Brits: All screwed up

Last update - 16:16 15/05/2009

Why are British MPs courting cowardly Hamas?

By Max Julius, Haaretz Correspondent

There is something so distinctly British about the overtures that some of the United Kingdom's lawmakers have been making to Hamas of late. The visit to the Islamist group in Damascus, the letters of sympathy in the British press, Khaled Meshal's invitation to give a video address to parliamentarians; all these moves smack of a kind of an old-school colonial refusal to be scared by the natives coupled with a bloodyminded desire to patronize them.

Many Israelis are gripped by fear in the face of Hamas' Jew-hating rants and maximalist demands; they are roused to defiance by the group's cross-border provocations and terrorist outrages.

But for a small yet vocal number of British MPs, these things only add to the Palestinian militant organization's allure. The anti-Semitism is taken as a sign of Hamas' authenticity as a real Third World group; after all, who else but "noble savages" could be uneducated enough to not know that the Nazis have made the ancient hatred passé? Hamas' murderous attacks on Israeli civilians and brutal oppression of its own population are likewise winked at as the inevitable behavior of unruly Oriental masses.

These modern-day British imperialists, the vast majority of whom are on the left, by the way, see Palestinian terror as a sort of ineffectual temper-tantrum; much as their forebears in African and the subcontinent saw their subjects' occasional acts of hostility toward them as childlike bouts of rage. The fact that Hamas' plots are so regularly thwarted by Israel, which often responds with far greater force, only goes to further the sense these Britons have of the group as something that only seems malignant to those without a true understanding of the Arab: Their poor American cousins and, of course, the hysterical, persecution-obsessed Eastern European Jews who now call themselves Israelis.

A good example of this is the recent hostilities in Gaza. Hamas sparked the three-week war, in which over a thousand Gazans and thirteen Israelis were killed, with a spate of rocket barrages on Israel's South. When Israel Defense Forces ground troops entered the Strip they encountered surprising light opposition, despite the group's violent bluster and bombast. Hamas' leadership and top militants instead apparently chose to sit the war out, concealing themselves in bunkers and hospitals while untrained gunmen were left to fend off the attack. Who else but children would trigger such a calamity - in which over a thousand Palestinians were killed as opposed to 13 Israelis - and then shy away from it, doing the adult equivalent of hiding under the bed. George Galloway reaching out to Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, and Clare Short doing the same to Khaled Meshal in Damascus are the political equivalent of giving those naughty kids a big hug.

For these neo-colonialists, Hamas' very cowardice is proof of its justice. A British notion of fairness spurs the denunciations of the "disproportionality" of Israel's response (taking the threats and taunts of these non-European peoples literally shows very bad form) hence the endless clamoring for war crimes tribunals into the Gaza conflict. Yes, Israel must investigate any alleged wrongdoings by the IDF; but it cannot ignore attacks on its citizens and attempts to undermine its sovereignty.

All Israel can really do is just shrug off the criticism of these shrill voices from within its erstwhile imperial ruler. Let the champagne-sipping lawmakers in London tut to their hearts' content when they hear that Israeli commandos killed Gaza militants planning to kidnap another soldier, or that an Israel Air Force drone blew up a rocket squad; at least the coffee drinkers in Tel Aviv and Sderot will be able to sleep a little easier.

Related articles:

Hamas video address to British MPs fails due to technical glitch
U.K. foreign secretary: Talking with Hamas 'the right thing to do'
British MP Galloway secretly meets with Haniyeh in Gaza
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1. Great analysis,hope Max Julus will frequent "Haaretz" with 12:22 | Absolute Sweden 15/05/09
2. A debatable analysis 12:50 | Antony 15/05/09
3. Well Said Sir! 12:56 | GR 15/05/09
4. British MP`s 13:13 | Lee Lipman 15/05/09
5. It`s not Imperialist Paternalism 13:14 | Peter Williams 15/05/09
6. Thank you Max 13:16 | maurice 15/05/09
7. British MPs and Hamas 13:23 | David Marks 15/05/09
8. What a Great Article "Neo Unrealistic" 13:28 | Abecassis 15/05/09
9. Wake Up Max - you are IN the last western colony on earth mate 14:34 | Tcherkessi 15/05/09
10. Surely the inhabitants of Sderot have not slept well since the... 14:39 | Tcherkessi 15/05/09
11. Reply to #10 15:32 | Pumpsie 15/05/09
12. #9 15:40 | Rufus 15/05/09
13. Deficient and inaccurate commentary 15:55 | Chris 15/05/09
14. Racist Left 15:57 | Maks 15/05/09
15. Corruption mote and beam 15:58 | Chris 15/05/09
16. Or maybe it is simply this...... 15:59 | Johnboy 15/05/09
17. Tcherkessi-Last western colonies are Falklands, Iraq & Afganista 16:20 | George 15/05/09
18. Lord Chamberland - anyone? 16:35 | david 15/05/09
19. Feeling guilty for not arresting Israeli generals, I guess 16:35 | John 15/05/09
20. Impressive insight into the British mentality 17:22 | Briton 15/05/09
21. Max - Hit the nail on the head 17:22 | moshe99 15/05/09
22. Not sure why the censor`s defending Max so vigorously 17:23 | Michael 15/05/09
23. HAD YOU BEEN FOLLOWING UK NEWS..... 17:27 | Ian 15/05/09
24. ridiculous 18:12 | mike 15/05/09
25. British MPS 18:12 | Michael T 15/05/09