You see, the first thing we need to understand about the Hamas-Israel war is that Hamas ≠ Palestine and Israel ≠ Jews. Both these self-appointed guardians are using the people they claim to wholly & exclusively represent (by divine order, no less!) to further their own (and their sponsors’) agendas, which are totally at odds with the actual interests of the said people.
And we know what happens when such organisations and people claim to be the mouthpiece of an entire diverse swathe of the population from our own history of Muslim League/Jinnah et al and HM/RSS/Savarkar et al: Bloodshed, pain, and continuing tragedy. Indians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis, of all the people in the world, understand this more than anyone else. Or at least ought to.
You can most certainly be anti-Islamism (even anti-Islam) while being pro-Muslim, or anti-Hindutva (even anti-Hinduism) and pro-Hindu. Similarly, one can very easily be anti-Hamas but pro-Palestine, as well as pro-Jewish people but anti-Israeli apartheid regime. At the same time. With no dissonance whatsoever. It is not a contradiction.
Indeed, it is where logical reasoning will lead you automatically, should you choose to engage in it before going off in anger and violence.
Think about it.
Later edit: Note that this does not mean that Hamas (did you know Hamas was an Israeli creation to counter the secular and left-leaning Fatah & PLO?) does not represent some or even a sizeable number of Palestinians and their aspirations. Ditto Israel and the Jewish people. What it means is:
- The way Israel was formed, or the way Hamas took power, wasn’t exactly democratic in any way for them to claim a legitimate right to represent all of the people they have appropriated under their umbrella.
- There are enough (if not quantitatively, then qualitatively sufficient) dissident Palestinians against Hamas and enough dissident Jews against Israeli Zionism for us to completely discount any opposition.
- The practical, on-ground and real aspirations of the self-appointed guardians like Hamas and Israel are not exactly aligned with the well-being and interests of the people they claim to represent.
- A criticism of Hamas, its leadership, and its methods does not automatically mean a denial of Palestinian rights or an anti-Arab or anti-Muslim perspective, or a criticism of the apartheid regime and settler-based, militarised occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel does not mean a negation of the Holocaust or anti-Semitism.
