But what about Hamas?

I keep hearing “But what about Hamas” from those trying somehow, someway, to justify a genocide in Gaza. They say that Israel has a right to do whatever it wants until Hamas is defeated. 

Three quick points. 

First, it’s militarily impossible to eliminate Hamas by bombing and invading Gaza. The US secretary of state publicly admitted this months ago. He said it again this week. 

Second: Hamas does not exist in the West Bank where the Palestinian people continue to endure racist conditions that resemble the US South in the 1930’s (arrests, killings, check-points, illegal settlements, etc). 

Third: Hamas was established forty years ago as a response to the brutal Israeli occupation of Gaza. Hamas turned to violence when nothing else worked to alleviate the extremely oppressive policies of Israel and the West. 

There is another way to peace. Lindsay and I witnessed it last Friday when we attended a shabbat service at the University of Michigan Gaza encampment. About forty of us circled up under the huge Douglass Fir in front of the library. Two young women led us in song and dance. One of them proclaimed that a permanent peace is impossible without Palestinian liberation. That’s it right there. 

This Jewish college student was scripting a rare combination of moral clarity and political courage straight from her ancient tradition – and it’s far more compelling (and realistic) than what all these supporters of genocide are saying about Hamas.