/resistance fighters across the world (but especially Muslims).
The labels ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ have become tools for short-circuiting thought and discussion, and that’s very deeply ingrained. The Israeli media strategy surrounding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood understands this well, and takes full advantage of the fact that mainstream journalists in the imperial core will never call Israel a terrorist state or the IDF a terrorist organization despite the fact that for many decades now, for multiple entire generations, their primary ‘opponents’ have been not the armies of other nations but civilian populations (sometimes in neighboring countries, like Lebanon, and sometimes in land that Israel claims for itself, like Gaza and the West Bank).
The goal is to paint ‘Hamas’ (really the al-Qassam Brigades, and practically speaking the whole armed resistance) as brutes with a monomaniacal obsession with their own brutality. That’s what the equation to ISIS is trying to effect. And it has succeeded pretty well, imo. Liberals aren’t condemning Hamas as an explicit scheme but because they feel like doing so is totally obligatory, even for those opposed to the horrors that we see now unfolding.
That’s all speaking, of course of ordinary liberals. Liberal propaganda functionaries on TV, and elected officials are certainly sometimes more cynical or self-serving, more actively invested in the false equivalency. But whether they’re speaking sincerely or cynically, when liberals condemn ‘both sides’ in Palestine, the ‘terrorist’ label is doing its job.