When I say Beinart’s “peace plan” resembles Hamas’ plan, I’m not joking

I tweeted last night:

I think I figured out what being a "progressive" Jew means.

Peter Beinart "progressed" from supporting Yasser Arafat's vision of a "solution" into adopting Hamas' vision.

— Elder of Ziyon (@elderofziyon) July 12, 2020

This was not entirely facetious.

In 2017, Hamas famously took out the blatantly antisemitic language in its manifesto that was supposed-to-but-not-really replace their original Hamas charter.

Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. …

Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, anti-Semitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage.

See? Hamas doesn’t say it wants to persecute Jews in its one state solution.

Other parts of the 2017 Hamas manifesto sounds very close to  what Beinart would want:

Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. It provides an umbrella for the followers of other creeds and religions who can practice their beliefs in security and safety. Hamas also believes that Palestine has always been and will always be a model of coexistence, tolerance and civilizational innovation.

Hamas believes that the message of Islam upholds the values of truth, justice, freedom and dignity and prohibits all forms of injustice and incriminates oppressors irrespective of their religion, race, gender or nationality. Islam is against all forms of religious, ethnic or sectarian extremism and bigotry.

Life in an Islamic state under Hamas rule sounds like a dream!

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said this also in 2006:

  "I dreams of hanging a huge map of the world on the wall at my Gaza home which does not show Israel on it," he said. "I hope that our dream to have our independent state on all historic Palestine (including Israel)."

    "This dream will become real one day. I'm certain of this because there is no place for the state of Israel on this land," said al-Zahar.

    However, he didn't rule out the possibility of having Jews, Muslims and Christians living under the sovereignty of an Islamic state, adding that the Palestinians never hated the Jews and that only the Israeli occupation was their enemy.

Does anyone believe Hamas? Beinart was skeptical in his 2012 “Crisis of Zionism” book, but he felt that their conciliatory statements should be considered by Israel and Zionists as reflecting an evolution of Hamas’ thought.  Now? Outside the Islamic part, Hamas’ manifesto sounds remarkably like Beinart’s plan for peace and happiness in the Middle East.

Now, Beinart will claim that his solution is different, because Isratine would not be defined as an Islamic or even an Arab state. But how can that be stopped? Every Arab-majority state defines itself as an Arab state; every one except for Lebanon refers to its Muslim identity in their constitutions, and Lebanon is a perfect example of how a nation that is constitutionally committed to equal rights is not the same as one actually committed to equal rights.

Many Arab states claim equal rights for non-Muslims in their constitutions, but that isn’t stopping Christians from fleeing as fast as they can.

Officially calling the state “Islamic” or not is a distinction without a difference. And that is the only difference between Peter Beinart and Hamas’ stated vision of the future of the borders of British Mandate Palestine.

Of course, Beinart studiously ignores the thousands of statements from Hamas every year that contradict the language of tolerance in its manifesto.

To Beinart, Arabs must be judged favorably; only Jews must be judged harshly; Palestinians must have sovereignty, Jews should be happy with the crumbs of dhimmitude that may come their way under a benevolent Muslim-majority rule.

Which is exactly what Hamas believes.