Shared Opinion

Hugo Rifkind

Wednesday, 7th January 2009

Why do we feel so comfortable criticising Israel, but we never mention Hamas?

Criticise Israel as a Jew, and other Jews will often call you a ‘self-hating Jew’. That bugs me even more. But it makes me wonder if the disproportionate vitriol thrown at Israel at times like this — and it is disproportionate, compared with the death toll in Iraq, or Zimbabwe, or Chechnya, or Darfur, or Congo, or a hundred other places — is due to self-hating of another sort. Self-hating secular liberal democrats. In other words, we’ll cut a lot of people a lot of slack because we don’t quite know where they are coming from. Russians, Congolese, Sudanese, Sunnis, Shia, even Hamas — who are we to judge? Israelis, though, we can get a handle on. Israelis can be the whipping boy for everything that Western democracy does, that we don’t quite approve of or understand. Not because they are different, but because they are the same.

But enough trivia. I’ve met the new Doctor Who. Hardly anybody else had even heard of Matt Smith before last weekend, and I think I might have bought him a pint. I’m thrilled. It was a couple of years ago, in a bar in Westminster. ‘Please don’t go,’ he pleaded, at one point. ‘This is the most normal conversation I’ve had all night.’

It was a gathering, you see, populated by two sets of people. The first lot were the cast and crew of Party Animals, that vastly underrated BBC drama about the gripping, gritty, sexy lives of a bunch of photogenic political researchers. The second lot were a wide collection of actual, honest-to-god political researchers. If any of them were having sex, believe you me, it wouldn’t have looked nearly so good on television. I gatecrashed. At the time, I was a parasite by trade. Plus, I was a fan.

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Martin

January 9th, 2009 6:49pm Report this comment

We bash Israel because it is safe to bash Israel... it is also fashionable and the "in" thing to do.
We don't criticize Hamas because it is not safe to do. We might get blown up or have the head cut off with a blunt instrument.
This is why !!!

A. Stewart

January 10th, 2009 3:13am Report this comment

No one is ever brave enough to say that Hamas thugs are using women and children as a shield. Ask Ms Lennox et al how they would feel if Hamas operatives lived next door to a member of their family.

The fact remains however that it will only be when the people living in that part of the world get tired of the conflict and decide to negotiate a land treaty with each other that recognises, in a pragmatic way, that neither party is going to disappear, that peace will break out amongst all those who live there.

How about it ladies? Can't you do something with your unduly belligerent "leaders"?

Andrew Hingston

January 15th, 2009 11:56pm Report this comment

We instinctively feel that something is wrong, but aren't quite sure what -- so many details, so far away, such unpleasant people all around. Hamas are unpleasant people, to be sure. But they are also democratically elected. No one expected it; few like it; but they were, and the election was certified free and fair. Israel has succeeded in the age old trick of divide and conquer, and they have added a new twist by using the tactic in the context of PR. Gaza is treated as one thing without reference to the West Bank. But the Palestinians are the victims in both places. If Scotland were attacked, one imagines the English might (just might) rush to their defence. But when the West Bank is still under oppressive occupation, the newly emancipated (in some people's minds, but not according to the facts on the ground) Gazans are supposed to ignore it. When Israel pulls back to the pre-67 borders, dismantles the fence, provides Gaza with reparations for the damage done to infrastructure over the decades, and also acknowledges Palestinian sovereignty, then they will have a right to expect their security. But under present circumstances the Gazans are not only brave but absolutely right to keep up the fight. Would that the rest of the world had a fraction of their courage.

Bart

March 19th, 2009 11:20am Report this comment

Christians have been tormenting Jews since early Roman times. It is ingrained in Christian DNA. Many Jews feel a need to suck up to their tormentors so they go along with the torch-carrying mob. It will never change.

Merlyn

March 22nd, 2009 9:02am Report this comment

Yes Andrew, the Palestinians are the victims, however had they chosen not to leave their homes in the first place, encouraged by the about to wage war Arab nations, they would not be in the predicament they are in now. Yes, they chose to leave, they were not pushed out, bullied or anything else. Their counterparts who stayed have the best lifestyle of any Arabs anywhere in the Middle East.The Israeli Government still holds deeds to properties that were left by the Palestinians for them to claim some time in the future.
The news that you get is biased all the way down the line, starting from Associated press and Reuters to the BBC all getting their news from Hamas sympathizers . But then if you don't you have a threat hanging over your head quite literally.

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