This is one of the clearest distinctions you’ve made: a civil-rights movement seeks equal status within a shared political order; a jihadist movement seeks domination over the political order itself. That distinction is absolutely essential, and much of the Western confusion around Israel/Palestine comes from refusing to see it.
What many activists call “liberation” is often treated as if it naturally means equality, coexistence, and shared civic life. But that is a Western projection. Some movements do not seek pluralism. They seek sovereignty, religious legitimacy, and the subordination of those whose national existence they regard as illegitimate.
That does not mean denying Palestinian suffering or flattening all Palestinians into Hamas. But it does mean taking Hamas’s own ideology seriously. If we translate jihadist politics into civil-rights language, we misunderstand both the conflict and the danger.
This is the hard thing many people still cannot say plainly: a movement can speak the language of liberation while seeking not equal citizenship, but domination.
Thank you for your clear writing and your perspective. I'm sideways with a few of my liberal friends over this issue. I refer often to your writing in these discussions.
Why aren’t Muslims talking more about personal spiritual Jihad? I hear a whole lot more about the glory and reward of enforcing Islam on other people by all means possible.
The thing that so many Westerners fail to see is that Islam is absolutely opposed to our values of individual freedom of religion, equality of men and women, equality of citizens under the law, democratic institutions, and freedom of expression and thought.
It seems like different Diaspora Palestinians have different views of what Palestinians who live in Palestine believe and want. If you’re a one-stater, you believe a significant number of Palestinians want a secular democracy with civil rights. If you’re a two-stater, you’re more likely to worry that Palestinians are captured by an Islamist mindset and wouldn’t be able to handle incorporation into Israeli society.
I know there are surveys of Gazans and West Bank residents about this that attempt to get at the truth of the matter, but I wonder how accurate those are.
There are some polls out there. They show continued high support for Hamas even after 10/7. It would seem that the population of Gaza is pretty well locked in to whatever they've been told.
This is one of the clearest distinctions you’ve made: a civil-rights movement seeks equal status within a shared political order; a jihadist movement seeks domination over the political order itself. That distinction is absolutely essential, and much of the Western confusion around Israel/Palestine comes from refusing to see it.
What many activists call “liberation” is often treated as if it naturally means equality, coexistence, and shared civic life. But that is a Western projection. Some movements do not seek pluralism. They seek sovereignty, religious legitimacy, and the subordination of those whose national existence they regard as illegitimate.
That does not mean denying Palestinian suffering or flattening all Palestinians into Hamas. But it does mean taking Hamas’s own ideology seriously. If we translate jihadist politics into civil-rights language, we misunderstand both the conflict and the danger.
This is the hard thing many people still cannot say plainly: a movement can speak the language of liberation while seeking not equal citizenship, but domination.
Thank you for your clear writing and your perspective. I'm sideways with a few of my liberal friends over this issue. I refer often to your writing in these discussions.
Why aren’t Muslims talking more about personal spiritual Jihad? I hear a whole lot more about the glory and reward of enforcing Islam on other people by all means possible.
The thing that so many Westerners fail to see is that Islam is absolutely opposed to our values of individual freedom of religion, equality of men and women, equality of citizens under the law, democratic institutions, and freedom of expression and thought.
It seems like different Diaspora Palestinians have different views of what Palestinians who live in Palestine believe and want. If you’re a one-stater, you believe a significant number of Palestinians want a secular democracy with civil rights. If you’re a two-stater, you’re more likely to worry that Palestinians are captured by an Islamist mindset and wouldn’t be able to handle incorporation into Israeli society.
I know there are surveys of Gazans and West Bank residents about this that attempt to get at the truth of the matter, but I wonder how accurate those are.
There are some polls out there. They show continued high support for Hamas even after 10/7. It would seem that the population of Gaza is pretty well locked in to whatever they've been told.