Hot off the presses. According to two different representatives of Hamas, the targeting and murder of innocent civilians inside Israel via suicide bombing is A-okay. It’s “resistance.” And resistance is legitimate.
[A] spokesman for Hamas praised the bombing as a natural response to Israeli military policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as its ongoing boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian government - a position likely to complicate the group’s current efforts to end a crippling aid boycott imposed by the international community.
“So long as there is occupation, resistance is legitimate,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.
Barhoum also said attacks on Israel were preferable to the recent bout of Palestinian infighting in Gaza between his group and the more moderate Fatah. “The right thing is for Fatah weapons to be directed toward the occupation not toward Hamas,” he said.
The Hamas statement echoed a declaration by Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, who called the attack “a natural response to the continued crimes by the Zionist enemy.”
Fatah sees things differently (today anyway; that was not always the case. But people—and political movements—mature. Or they should.):
Fatah spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman condemned it, saying, “We are against any operation that targets civilians, Israelis or Palestinians.”
This is just in case you’re wondering why the United States and Israel have decided to support Fatah’s Abbas. He, unlike Hamas, has come around. It’s a sad day when the faction we have to choose as our ally merely condemns the heinous act of suicide bombing out of political expediency. But there you have it.
And a reminder from British writer Nick Cohen:
Political seriousness lies in stating which Palestine you are for and which Palestinians you support.
What choice do we have but to support Fatah and condemn Hamas?
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[...] So is Bradley Burston. He agrees with me that suicide bombing is wrong. (He further agrees with me that it’s an abomination that Hamas claims it’s a “natural” consequence of Israeli occupation.) He also thinks it will be the undoing of the longed-for Palestinian state: Let this much be said: Israel has never devised - not in Dimona, not in underground RAFAEL plants - a weapon against the Palestinian national movement that is anywhere near as effective as the Palestinian’s own suicide bomber. [...]
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