Israel, ‘the Jew of the nations’ – 10/13/2023 – Demetrio Magnoli

“As a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights and advocate of a solution through peaceful means, I was greatly encouraged by the author’s final words: ‘Hamas can play a central role in restoring Palestinian rights.'” The passage was written by Celso Amorim, in the presentation of a book about Hamas by Daud Abdullah published in Brazil in March. Amorim’s reference to the “solution by peaceful means” is nothing more than a disguise or self-deception: Abdullah has been, for more than a decade, a notorious propagandist for Hamas and the armed struggle against Israel.

On October 7, the day of infamy, Hamas militants paraded a naked Israeli hostage through the streets of Gaza, after exterminating hundreds of civilians in cold blood. On Sunday, the 8th, in New York, 5 thousand left-wing protesters rejoiced at the barbaric attacks. Amorim was not – and would not be – in Times Square. However, like so many, following a ritual condemnation of the carnage, he was quick to mention the Israeli occupation, suggesting a just motivation for the barbarity.

The connection between occupation and terror is, in addition to being immoral, false: Hamas does not combat the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza or East Jerusalem, but the existence of the State of Israel. It is this position, prevalent among sectors of the left, that serves as the Netanyahu government’s preferred alibi for the perennial sabotage of negotiations with the Palestinians.

Two years ago, several deputies from PT, PSOL and PC do B signed a manifesto in defense of Hamas under the motto that “resistance is not terrorism” (shorturl.at/lqJP6). It is for this and other reasons that, in his note repudiating the attacks, Lula did not mention the word Hamas. Boulos initially followed the same ambiguous line, until he corrected himself under electoral pressure. The German socialist August Bebel was right when he described anti-Semitism as “the socialism of idiots” at the end of the 19th century.

US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, icon of the left of the Democratic Party, was careful to point out the immorality of the Times Square demonstration. However, his note of repudiation of Hamas’ terror ends with a call for an “immediate ceasefire”. Not by chance, the Brazilian government adopted the same position, in a statement by Chancellor Mauro Vieira, on Tuesday, 10.

This is a sophisticated form of idiocy: demanding that Israel renounce military action while the terrorist structures are intact and hold around 150 hostages is equivalent to denying it the right to self-defense. No nation would do this – but anti-Semitism sees Israel as “the Jew of nations”, applying exceptional criteria to it.

The prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories has poisoned Israeli political life. From the soil of the occupation, Netanyahu’s government was born, dotted with extremists and Jewish supremacists. The condemnation of this government and the defense of Palestinian national rights must not, however, be confused with the denial of Israeli national rights. The friends of Hamas, in New York or here, are symbolic hands helping to abuse the young hostage shown in Gaza.

The US called on Israel to proceed according to the rules of war. The European Union called on the Israeli government to limit its military action to the limits of international humanitarian law. The political obligation and legal right to deal fatal blows to Hamas do not provide a passport to deliberately exterminate innocents, promote indiscriminate bombings or completely isolate the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.

An eye for an eye is unacceptable: Israel has no right to be guided by Hamas’s criminal compass. Unfortunately, by winking at the terrorists, the Lula government and the idiotic deputies of the Brazilian left have lost the moral authority to subscribe to such a warning.

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