This Hamas official has said a couple of interesting things:
- He doesn’t want Sir Tony Blair (former UK prime minister) involved in the governance of Gaza, despite Trump’s plan for the region proposing this.
- Hamas doesn’t plan to disarm, unless they are giving their weapons to a future Palestinian army.
Quote about the first point:
“When it comes to Tony Blair, unfortunately, we Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims and maybe others around the world have bad memories of him… We can still remember his role in killing, causing thousands or millions of deaths to innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq… We can still remember him very well after destroying Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Quote about the second point:
Dr Naim said Hamas would not completely disarm and that weapons would only be handed over to the Palestinian state, with fighters integrated into the Palestinian National Army… “No one has the right to deny us the right to resist the occupation of armies,” he said.
Thoughts on this?
They don’t want a British to mangle in politics in the middle east? How strange… They are thankful to a western dictator for his influence? Wtf?
Frankly, I suspect that there’s probably plenty of back-door wheeling and dealing, but if you take Naim’s rationale at face value, that he’s just after someone friendly to Muslims — which I probably wouldn’t:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/27/pete-hegseth-tattoo-kafir/82696572007/
Photos show that Hegseth has the word “kafir” tattooed in Arabic below his right bicep. The phrase is used in the Quran to refer to someone who has “disbelief” or “a rejection of true belief,” according to Islamic Scholar Abdullah Al Andalusi.
The phrase appears alongside a tattoo reading “Deus Vult,” a phrase attributed as a rallying cry of the First Crusade.
That’s not to mention his Jerusalem Cross tattoo.
I wouldn’t especially call the Trump administration a great choice to be dealing with if the metric is regard for Muslims.
How bad a person do you have to be that people would rather meet Trump than you?
Anyone who knows their Middle Eastern history will know Sykes-Picot the agreement between the British and French government from midway through the first world war.
Most of the current mess goes back to that agreement.
Also, the British then ruled Mandatory Palestine for another 25 or so years after the end of WW1.
So yeah, aside from everything else, there’s still lingering resentment for the British.
I mean, let’s also just listen to what Naim is saying here, this isn’t about a bunch of stuff that happened a hundred years ago, it’s about stuff that happened 20-25 years ago. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars were devastating events that killed tens of thousands of people and were administered in the most careless and corrupt ways possible, enriching a bunch of the douchiest westerners and empowering a lot of corrupt and violent as fuck Iraqis and Afghanis as well (like, paying bribe money to shitheads and looking the other way when they murdered their opponents was just how western companies did business there). We don’t talk about those things like we should because the people who carried them out are still alive and connected to powerful people, but they were horrific crimes that affected many many many lives and are going to be remembered for generations.
The Afghanistan and Iraq wars were devastating events that killed tens of thousands of people
*Hundreds of thousands for these two wars alone, millions for the broader war on terror. Iraq alone killed 300 thousand.
I mean as shitty as Trump is, he does get points for withdrawing from Afghanistan. Given your average Middle Easterner doesn’t give a shit about domestic American politics, it makes sense Blair would get more hate.
That was Biden.
Biden finished the withdrawal but Trump’s admin had done the “negotiations” surrounding it. You think Biden wanted to do that so early in his term so quickly? He probably would have aimed it for 2024 near the election.
Biden finished the withdrawal, but according to Wikipedia:
The United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 2001–2021 war. In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed the United States–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar,[7] which stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and in return for the Taliban’s counter-terrorism commitments, provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan by 1 May 2021.
Next, you’ll tell me Elon Musk didn’t found Tesla or Paypal!
Hamas has been willing to hand over governership of Gaza to a Unity Government for over 10 years. When they first made the agreement back in 2014, Israel bombed them. Not in the 2008 Gaza war or the 2012 Gaza war, but actually it was the 2014 Gaza war.
everyone has the right to defend themselves and the right to a well to a well-regulated militia.
if it is a right in the USA, its a right in GAZA.
( it not a right in canada, there you are dogfood waiting to happen)
when Palestine is a country it should take most of the US constitution word for wordI think people do have the right to defend themselves. I don’t think Hamas’s attack in October 2023 was self-defence though.
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The trump proposed ceasefire really sucks and I hate that Tony Blair slimed his way in. As shit as it is this is still an off ramp to the war and a path to peace.
Hamas really should not be talking about a Palestinian army at this moment. They should not be even signalling that they still have a force and an intention to keep pursing militarisation.
Anyone who would be “provoked” by such statements was already looking for an excuse and would find one no matter what Hamas did.
