The unexpected Hamas incursion into Israel, and the resultant deaths that are yet occurring, bring to mind our own experience of 9/11. The rhetorical choices made after 9/11 included labeling the attackers as “terrorists” rather than “criminals,” designating 9/11 as a singular metonymy, implicating all “Muslims” as terrorists as well as other rhetorical tropes that felt like errors in our judgment.
Jacques Derrida says, “Certain parties have an interest in presenting their adversaries not only as terrorists — which they in fact are to a certain extent — but only as terrorists, indeed as ‘international terrorists’ who share the same logic or are part of the same network and who must thus be opposed, it is claimed, not through counterterrorism but through a ‘war,’ meaning, of course, a ‘nice clean’ war. The ‘facts’ clearly show that these distinctions are lacking in rigor, impossible to maintain, and easily manipulated for certain ends.”
“There are problems in making Hamas the devil while ignoring Israel’s own horrific actions.”
I hear the same universal tendencies to label Hamas as a bunch of “terrorists” and all Muslims as terrorists as if a label solves the problem. There are problems in making Hamas the devil while ignoring Israel’s own horrific actions. In this sense, I am in full agreement with Mark Wingfield’s statement: “What Hamas has done is despicable, but what Israel has done and continues to do also is despicable.” Both sides project solutions from only the poisoned stream of “Violence.”
A battle of head and heart
Yet my head and my heart battle one another here. I feel like St. Paul, “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?” I have a strong agreement with those who are appealing to my heart about the plight of the Palestinian people. Having rejected the apartheid of South Africa and the segregation of the United States, how can I accept the separation of Palestinians in such a crowded “ghetto”?
And yet I see the reality that Hamas has a genocidal agenda.
Terry Eagleton argues that words like “evil” and “terrorists” serve only “to shut down thought.” The hardening of the categories causes us to cede our agency to a military solution. There is, in this case, only one option: a clarion call to preemptive arms.
Eagleton encourages us to look for a different perspective: “Don’t look for a political explanation. It is a wonderfully time-saving device. If terrorists are simply Satanic, then you do not need to investigate what lies behind their atrocious acts of violence. You can ignore the plight of the Palestinian people, or of those Arabs who have suffered under squalid right-wing autocracies supported by the West for its own selfish, oil-hungry purposes . … You cannot acknowledge that the terrible crimes which terrorists commit have a purpose behind them, since to ascribe purposes to such people is to recognize them as rational creatures, however desperately wrongheaded.”
American intolerance
Aligned with our usual way of putting the “white hat” of the good guy on our ally and the “black hat” of the enemy on the Palestinians, we also fire up fierce condemnation of those Americans who dare to demand a ceasefire or even suggest there are other ways to look at the conflict.
For instance, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and other pro-Palestine reps have faced a barrage of condemnation. Their alleged crime: calling for de-escalation.
Those who wish to use the conflict as an excuse to score political points in the severely divided United States are cruel pragmatists exhibiting little concern for human life. This is not Republicans vs. Democrats. Perhaps America’s conversion to “Twitter-thought” has reduced everything to “simplicity, impulsivity and incivility” as Brian L. Ott and Greg Dickinson put it in The Twitter Presidency.
This is a conflict that requires a cognitive engagement that exceeds the excess pathos of our culture.
I refuse the easy trope, “Hamas is a terrorist organization. All Muslims are terrorists.” Why are many Americans unwilling to both support Israel and have deep concern for Palestinians in Gaza? Why has this become a cognitive knot for people?
Hamas’ goal of destroying Israel
In my head, I struggle with Hamas because of their long-stated goal of destroying Israel. The following statement is from the group’s charter: “The Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: ‘The day of judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jews will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, “O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”’”
“The founding document of Hamas is genocidal.”
The only word that fits the chilling reality of this goal is “genocide.” The antisemitic tone alone is enough to condemn the call, in the name of God, to destroy the Jews. The founding document of Hamas is genocidal. This also demonstrates that Hamas embraces a theocratic fascism. Isn’t this the trend of Christian nationalism in the USA?
In the Hamas Covenant of 1988, we read of the Jews: “With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing house, broadcasting stations and others …., stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein …, took control of the world media. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about here and there. With their money, they formed secret societies, such as Freemason, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests (and) were able to control countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.”
Where did Hamas discover the antisemitism of Hitler? The Islamists collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. Even those who insist on referring to Hamas as “fighters,” instead of “terrorists” will struggle to define them as something other than neo-Nazis.
We have our own Nazi problem
Before jumping to an overt judgmentalism, we need to realize America has its own Nazi problem. An ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed nearly one in 10 Americans, a number equivalent to 22 million people, think it’s “acceptable” to hold neo-Nazi views. (In contrast, 83% say it’s unacceptable, and 8% somehow had no opinion on neo-Nazism.)
The world has its own anti-Holocaust problem as well. In a survey by the Anti-Defamation League of more than 53,000 people in 100 countries, conducted by First International Resources, only 33% of the world’s population believe the genocide has been accurately described in history. The Middle East and North Africa had the largest percentage of doubters, with only 8% of respondents reporting they had heard of the genocide and believed descriptions of it were accurate.
Kenneth Burke in 1947 prophetically warned of the lasting influence of Hitler: “Here is the testament of a man who swung a great people into his wake. Let us …. try also to discover what kind of ‘medicine’ this medicine-man has concocted, that we may know, with greater accuracy, exactly what to guard against, if we are to forestall the concocting of similar medicine in America.”
“Hitler found a panacea, a ‘cure for what ails you,’ a ‘snake oil,’ that made such sinister unifying possible within his own nation. And he was helpful enough to put his cards face up on the table, that we might examine his hands. Hitler made Jews his ‘international enemy.”’
He accomplished this with the materialization of a religious pattern.
Burke then says: “But above all, I believe, we must make it apparent that Hitler appeals by relying upon a bastardization of fundamentally religious patterns of thought. …. And it is the corrupters of religion who are a major menace to the world today, in giving the profound patterns of religious thought a crude and sinister distortion.”
“Hiding behind the Muslim faith, they make the Jews the object of destruction.”
This misuse of religion is one terrifically effective weapon of propaganda for Hamas today. Hiding behind the Muslim faith, they make the Jews the object of destruction. This, in turn, causes many Americans to condemn all Muslims, even American Muslims and elected members of Congress who are Muslims.
Hamas is not only implicated in Holocaust denial; Hamas intends to produce a “holocaust” for real if given the chance. Sam Harris notes, “The only thing more obnoxious than denying the Holocaust is to say that it should have happened; it didn’t happen, but if we get the chance, we will accomplish it.”
I am not convinced that Americans, in general, are willing to offer empathetic thought to why Hamas acts as it does. Hamas reminds us that Americans are as implicated as anyone else in “Holocaust denial,” genocidal tendencies and fascist leanings. The presumption that we possess a righteousness superior to other nations is an act of blasphemy. America has its own tribe of Holocaust deniers.
Is violence the only solution?
History has taught us that people are capable of committing genocide. When Hamas tells us they intend to commit genocide, we should listen. There is every reason to believe Hamas would kill all the Jews in Israel if they could. Would every Palestinian support genocide? Of course not. There is also every reason to believe Israel will destroy anyone who gets in the path of their determination to wipe out Hamas.
Both sides are committed to violence as the only solution. Atonement through violence always remains the primordial temptation of the nations. Again, America has its own problem with people gravitating toward violence, calls for Civil War, and the caricaturing of political opponents as the enemy.
“Both sides are committed to violence as the only solution.”
The condemnation of Hamas fails to accept that Hamas did not invent the notion of genocide. That has been with us from the beginning of human existence.
David Livingston Smith, in Less than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, traces this horrific reality of humanity. Genocide is neither uniquely Nazi-based nor uniquely modern. It is far more widespread, vastly more ancient and more far intertwined with the human experience than we have allowed.
For instance, there is the reality that the ancient Hebrews felt commanded by “God” to destroy the Canaanites. The Deuteronomic party line: “The only good Canaanite is a dead Canaanite” can be clearly seen in Deuteronomy 7: “The Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you — the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you — and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them.”
Smith reminds us “The human story is filled with pain and tragedy, but among the horrors that we have perpetrated on one another, the persecution and attempted extermination of the Jewish people, the brutal enslavement of Africans, and the destruction of Native American civilizations in many respects are unparalleled.”
American attempts at the genocide of Native American civilizations are a permanent blot on the alleged goodness of an allegedly “Christian” nation. America has blood on our hands.
More than picking a side
For those insistent on making this conflict a philosophical or political debate, there is little recognition of the pain and suffering unfolding in Israel and Gaza. There is more here than simply picking a side. Two wrongs never make a right. I am not convinced we have made enough effort to find the right in this conflict.
“There is more here than simply picking a side. Two wrongs never make a right.”
I struggle with the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. Influenced by Stanley Hauerwas, I believe God is present in Palestine in a way God is not present elsewhere. That raises the question that if God, the God of mercy and justice, is present in Palestine in this unique and powerful way, why are God’s people, the Jews, treating Palestinians in unjust ways?
My heart returns to this inner debate. My best friend, for more than a decade, has been David Sofian, now rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Dayton, Ohio. David and I preached for one another, led our congregations — First Baptist Church and Temple Israel — to form a mission partnership and shared many wonderful times of food and conversation on a regular basis. David grew up in St. Louis, Mo., and upon his retirement, he and Simone moved to Israel.
When the Hamas attack first happened, I emailed David my prayers and concern. He wrote back immediately to tell me they were in Dayton. Later I asked him for his observations on what was happening in Israel. His response resonates with my own: “I would love to let my pacifist feelings rise to the fore, but I just can’t at this point. I am just too sad, angry and feeling too connected to our friends (virtual family) and family in Israel for that. I don’t know if this helps since it isn’t coherent thinking, just honest feelings, which is all I truly have at this point. The rest will come later.”
There are no easy answers here, maybe none at all. My own heart and head are rattled by the complexity of the issues. Here is as far as I have made it: Among the proposed solutions, the Hamas goal of “genocide” must be rejected out of hand. The labeling of all Muslims as terrorists is thrown out with the morning trash. Thinking that Israel, like the USA, is always right and good, is a mistake. Accepting compassion and offering aid to the Palestinians in Gaza is morally imperative.
Our best minds and biggest hearts, “the better angels” of our spirit, need to come forward.
Rodney Kennedy
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 10 books, including his latest, Good and Evil in the Garden of Democracy.
Related articles:
Violence begets violence: Hamas’ Pyrrhic victory | Opinion by Raouf J. Halaby
Here are some ways to listen to Palestinian Christians | Analysis by Rick Pidcock
In this war, there are no ‘good guys’ | Analysis by Mark Wingfield