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Gideon Polya chides Ilhan Omar for comparing self-defense group Hamas to genocidal “Israel”

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Science professor Gideon Polya says Rep. Ilhan Omar should be ashamed of herself for comparing Israel to Hamas:

“Somali-born and Muslim American Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan  Omar recently caused a storm by Tweeting ‘We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice.’ She was variously criticized by the Left and the Right for comparing the US and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban.

“Leftists criticized Ilhan Omar for unfairly  implying a moral equivalence between  (a) the Indigenous Palestinian Hamas and the Indigenous Afghan Taliban taking up arms to defend their countries against foreign invaders (as is permitted in International Law), and (b) the serial war criminal, International Law-violating  foreign invaders, US-backed Apartheid Israel and the US, respectively.

“In stark contrast, the Orwellian Republicans and Democrats condemned  Ilhan Omar as asserting the moral equivalence between (a) the assertedly ‘democratic’ and ‘law-respecting’ US and US-backed Israeli invaders assertedly bringing ‘peace’ and ‘freedom’ by war,  and (b) their Indigenous opponents who are classified by the US Alliance as ‘terrorists.’

(1). Nuclear weapons possession: Hamas (0), Taliban (0), US (5,800-7,315), Apartheid Israel (90-400).\

(2). Countries with territory invaded by Hamas (0), Taliban (0), US (72), Apartheid Israel (13)…

People killed this century by violence and imposed deprivation by Hamas (circa 1,000), Taliban (circa 10,000), US (over 30 million Muslims), Apartheid Israel (100,000 Occupied Palestinians; goodness knows how many people killed in Israeli-backed  conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Guatemala, Sudan, South Sudan and elsewhere in the Developing World)…

Humanity and the Biosphere are  existentially threatened by nuclear weapons (nuclear terrorism) and deadly climate change inaction (Climate Genocide): Hamas (negligible contribution), Taliban (negligible contribution),  US (world-leading contribution as a world leader as both a nuclear terrorist and a climate criminal state), Apartheid Israel (a world-leading contributor on a per capita basis as a nuclear terrorist state and as a contributor to  egregious neoliberalism and  climate criminality).

For details see Gideon Polya, “Ilhan Omar & moral non-equivalence of Hamas & Taliban versus US & Israeli invaders”, Countercurrents, 16 June 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2021/06/ilhan-omar-moral-non-equivalence-of-hamas-taliban-versus-us-israeli-invaders/ and please tell everyone you can.

Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya, Melbourne, Australia.

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