Randi Weingarten and her wife, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, flew to Israel to commiserate with friends and to sit shiva for the nation. They express a strong commitment to both Israelis and Palestinians and a hope that they can one day live in peace as neighbors, in two independent states. They speak out against the Netanyahu government, whose harsh policies towards Palestinians have intensified hatred. They recognize the brutality of the October 7 massacre without qualification. I am not a Zionist but their views and mine are aligned. Neither terrorism nor indiscriminate bombing of civilians brings peace closer.
The progressive publication Haaretz interviewed them:
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum has traditionally had few qualms about being a member of a minority – as a lesbian rabbi, it is practically her brand. But in the days and weeks following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, she says it has been her identity as a liberal Zionist that has made her feel like a member of a minority.
Kleinbaum is the spiritual leader of New York’s Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue. The space she and wife Randi Weingarten have long occupied – as high-profile American-Jewish leaders who are deeply connected to Israel, but also outspoken advocates for Palestinian rights and opponents of the occupation – is not a comfortable place to be right now.
Even within the pioneering congregation Kleinbaum has led for more than 30 years, she says the atmosphere is tense and full of “tremendous anxiety,” as the war continues with no clear resolution in sight…
“You know, the LGBT world is so focused on non-binary thinking. We’ve rejected the binary about sexuality, we’ve rejected the binary about gender identity,” Kleinbaum notes. “And yet at the same time, so many in this world have adopted a very binary approach to Israel-Palestine issues.”
Her community, she adds, is not at all immune from the expectations of conflict in American culture, in which “the good guys are always weak and the bad guys are strong. And people want a two-hour Hollywood movie in which at the end of it, the good guys overcome and vanquish the bad guys, the lights go up and you walk outside. The message I keep bringing to the congregation is that life is not a Hollywood movie.”
She tries at every opportunity, she says, to explain to those on both extremes that simple solutions are not available, and “there is not a good guy or a bad guy; there is not one victim and one perpetrator.”
That message is not always welcome. In far-left progressive circles, there are those who “believe that Israel kind of deserved what it got” on October 7 and “what Hamas did was an act of justified violence.” The fact that she “completely rejects and totally condemns” such views has made some “very angry” with her, Kleinbaum says.
At the same time, she says others are upset with her “because I continue to insist on the full equality of the Palestinian people, and I continue to stand against the occupation. I will continue to stand by the truth that I’ve said forever and is not new: Israel cannot oppress people.”
Union head Weingarten says she often finds herself in a similar position. “On the same day, I will be criticized by someone from AIPAC for being a Palestinian lover, and criticized by somebody from one of our local union branches that I have not spoken out strongly enough against Israel.”
She has been slammed in union circles for standing up for Israel’s right to defend itself, including during a AFL-CIO meeting that The New York Times described as a “raw” debate among top union officials on the Israel-Hamas conflict. She was accused by the far left of “green-lighting Zionist war crimes.”
Kleinbaum and Weingarten spoke to Haaretz on the second day of a Thanksgiving week trip to Israel, following breakfast with members of what they call their “Israeli family”: Israelis who were members of Kleinbaum’s synagogue during stints in New York, former congregants who made aliyah and other friends.
The couple note that during their last visit, in April, their friends were wearing pro-democracy T-shirts protesting the proposed judicial overhaul. Now these same people wear T-shirts with photographs of hostages on them. Like so many other Israelis, their friends have suffered losses, and some had stopped by on their way to or from 30-day memorials of loved ones killed on October 7.
“We’re so horrified and condemn what Hamas did in the strongest and most horrific terms, and we feel like we’re making a shivah visit to the whole country,” Kleinbaum says…
Both women felt they needed to be in Israel now, Kleinbaum says, “to absorb the energy here and really listen to the perspective of people who are here and to … pay our shivah call after the biggest pogrom that has happened to the Jewish people since the Holocaust – and, just as importantly, also listen to Palestinian voices inside of Israel, and to listen to the voices that are fighting for shared society.” They intend to take those views back to New York.
“We have to keep telling the deep truths that those of us who are progressive Zionists understand: that there is no future except a shared future. And we have to keep reinforcing the message that this is the land with two peoples, two very complicated peoples, and that we continue to hope for a future in which both peoples can live with justice and peace and security,” Kleinbaum says.
She admits she doesn’t know where events will lead, but right now it “feels like we’re at an inflection point not only for the State of Israel, for Palestinians and Israeli Jews, but for the Jewish people. It feels like we’re at a very significant moment of Jewish history, including for Diaspora Jewish life…”
Both recognize that the failed leadership of Netanyahu and his cabinet of far-right ministers has alienated many progressive Jews.
Weingarten says “polls bear out that the Democratic Party is still supportive of Joe Biden’s approach to Israel and Gaza,” but there is still considerable pressure from those harshly critical of the amount of force used by the Israel Defense Forces, mounting calls for a unilateral cease-fire, along with a faction that does, in fact, challenge Israel’s right to exist.
Much of this, she believes, is a direct result of the images coming out of Gaza, and Israel’s decision not to widely circulate images of the horrors of October 7 in real time. Because of that decision, “the trauma, the massacre and the pogrom is just not well known and not understood in the same way as what happened to the [Gazan] hospitals” and the “sheer amount of death” in Gaza…
Biden is “a staunch ally of Israeli democracy and also supports Palestinians: he doesn’t support Israel to the detriment of the Palestinians, even though people accuse him of that. And if the Israeli right really doesn’t understand this, then they are really threatening the future of President Biden’s support. Because he cares deeply about Palestine; he cares about both people. That’s why he has said over and over again that there has to be a two-state solution,” Weingarten says…
And despite the fact that “extreme voices are the loudest right now and people are looking for simple solutions,” there are more people that share common ground with the president – particularly in America’s Jewish community.
“I believe that the majority of American Jews are actually looking for this vision,” Weingarten says. “They want to hear that they can stand with Israel, and stand with the rights of Palestinians. They don’t have to choose. And yes, today it’s a very narrow place to be. But I reject the binary that forces a simple choice. And even though it’s not an easy place to be, I believe if we keep standing in this place and pushing the message out there, more and more people will join us.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for sharing this. These views align perfectly with mine, as well. In my teen years, in 1973, I lived with a Muslim family in Tunisia and learned so much about Palestine and its history. Five years later, I became an interpreter of Russian for Jewish Russian immigrants in Boston. Some of our folks had lived through the Holocaust and had the tattoos and horror stories to prove it. My heart is so broken for all of the innocents. For the children, and mothers and grandparents… There has to be a way to achieve peace, but it won’t happen as long as Netanyahu is in control.
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Yes to all of this. Insights from the organization Standing Together in addition to Rabbi Kleinbaum’s words have been keeping me afloat the past 7 weeks. We need clear, informed, heart-driven leadership so desperately right now.
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“They want to hear that they can stand with Israel, and stand with the rights of Palestinians.”
You can’t stand with Israel and with the rights of the Palestinians when Israel is – and has long been – relocating, imprisoning, beating and killing Palestinians starting with, at least, the Nabka. 86,000+ Palestinian civilians killed by Israel before 10/7. Over 16,000 since then. Netanyahu is a genocidal maniac, but he’s not the problem. This didn’t start with him and won’t end if he’s gone.
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Dienne, your views are so one-sided that I have to wonder if you are an anti-Semite. There were massacres of Jews in Jerusalem in the 1920s. Not because they were Israelis (it didn’t exist), but because they were Jews. The Hamas charter calls for the extinction of Israel and all the Jews living on the land between the river and the sea. Apparently you agree.
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Try actually reading the Hamas charter, Diane, rather than believe what their enemies say about them. And Zionism, along with its terrorism, started long before the state of Israel did. There was no conflict between Jews and Muslims until Britsh Zionists fomented it. Zionism =/= Judaism. You’d be wise to understand that.
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Dienne,
Here is the link to the 2017 Hamas charter. I read it. It denies the right of Israel to exist.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full
Do you think all the Jews in Israel should be killed? Should those who survive (if there are any) be forced to live under Sharia law?
I have written repeatedly about my support for a two-state solution, with no occupation or domination—one for Palestinians and one for Israelis. You continue to express your admiration for Hamas. How can you praise an ideology that encouraged the butchering of innocent men, women, and children, the rape of countless women? You do not seek a fair and equitable resolution of the conflict; you seek the extermination of Israel.
Please read this article about the Hamas charters of 1998 and 2017 that appeared in The Atlantic by Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown University. It is titled “Understanding Hamas’ Genocidal ideology.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
Professor Hoffman writes:
“Not every German who bought a copy of Mein Kampf necessarily read it … But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there was still time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe.”
— William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
How many Israelis, or Jews, or anyone else for that matter, have read the 1988 Hamas Covenant or the revised charter that was issued in 2017? With 36 articles of only a few paragraphs’ length each in the former, and 42 concise statements of general principles and objectives in the latter, both are considerably shorter and more digestible than the 782-page original German-language edition of Mein Kampf. Moreover, unlike Hitler’s seminal work, which was not published in English until March 1939, excellent English translations of both the original Hamas Covenant and its successor can easily be found on the internet.
Released on August 18, 1988, the original covenant spells out clearly Hamas’s genocidal intentions. Accordingly, what happened in Israel on Saturday is completely in keeping with Hamas’s explicit aims and stated objectives. It was, in fact, the inchoate realization of Hamas’s true ambitions.
The most relevant of the document’s 36 articles can be summarized as falling within four main themes:
The complete destruction of Israel as an essential condition for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic law (Sharia),
The need for both unrestrained and unceasing holy war (jihad) to attain the above objective,
The deliberate disdain for, and dismissal of, any negotiated resolution or political settlement of Jewish and Muslim claims to the Holy Land, and
The reinforcement of historical anti-Semitic tropes and calumnies married to sinister conspiracy theories.
Thus, as fighting rages in Israel and Gaza, and may yet escalate and spread, pleas for moderation, restraint, negotiation, and the building of pathways to peace are destined to find no purchase with Hamas. The covenant makes clear that holy war, divinely ordained and scripturally sanctioned, is in Hamas’s DNA.
Israel’s Complete and Utter Destruction
The covenant opens with a message that precisely encapsulates Hamas’s master plan. Quoting Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a constituent member (Article 2), the document proclaims, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
Lest there be any doubt about Hamas’s sanguinary aims toward Israel and the Jewish people, the introduction goes on to explain:
This Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), clarifies its picture, reveals its identity, outlines its stand, explains its aims, speaks about its hopes, and calls for its support, adoption and joining its ranks. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious … It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps.
After some general explanatory language about Hamas’s religious foundation and noble intentions, the covenant comes to the Islamic Resistance Movement’s raison d’être: the slaughter of Jews. “The Day of Judgement will not come about,” it proclaims, “until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
Article 11 spells out why this annihilation of Jews is required. Palestine is described as an “Islamic Waqf”—an endowment predicated on Muslim religious, education, or charitable principles and therefore inviolate to any other peoples or religions. Accordingly, the territory that now encompasses Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is
“consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up … This Waqf remains as long as earth and heaven remain. Any procedure in contradiction to Islamic Sharia, where Palestine is concerned, is null and void.”
In sum, any compromise over this land, including the moribund two-state solution, much less coexistence among faiths and peoples, is forbidden.
Holy War
Article 12 links the exclusive Muslim right to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River with the religious obligation incumbent upon all Muslims to wage a war of religious purification. “Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land. Resisting and quelling the enemy becomes the individual duty of every Moslem [sic], male or female”—a point later reiterated in Articles 14 and 15.
Article 15, moreover, highlights the importance of inculcating this mindset in children. “It is important that basic changes be made in the school curriculum, to cleanse it of the traces of ideological invasion that affected it as a result of the orientalists and missionaries who infiltrated the region following the defeat of the Crusaders at the hands of Salah el-Din (Saladin).” Along these lines, Article 30 also points out that jihad is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy: “Writers, intellectuals, media people, orators, educaters [sic]” are called upon to “fulfill their duty, because of the ferocity of the Zionist offensive and the Zionist influence in many countries exercised through financial and media control, as well as the consequences that all this lead to in the greater part of the world.”
Nothing Is Negotiable
Article 13 rejects any kind of negotiations for, or peaceful resolution of, Jewish and Palestinian territorial claims to the land. On this point, the covenant is completely transparent: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.” Nor are these words historical artifacts. Hamas “military” communiqués heralding the triumphs of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood end with the words “It is a jihad of victory or martyrdom.”
Indeed, this part of the covenant stresses that:
Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight.
The covenant further says of international negotiations that the “Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with.”
Base Anti-Semitism
The covenant is especially noteworthy for its trafficking in odious calumnies and conspiracy theories about the Jewish people and the alleged superhuman influence and power that they exercise over all mankind. “In their Nazi treatment [of other peoples], the Jews made no exception for women or children,” Article 20 begins. “Their policy of striking fear in the heart is meant for all. They attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting their money and threatening their honor. They deal with people as if they were the worst war criminals.”
Article 22 advances this theme. Channeling the fantastical arguments of the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion (which is discussed in Article 32), Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and the Ku Klux Klan, it elaborates on the depth and breadth of Jewish perfidy. The language of this article is so unhinged that it is worth quoting in full:
For a long time, the enemies have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realization of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.
You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.
Article 28 continues this theme and again cites various civic organizations and fraternal orders as the malign vessels through which the Jewish people relentlessly pursue their goal of global domination. Alcoholism and drug addiction are integral tools of the Jews’ nefarious plot:
The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion. It does not refrain from resorting to all methods, using all evil and contemptible ways to achieve its end. It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All these organizations, whether secret or open, work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions. They aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion.
After Palestine, Article 32 explains, “the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.” Standing against this overwhelming force is Hamas—“the spearhead of the circle of struggle with world Zionism and a step on the road.”
Tucked into Article 31, toward the end of the delineation of its three dozen guiding principles, Hamas claims that all faiths can “coexist in peace and quiet with each other” under its unique “wing of Islam.” But lest anyone be lulled into believing the promise of this paradise on Earth, Hamas demands as the price of entry full allegiance and unquestioning compliance with its rule: “It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region, because the day these followers should take over there will be nothing but carnage, displacement and terror.”
A Kinder, Gentler Charter?
On May 1, 2017, Hamas issued a revised charter. Gone were the “vague religious rhetoric and outlandish utopian pronouncements” of the earlier document, according to analysis prepared for the Institute of Palestine Studies. Instead, the new charter was redolent of “straightforward and mostly pragmatic political language” that had “shifted the movement’s positions and policies further toward the spheres of pragmatism and nationalism as opposed to dogma and Islamism.” Nonetheless, the analyst was struck by “the movement’s adherence to its founding principles” alongside newly crafted, “carefully worded” language suggesting moderation and flexibility.
Israel immediately dismissed the group’s effort to promote a kinder, gentler image of its once avowedly bloodthirsty agenda. “Hamas is attempting to fool the world, but it will not succeed,” a spokesperson from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office predicted.
In fact, the new document differs little from its predecessor. Much like the original, the new document asserts Hamas’s long-standing goal of establishing a sovereign, Islamist Palestinian state that extends, according to Article 2, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Lebanese border to the Israeli city of Eilat—in other words, through the entirety of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. And it is similarly unequivocal about “the right of return” of all Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of the 1948 and 1967 wars (Article 12)—which is portrayed as “a natural right, both individual and collective,” divinely ordained and “inalienable.” That right, therefore “cannot be dispensed with by any party, whether Palestinian, Arab or international,” thus again rendering negotiations or efforts to achieve any kind of political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians irrelevant, void, or both. Article 27 forcefully reinforces this point: “There is no alternative to a fully sovereign Palestinian State on the entire national Palestinian soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.”
The most striking departure from the 1988 charter is that the 2017 statement of principles and objectives now claims that Hamas is not anti-Jewish but anti-Zionist and, accordingly, sees “Zionists” and not “Jews” as the preeminent enemy and target of its opprobrium. The revised document therefore modulates the blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric of its predecessor but once again decries Zionism as central to a dark, conspiratorial plot of global dimensions.
For centuries, Jews have been blamed for causing the anti-Semitism directed against them. The new Hamas charter perpetuates this libel, arguing, “It is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity” and who are therefore responsible for the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
The Zionist project, according to Article 14, is a “racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression.” Article 15 goes on to claim that Zionism is the enemy not just of the Palestinian people but of all Muslims, and that it poses “a danger to international security and peace and to mankind and its interests and stability.” The following article then attempts to thread the needle between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism: “Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion.”
Although the new charter lacks the febrile denunciations of “initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences” of its predecessor, it makes Hamas’s position on Israel’s existence abundantly clear. “The establishment of ‘Israel’ is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” Article 18 states, “and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah.” Driving home this point, the new Article 19 proclaims, “There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Whatever has befallen the land of Palestine in terms of occupation, settlement building, judaisation [sic] or changes to its features or falsification of facts is illegitimate. Rights never lapse.”
As for the promise of peace between Israel and Palestine expressed in the 1993 Oslo Accords, Article 21 is explicit in stating Hamas’s rejection of that landmark agreement: “Hamas affirms that the Oslo Accords and their addenda contravene the governing rules of international law in that they generate commitments that violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Therefore, the Movement rejects these agreements and all that flows from them.”
Hamas affirms, instead, its commitment to liberating Palestine by force. “Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws and by international norms and laws,” the document states. “At the heart of these lies armed resistance, which is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and the rights of the Palestinian people.”
Perhaps the most astonishing statement in the entire new document—issued by a terrorist group that has forbade elections in Gaza since 2007—is the fatuous claim in Article 29 that “Hamas believes in, and adheres to, managing its Palestinian relations on the basis of pluralism, democracy, national partnership, acceptance of the other and the adoption of dialogue.”
Plus Ça Change, Plus C’est la Même Chose
In the British historian Richard J. Evans’ magisterial account of the Third Reich, he recounts the reflections of a young German woman who’d read Mein Kampf in 1933: “Like many of her upper-middle-class friends, she discounted the violence and antisemitism of the National Socialists as passing excesses which would soon disappear.” Until October 7, 2023, many in Palestine, Israel, and elsewhere may similarly have dismissed or discounted the acuity of Hamas’s aims and ambitions, its true objectives, and its as-yet-unfulfilled master plan as stated in both the 1988 and 2017 documents. Few are as ignorant or uncomprehending now.
Bruce Hoffman is a professor at Georgetown University. He is also the Shelby Cullom & Katharine W. Davis Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security at the Council on Foreign Relations and the George H. Gilmore Senior Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center.
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Dienne,
I read the Hamas charter. It calls for the total elimination of the state of Israel. I believe in a two-state solution. Hamas believes that every inch of the land of Israel belongs to Palestinians. Until they abandon their all-or-nothing genocidal ideology, there will be no peace.
From the Hamas charter:
The Palestinian cause in its essence is a cause of an occupied land and a displaced people. The right of the Palestinian refugees and the displaced to return to their homes from which they were banished or were banned from returning to – whether in the lands occupied in 1948 or in 1967 (that is the whole of Palestine), is a natural right, both individual and collective. This right is confirmed by all divine laws as well as by the basic principles of human rights and international law. It is an inalienable right and cannot be dispensed with by any party, whether Palestinian, Arab or international.
Hamas rejects all attempts to erase the rights of the refugees, including the attempts to settle them outside Palestine and through the projects of the alternative homeland. Compensation to the Palestinian refugees for the harm they have suffered as a consequence of banishing them and occupying their land is an absolute right that goes hand in hand with their right to return. They are to receive compensation upon their return and this does not negate or diminish their right to return.
The Zionist project
14. The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression.
The Zionist project does not target the Palestinian people alone; it is the enemy of the Arab and Islamic Ummah posing a grave threat to its security and interests. It is also hostile to the Ummah’s aspirations for unity, renaissance and liberation and has been the major source of its troubles. The Zionist project also poses a danger to international security and peace and to mankind and its interests and stability.
Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion
Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, anti-Semitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage. The Zionist movement, which was able with the help of Western powers to occupy Palestine, is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation which has already disappeared from much of the world and must disappear from Palestine.
The position toward Occupation and political solutions
18. The following are considered null and void: the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate Document, the UN Palestine Partition Resolution, and whatever resolutions and measures that derive from them or are similar to them. The establishment of “Israel” is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah; it is also in violation of human rights that are guaranteed by international conventions, foremost among them is the right to self-determination.
There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Whatever has befallen the land of Palestine in terms of occupation, settlement building, judaisation or changes to its features or falsification of facts is illegitimate. Rights never lapse.
Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.
There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity
Hamas affirms that the Oslo Accords and their addenda contravene the governing rules of international law in that they generate commitments that violate the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Therefore, the Movement rejects these agreements and all that flows from them, such as the obligations that are detrimental to the interests of our people, especially security coordination (collaboration).
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Your devotion to terrorists is not touching. It’s disgusting.
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Israel IS occupying the land of the Palestinians. That’s a country, not a religion. You can’t simply move into other people’s land, violently evict them and then claim you’re being persecuted because of your religion. The Jews are welcome in Palestine. The state of Israel is not, just like you wouldn’t accept a foreign occupying power being set up as a separate country on Long Island with you having second class status in your own country. If you want peace, that’s what has to be addressed. It’s not about religion or annihilating the Jewish people (although Israel is trying to annihilate the Palestinian people by shoving them all into the Sinai desert and killing however many they have to in the process). Take a look at the map over time showing the area the Palestinians controlled in 1947 and how little they control now. This is, at best, ethnic cleansing, well on the way to genocide, and you are supporting the cleansers.
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Ah, I see now. You agree with Hamas and Islamic Jihad that Israel has no right to exist. Since they also say that every inch of “their” territory must be Islamic, you agree that the Jews should be expelled. In Article 18 of the Hamas 2017 charter, they do slip up and refer to the land having been “judaized,” which they intend to eliminate.
No wonder you immediately sided with the terrorists after October 7, despite the butchery.
You are an anti-Semite. Stop writing me. Please. This is my living room. It is a place for civil discussion. I don’t want to hear from you again. Ever.
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Zionism does not equal Judaism? That might ring somewhat true for me personally if it meant that Zionism was expansion and not simply existence. It’s not that simple. I would die, however, tortured to death at the hands of Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor himself before I let some goy tell me what to believe as my religion. Judaism equals my beliefs to me. You do NOT, Dienne, tell me what Judaism is. It’s offensive. You are over the line, and I absolutely guarantee you that would never say any of what you have been writing lately to my face. You need to stop.
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Far be it for me to tell you what to believe, LCT, but if you want to believe that the land-grabbing, genocidal actions of the Zionists is synonymous with the religion of Judaism, that sounds pretty antisemitic to me. What do you make of the fact that a lot of the loudest voices in the pro-Palestinian/anti-genocide protests have been Jewish groups?
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the double standard expressed by the anti-Semite posting here is astonishing, although I shouldn’t be astonished since it is coming from the same person who rabidly defends Putin’s bombing of Ukraine (which may have a lot to do with Ukraine’s Jewish leader) using similar falsehoods.
Do those Jewish anti-Israel folks also support Putin’s annihilating Ukraine because Putin is just weeding like “Nazis”, like dienne77 does?
Israel has the same right to exist that Pakistan does. When the Brits left what was then India, it split in two, after a brutal war, with a population transfer as well. Many Muslims moved to what became Pakistan while many Hindus moved to the territory that was India. The same thing happened in Israel. It was an ugly process, with atrocities on all sides.
But dienne77’s innuendo that the Jews of Israel – the majority of whom are now descended from Jews who have always lived in those middle eastern countries that were carved out by Britain, including Israel – are somehow not legitimate residents of Israel is outrageous. Those people have far more right to live in that land than dienne77 and her family do to live in the US — presuming they are not Native Americans.
Furthermore, the term genocide is used by anti-Semites who would have us believe that the Jews essentially disappearing from Germany, Austria, and nearly all of Europe (sans England) because of a targeted Nazi extermination plan that murdered 2/3 of them is comparable to Israel, where the Arab population inside Israel has increased tremendously (now over 2 MILLION) and the population in Gaza has also exploded. Sure, Israel did what the Nazis did and practiced genocide and that’s why there have been such enormous population increases in the Arab population both in Israel and in the Palestinian controlled territories. Only someone who hates Jews can ignore the fact that the Jewish population of Europe was decimated and claim that’s what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, whose population inside Israel proper and in Gaza has grown enormously.
The real genocide is what happened in our country and what people – perhaps the ancestors of dienne77 – did to Native Americans as her own country expanded.
Diane Ravitch, dienne77’s concern about the Palestinians would feel more genuine if she directed nearly as much hatred at Putin for what he has done to Ukraine as she directs at Jews in Israel. Instead, she defends Putin’s brutal targeting of civilians, despite the fact that Ukraine did not intentionally invade Russia, murder 1000 Russian civilians, and kidnap hundreds of others, including children. dienne77 defends Hamas, as if most Palestinians would not prefer they could live in a democracy instead of a government that does not allow dissent, as Israel does.
There are also Palestinians interested in peace and they support a two state solution, not Jewish state annihilation as dienne77 does. Hearing the anti-Semites who want to end Israel’s existence argue that Jews should not mind their country being folded into a larger Palestinian state is similar to those who say Ukrainians should be happy to be folded into a greater Russia. It’s about promoting aggression and hate rather than a solution.
The Ottoman Empire/British empire led to Britain creating a bunch of independent states in the 20th century. But the only state that the anti-Semites say can’t exist is a tiny area called Israel. And they have used the Palestinians as pawns.
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Thank you, NYPSP, for pointing out the numerous inconsistencies in Dienne’s defense of Hamas. She truly believes that Israel should be eliminated and the entire Middle East should be in the control of Muslims, because that’s what the Hamas charter says. So many inconsistencies in her view. As most people know, Jews lived in the Holy Land before Islam existed. Jesus was a Jew. The “states” in the Middle East and Africa are mostly a product of European powers who arbitrarily drew the lines.
Israel is a nation of 9 million people, 73% of them Jewish.
It is about the size of New Jersey.
It is surrounded by a vast land mass comprised of Muslim countries: Egypt (population: 109 million) Saudi Arabia (36 million) Jordan (11 million) Syria (21 million) Iran (88 million) Iraq (44 million) Lebanon (6 million) Turkey (85 million) Qatar (2.6 million) Kuwait (4 million) Lebanon (6 million) Yemen(33 million) Oman (4.5 million).
Israel is a dust speck in the Middle East, but ideologues will not be content (as the Hamas charter says) until every inch of the region is controlled by Muslims and subject to Sharia.
Israel has committed two unforgivable sins in the eyes of its enemies:
1. It is Jewish, not Muslim.
2. It has demonstrated how a tiny nation can become technologically and culturally advanced, while educating its people. It has made the dessert bloom, through sheer brain power. You don’t have to be a Jew to admire Israel’s orchestra, its museums, its agriculture, its scientific, medical, and technological breakthroughs.
The standard of living in Israel is far higher than in any of its neighbors.
The fantasy that Israelis should go “back where they came from” ignores the fact that about 1 million Israelis came from majority Muslim countries where they were barely tolerated or expelled because they were Jewish.
Our defender of Hamas insists that Israel is somehow illegitimate because it is a Jewish state. Yet she never complains about the many states that are Muslim states. Apparently the world is fine with two dozen or so Muslim states but should not allow a single Jewish state that allows all religions, holds democratic elections, allows dissent, and even has Israeli Arabs in its parliament.
Since this war started, I began subscribing to Haaretz, the oldest publication in Israel; it is leftist and progressive. It prints articles attacking Netanyahu and articles by Palestinians criticizing the war. But it also posted an article about the refusal of the Arab media to tell their readers about the atrocities and kidnappings committed by Hamas terrorists.
Israelis massacred and abducted? Not in the Arab media
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-26/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israelis-massacred-and-abducted-not-in-the-arab-media/0000018c-0b89-de3d-af9e-0bdfaf9c0000?utm_source=App_Share&utm_medium=iOS_.
Those who want peace in the Middle East will pursue a two-state solution and accept the reality that Israel exists and will continue to exist.
Terrorism must end. Terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad should not be permitted to ruin the prospects for peace by indiscriminate murders and kidnappings.
Israel should elect new leadership committed to pursuit of a lasting and just peace.
Israel should commit to sharing its science and technology with its neighbors to help raise their standard of living.
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What do I make of the fact that a lot of the loudest voices in the pro-Palestinian/anti-genocide protests have been Jewish groups? I make of that definitely not a fact, that’s what I make of it. I make of it word soup.
Now that you, Dienne, have gone so far down your rabbit hole as to call me, a Jew, antisemitic, it’s time for you to do some self reflecting. A little less seriously, though, I think that it’s time for me to go on not a land grab but a time grab. Thanksgiving break is over. It’s time for me to return the vast majority of my time and attention to the students I’m looking forward to seeing again this morning.
The hour has come for me to stop genociding my time talking to you, Dienne. We’re done, kiddo. I’m breaking up with you. Have a nice day.
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NYC public school parentVery disappointed in your response to Putin’s agent 77. It was slightly antisemitic(sarcasm noted) as you mentioned her attitude about Ukraine but not about Syria where Assad empowered by Putin killed 300,000 Muslim civilians. Agent 77 defended that MASS MURDER.
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Stated perfectly.
Netanyahu’s crimes were before October 7. As Tom Friedman said, Hamas and Netanyahu /the Israeli Right had a symbiotic relationship. Every terror attack since 2000 when Arafat walked out of a two state solution and conducted bombings at weddings and bus stops boosted the Right.
Every Israeli response, confiscating land ,taking away freedoms, expanding settlements empowered Hamas.
After October 7th there is no nation on Earth that would not make it its mission to eliminate the threat. As critical as the Israeli Left is of Netanyahu none is calling to do otherwise. Yet there are voices in Israel that blame Netanyahu and the right for bringing them to this point. Sadly I have not heard one interview out of Gaza that blames Hamas. I wonder why ?
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Well-said. Thanks, Joel.
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Not all Israeli voters support those who believe the Palestinians “are not people.” Not all Palestinians support the Hamas goal of wiping out all Israelis. If they don’t quit discrimination and terrorism, there will be nothing but those who support those “solutions” to this conflict. As Joel pointed out above, Netanyahu needs Hamas to justify his constant saber rattling and mistreatment of the West Bank Palestinians. And Hamas needs the war to hurt enough people who want peace so that they despair toward war.
Those who love peace and support democracy can find no home with the present warring parties.
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Thank you for this column and to Randi Weingarten and Rabbi Kleinbaum for sharing their thoughts with you. As a progressive non-religious but very cultural Jew it is difficult to find what I consider my own point-of-view so clearly spelled out. We must find a way to peace between the Jewish and Palestinian people. And, we must fight against extremist narratives. Again, thank you for your continued courage.
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