The Price of Palestinian Silence in Condemning Hamas
Today we have heard the Ben G’vir camp celebrating Trump’s election with a gleeful prognostication that annexation of the West Bank is now only “one step away.” The disheartening reality is that as malicious and depraved as our messianic right wing is pursuing this land theft in the name of a god created in their own image, the Palestinians on the West Bank–especially including the moderates who have been viciously attacked by the Settler thugs with government endorsed IDF-permitted pogroms–have been complicit through their silence in condemning Hamas.
To grasp how serious and significant their role of “quiescence” has been in this regard, one must consider the alternate path of activism they might have chosen. They could have spoken out in full disgust with loud protests, speeches, sermons by Imams, and general condemnation of the October 7th massacre, speaking loudly of its horrors and disclaiming such atrocities. They could have completely disowned Hamas as any remote form of their West Bank resistance movement, a characterization which would be natural given their history of conflict.
Instead their silence has led to the mixed signals from their populace that, indeed, they regard what Hamas did as revenge for what has been happening to them: Their homes being raided at night by vigilante Settler gangs, cars set on fire, fields and groves burned, shepherds chased from domiciles–ethnic cleansing even centrist Israeli intellectuals are dubbing “genocidal”–the prelude to contemplated annexation.
Born from the justifiable sense of revenge, the misguided attitude which accepts Hamas as a “resistance” movement is nonetheless a self-destructive disaster.
The popular sentiment, unspoken for the most part but as loud as if the message was coming from loudspeakers across the West Bank is this: Our Silence About What Hamas Did Tells You Where We Stand. We Condone It.
Not only has the Israeli right wing been able to sway the centrists to turn against a two-state solution, asking how the Palestinians can be trusted when they support Hamas terrorists (an argument based on their silence in not condemning Hamas), but in the West Bank itself, militant jihad militias are springing up, and genuinely exploiting the retreat of decent Palestinians from taking a stand against Hamas barbarity.
In sum the current deterioration of prospects for reconciliation between Israel and the West Bank Palestinians is traceable to both the messianic Settler agenda of ethnic cleansing, as well as Palestinian self-destructive silence concerning Hamas, leading to legitimate concerns about future complicity with terror and jihadist groups, such as those now emerging. The latter would be remedied by a new leadership of the PLO speaking out forcefully against Hamas and terror against Israel.
And to the centrist Israeli, one who wants the Palestinians to have a separate independent life on the West Bank, even their own state, I do not believe the moderate West Bank Palestinians are driven by the jihadist oath to annihilate all Israel and kill all Jews. We Jews have bought into that right wing Netanyahu vilification of our Palestinian neighbors long enough. But they must find the moral spine to speak up.
Source » timesofisrael.com
