Of course, according to the U.S. and the EU, all of Hamas is a terrorist organization, not merely its military wing.
In a third category of unpaid consultants to Hamas’s genocidal agenda we find several Western politicians. Probably the best example is Austrian President Heinz Fischer. He must have rendered Hamas leaders quite happy when at the European Alpbach Forum in August he said that the Israeli military acts in such a manner that the number of civilian deaths is significantly if not extremely disproportionate. Fischer said nothing about Hamas’s use of human shields, or Hamas’s shooting from residential areas, or Hamas’s elaborate network of tunnels meant to facilitate terrorist attacks that would kill as many Israeli citizens as possible.
When Fischer visited Yad Vashem in 2008, he wrote in its guest book: “From here, we take the message that we have to work for the education of the young generation towards human rights, human dignity and mutual respect. In this spirit we have also to encourage all human beings to stand up against racism and anti-Semitism in any form.”
But a president of Austria, where Nazism flourished, does not educate anyone by indirectly supporting Hamas.
Former U.S president Jimmy Carter and former UN human rights high commissioner and president of Ireland Mary Robinson are in another category altogether. They are open supporters of Hamas’s interests. In an article in Foreign Policy, they state that the way to solve the conflict is via Israel’s lifting of the blockade of Gaza and Israel’s recognizing Hamas as a legitimate partner in a Hamas-Fatah unity government.
In short, Hamas’s policies of exposing the Palestinian populace by shooting from residential areas and using civilians as human shields, thus increasing the number of deaths among its own people, has given it bonus points in the UN and parts of the Western world. Further, the costs of repairing any damage in Gaza will be paid for by others.
With so many free consultants and various countries willing to apologize for Hamas and foot the bill for the damage caused by that terrorist outfit, it’s clear that genocide-promoting groups can have quite a good image these days – particularly if the group is Palestinian.