(a) Ayaan Hirsi Ali (who is also Mrs. Niall Ferguson) interviewed by Andrew Bolt:
“I am shocked by these images [of Oct. 7 atrocities], but not surprised, because I have spent the last 20 years warning […] about this. If [one] acts on the belief system that Hamas subscribes to, or ISIS, or al-Qaeda, or an other of these radical political islamist groups… they love death more than they love life…”
She recalls being brainwashed by Jew-hatred growing up in Somalia, everything bad that happened (including the tap not running) being blamed on them… yet none of these people had ever met a Jew, and she herself didn[t until she moved to the Netherlands.
She also takes no prisoners when calling out the “progressive” HamaSS [sic] supporters.
(b) The New Neo: “The bigger picture: the ascendance of the post-modern left and the glorification of the “oppressed”
The internet has always been a double-edged sword. But the internet combined with the left’s ascendance in academia has created a fertile ground in which lies of all kinds can grow, and belief in such lies can become most common among the most highly educated. Then those people go out into the world and are influential in all sorts of institutions.
One of the tenets of leftism is the idea that the world divides neatly into oppressed and oppressor. You are one or the other, and there’s no escaping it. What’s more, the oppressed are defined as good no matter what their behavior; there are no objective standards for judging them except their defined status as oppressed. That is why we see it said that black people cannot be racists, even when they obviously are expressing hatred towards other races. That is why the George Floyd riots were perfectly okay and the J6 defendants were evil. That is why Nick Sandmann had a face so many wanted to punch, and his harassers were protected by the press and the left.
And of course that is why murderous savagery by Hamas is justified by virtue-signaling college students. Hamas is oppressed and Israelis are oppressors – or “colonialists” or “settlers” or whatever the term of art. That means Hamas can literally do no wrong.
Hamas leaders are well aware of this and exploit it. For example, here’s a recent pitch-perfect statement by a Hamas leader (safe in Qatar) that caters to the refined sensibilities of the Western postmodern left (“We are victims – everything we do is justified):
All of it is of a piece, and this message would fall on deaf ears without postmodern leftism and its oppressed/oppressor measure of morality. Once the “oppressed victim” mantle is bestowed, objective measures of humane behavior fly out the window. Hamas is well aware of that and is adept at exploiting it.
ADDENDUM: The White House proves it got the memo on the proper intersectionalist hierarchy of oppressed victims: see this on “Islamophobia.”
On a related note, the Arbel-daughter asked about the term ‘decolonization’. As best as I can tell (I think it was David Horowitz from whom I first heard this), ‘decolonization’ is just a new term for the far-left buzzword I remember growing up in the 70s, “anti-imperialism” — a term that goes back directly to Lenin as a way of weaponizing national or ethnic “liberation movements” against enemies of the USSR (and of communism more broadly).
Corollary: once such a movement places itself firmly in the Western camp, it is, of course, no longer useful to the cause, and now becomes disowned (at best) or demonized (at worst). This is in part what happened with Israel in its early years: some of the left supported it at first as a national liberation movement, then turned on it when it became obvious it was solidly in the Western camp.
RELATED ADDENDUM: Natan Sharansky, “Never Again Is Now“. Read the whole thing: I can’t do it justice by selective quoting.
(c) Bill Otis at Ringside At The Reckoning points out that Biden is now joining the chorus about the need of a “humanitarian pause” with release of hostages. He considers the possibility that this may be Biden’s handler BHOzo at work, but ultimately sees a much simpler, if more cynical, answer: His approval rating among his own party’s base has dropped 11 points since the October 7 massacres and Biden’s fairly outspoken support for Israel. Biden needs all parts of the “Democratic” coalition to get re-elected, and that includes the raving pro-HamaSS lunatics.
Spin, strangeness, and charm 