By Ron Radosh
Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey has given President Barack Obama a message: “Hamas must be represented at the negotiating table.” Or as the insufferable Roger Cohen puts it, “Hamas is seen throughout the region as a legitimate resistance movement, (my emphasis) a status burnished by its recent inconclusive pounding during Israel’s wretchedly named - and disastrous - ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in Gaza.”
So the growing chorus of anti-Israel intelligentsia from Britain to France is upset because the U.S. still persists in viewing Hamas as a terrorist group, not a resistance movement. This is not a matter of semantics. If one sees a group as a legitimate agency of resistance, terror can then be defined as a tactic regretfully forced on the oppressed by the vile tactics of the oppressor - in this case, the “occupying” power - Israel. And this is precisely what Cohen among others continually does. By not talking to Hamas until they recognize Israel - currently the U.S. position - Cohen asserts that such “marginalization” leads to impasse. After all, Hamas is not only a resistance movement, but an “entrenched Palestinian political and social movement.” Read more ...
Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey has given President Barack Obama a message: “Hamas must be represented at the negotiating table.” Or as the insufferable Roger Cohen puts it, “Hamas is seen throughout the region as a legitimate resistance movement, (my emphasis) a status burnished by its recent inconclusive pounding during Israel’s wretchedly named - and disastrous - ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in Gaza.”
So the growing chorus of anti-Israel intelligentsia from Britain to France is upset because the U.S. still persists in viewing Hamas as a terrorist group, not a resistance movement. This is not a matter of semantics. If one sees a group as a legitimate agency of resistance, terror can then be defined as a tactic regretfully forced on the oppressed by the vile tactics of the oppressor - in this case, the “occupying” power - Israel. And this is precisely what Cohen among others continually does. By not talking to Hamas until they recognize Israel - currently the U.S. position - Cohen asserts that such “marginalization” leads to impasse. After all, Hamas is not only a resistance movement, but an “entrenched Palestinian political and social movement.” Read more ...
Source: Pajamas Media
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