What do people think of Hamas? In recent days, this has been something of a vexed question for many in the West, particularly those on the left. Among progressives, Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘friends’ have long been romanticised as Robin Hood types. But Robin Hood didn’t burn babies, didn’t rape and mutilate young women, didn’t take toddlers hostage, didn’t execute Holocaust survivors in the manner of Islamic State. The events of 7 October brought many liberals face-to-face with an uncomfortable test: do they have the mental agility to revise their opinions?
By comparison, let’s look at how the Arab world has answered that same question. Anecdotally, it seems that the merciless, drug-fuelled hyper-violence meted out by Hamas savages has provoked queasiness and concern even among natural supporters of the Palestinian cause.
Over the weekend, the former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal was given a remarkable grilling on Saudi television. ‘How can you demand that the West and the world in general, support the Palestinian cause, when the things that Hamas perpetrated against Israeli civilians are in the headlines?’, the interviewer demanded to know.
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