Why the Gaza War narrative has taken over the left

These days, you can't mention a tragic event like the Oklahoma City bombing or the JetSet Club collapse without a chorus of people screaming "Gaza has it worse." It's become one of the main focuses of the left. Other far worse situations are either ignored or explained away.

This obsession fits the Christian redemption story that the western left abandoned and needs to replace with a secular version. We're taught that by living in the west, we've inherited the "original sins" of racism, colonialism, white supremacy, capitalism, environmental destruction, and other "sins" we can't escape. So the secular "salvation" is through the suffering of the innocent, Christ-like Palestinians, who take the place of Jesus by literally "dying for our sins" at the hands of the Jews, who are also guilty of killing the original Jesus. By elevating "free Palestine" to a sacred cause and opposing "Zionism," the liberal westerner is absolved of sin, the same way his Christian forbears were absolved by accepting Jesus and rejecting Satan.

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MartinII · 70-79, M

More prosaically, the left always talk about Israel (occasionally about Jews) and Palestinians, never about Hameas, who are principally responsible for the suffering of people in Gaza.

BohemianBabe · M

@MartinII Because everyone already knows Hamas is bad.

LeopoldBloom · M

@BohemianBabe If someone says "I don't like Hamas, but gosh, you have to understand where they're coming from," that sounds like they don't think Hamas is "bad."

MartinII · 70-79, M

@BohemianBabe I fear not. Many leftists in the UK actively support Hamas. And anyone who understands that Hamas is bad, or even remembers that they still hold Israeli hostages, would not blame Israel for the current condition of Gaza.

BohemianBabe · M

@LeopoldBloom If someone says "I don't like Hamas, but gosh, you have to understand where they're coming from," that sounds like they don't think Hamas is "bad."

Sure, but nobody really says that. The argument is that Hamas is bad, but the reason they exist is because of the conditions Israel created, which includes Israel directly funding Hamas.

BohemianBabe · M

@MartinII Are there any mainstream pundits in the UK that support Hamas?

If you look long enough, you'll fine someone who supports anything. This is why I go by pundits, politicians, and community leaders. Those people represent very large portions of society. If a mainstream pundit is defending Hamas, then that means there is an audience for Hamas supporters. But if you just see like twenty people in the street defending Hamas, that doesn't mean it's a widespread point of view.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@BohemianBabe Not overtly, that I know of. But many simply ignore Hamas, ignore October 7, and say nothing about Hamas's deliberate placing of Palestinian civilians in or next to military targets. That, to my mind, amounts to tacit support for Hamas. There's also a legal aspect. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation, so open support for it is, or should be, risky

BohemianBabe · M

@MartinII That's a lot different than supporting Hamas. Lots of people never spoke about China's genocide of their Muslim population, it doesn't mean they supported it.

Also, remember Hamas only exists because of the Israeli government. If America and the EU stopped funding Israel, it wouldn't just be the end of this genocide, it would be an end of the apartheid state as a whole, as well as Hamas.