Hamas: We are justified because we are oppressed

There is no moral status in victimhood. Yet Hamas is rewarded for cowardly hiding behind this sentiment in the same way it hides behind its own people. It is repellant to see a member of the Hamas leadership callously state that their slaughter of 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7 was justified. “Nobody should blame us for the things we do,” said Ghazi Hamad on LBC tv network on October 24, 2023. “On October 7, October 10, October one-millionth, everything we do is justified,” because Israel “constitutes a security, military and political” threat to the Arab and Islamic nation that must be “removed.” 

In other words, we must understand that satanic acts of evil are justified when viewed from the lens of the oppressed. If the root of violence is oppression, we cannot blame Hamas or the Palestinians. Rather the blame should be directed at the oppressive conditions and the oppressor, which in this case is the “colonizer” Israel. This sentiment Hamas is promoting is shared by the growing number of hapless social justice warriors brainwashed and trained in our decrepit universities to hate all Western “colonizers” – their power, their institutions and their values.

It is a disgrace; it is disheartening. But it is not shocking. This over-simplistic, one-vector view of hierarchical differences has been greatly abused. With the imprimatur of the educated elites, being oppressed or an ally of the oppressed, has been elevated to high moral status. This innate human tendency to play victim and blame others is a condition of the heart that is as long in the tooth as it is vile. It is what God warned us against thousands of years ago. Consider Job in the Bible.

The devil challenged God to make Job a victim to prove that an oppressed person has no recourse but to rebuke God. “Stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face,” declared the devil. But despite the death and loss and insufferable circumstances Job found himself in, he did not admonish God. He did not get enraged and blame God for his plight, and then justify his anger and bitterness. Job did not become a victim and for that, God blessed him by exponentially multiplying his wealth and family.

Then there’s David, who suffered greatly as someone dodging death many times over at the hand of King Saul of Israel. Saul was jealous of the young warrior’s popularity. Despite the threats to his life, David refused to kill Saul. In 1 Samuel 24:6, David says, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master [Saul], the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” David didn’t rise to power through murder. He became king of Israel because he was obedient to God. God rewards faith to him, not hardened hearts.   

Nowhere in the Bible does God use oppression as justification for war. He never says, I will save these innocent people from oppressors! In fact, God of the Old Testament encourages war, violence and destruction only when people are disobedient to Him and His laws. As it says in Genesis 6:5: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” When God brought on the flood, he wasn’t selective. He didn’t separate the oppressed from the oppressor. All men and women were wicked, only Noah and his family were saved from the flood circa 2300 BC. 

Doesn’t Jesus stand with the oppressed?

To be sure, some new-age churches argue that Jesus Christ is a symbol of oppression. In this article: “The Cross: a symbol of solidarity with the oppressed,” this pastor says Jesus was in solidarity with the disenfranchised and the ones in power murdered him. Today, the pastor argues, the ones in power continue to murder the weak through the weapons of capitalism, colonization, and racism. This church teaches to look at Jesus as a reminder of our solidarity with the marginalized, which means, to this church, that we should do what we can to topple the evil empire that exists today. 

One could see how Jesus’ teaching could be distorted. He did turn Roman mythology on its head, and popularized weakness as quiet power. He was a carpenter, not a Roman aristocrat; he rode a donkey into Jerusalem; not a motorcade. He suffered and was executed by an empire. Yet God rewards him and the weak who stood with him. Paul even reminds us in 2 Corinthians that Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus warns us against using weapons. In Matthew 26:52, Jesus says: “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” He also says in Luke 6:27 “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."

We can look at these verses and believe we should stand down and demand a ceasefire in Gaza. But not so fast. Jesus also recognizes a government in place that is obligated to enforce rules and punish bad behavior. 

“If you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing,” Paul writes in Romans 13:1-7. In this verse, Paul is referring to the governing authorities. It is clear Jesus instructs the governing authorities to protect his people. In other words, the governing authorities have a duty and obligation to protect what they're entrusted to care for. 

It is worth noting that despite Hamas being in leadership, they’ve absolved themselves from any moral duty to take care of their citizens. “These tunnels are meant to protect us from the airplanes,” said Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas leader, speaking to Russia Today TV on Oct. 27, 2023. “Everybody knows that 75% of the people in the Gaza Strip are refugees… And it’s the responsibility of the United Nations to protect them. According to the Geneva Convention, it’s the responsibility of the occupation to provide them with all the services, as long as they’re under occupation.” 

Hamas does not care for its people. Why are the demands on Israel to stand down? Where are the calls for Hamas to surrender? 

New value system: Liberate the oppressed

Oppression is not a moral high ground to stand on, though it has become a popular breastplate to put on. There are two weapons that get people to stand up for oppression: guilt and contempt. People are either guilted into feeling ashamed for their privilege and sympathy for those less fortunate, or they’re driven to feel contempt for those who are more fortunate. And this tiresome playbook has evolved over the last couple centuries all in the name of creating a revolution toward a communist end.

From Karl Marx to Mao Zedong, Herbert Marcuse, to Paulo Freire to Kimberle Crenshaw to Black Lives Matter to the Trans movement, many in society are trying to teach the world that the only way to view reality is through the prism of the oppressor-oppressed. The good and evil are defined by these two pole positions. Good and evil isn’t within each of us individually. Evil only resides in the oppressors. They are pure evil: their ways; their beliefs; their economic structures; their political policies. In order to end this evil and the people in power perpetuating it therefore is to get rid of the institutions and the people in power. Anything less than that goal is to lack compassion for those not in power: the oppressed. Hamas’ victim claim puts them on a pedestal, not in the gutter where they belong. 

This is a worldview; It is a religion: a belief that liberation comes from becoming gods within with the purpose of obliterating everything that makes us human. Russian anarchist Mikkhail Alexandrovich Bakunin tried to create a world that was equitable with no hierarchies. He believed such a world of true liberty and equality required fraternity, which is correct. Fraternity is when people get along and have common interests and values. It’s a brotherhood and it was this fraternity that made America great. What Bakunin found, however, was that fraternity was elusive. This is because evil resides in all of us. There will be those in a socialist or communist structure that will try to gain more for themselves and the result will be a lower class, an oppressed class but sadly in a communist structure, there will be no ladder to elevate them. 

There is only one place that is equitable and it’s heaven. Try as man might, he will never be able to create heaven on earth and eradicate oppression. Many have tried these anarchist, communist, socialist systems in the past. They don’t end well.  You can make peace with that and do the most with what you have or you can resent your station and be stuck in hell forever.