Gazans = Iranians
The rest pretty much follows
It turns out practically all Persians I have met had the following reaction to October 7:
“Holy shit! That is horrifying for Israel. And, can you imagine how awful it must be for Gazans to have to live under such dictators as Hamas?!?!”
And we Iranians don’t have to imagine — our families have suffered from radical Islam for generations.
Iranians identify with Gazans.
Gazans are indeed the victims. But their plight is not “cuz Israel.” Israel has no role to play in why Iranians have been oppressed for nearly 50 years, and that helps cut through the confusion. Whatever grievances Gazans have with Israel — and I realize that those grievances have been popularized in such a way that much of the world believes they are the greatest grievances of any people ever — it is negligible compared to being under the thumb of actual genocidal dictators, Hamas, for the last two decades.
So, imagine we Persian’s surprise when Western Progressives and Woke Right Conspiracy Theorists (see meme at the end of this piece if you’re confused as to who are the “Woke Right”) saw the vile savagery of Hamas on 10/7 and instead concluded that…
“Hamas represents Muslims, Arabs and Persians. I will show my support for these groups by agitating for Hamas.”
What must they think of Middle Eastern peoples that they believe Hamas is representative of your typical Muslim, Arab or Persian!
…when in fact Middle Easterners desperately want to rid themselves of Hamas and other radical Islamists.
And therein lies the problem. Gazans are victims, no doubt. Anyone with a brain sees that. But there are systematic biases and “illnesses” in the narratives preventing folks from seeing what should be obvious — that Hamas is why they are victims. Even butchering 1200+ civilians apparently wasn’t sufficient to get them to wonder whether those are the sorts of folks someone might want to be governed by.
There are, indeed, varieties of pressures which make it exceedingly difficult for Gazans — and any peoples oppressed by dictatorships — to get their viewpoint widespread.
Election? Many have somehow concluded that the Gazans voted for Hamas. There was an “election” in 2006, but it is the same sort of “election” that occurs in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Were leaders interested in peace able to voice concerns, or even run, without a realistic threat of death? Of course not. And, a year or so later Hamas eliminated through force (ahem, murdered) the main opposition, Fatah. At any rate, there have not even been faux elections since then. No, there was no election.
Polls? You cannot trust polls in dictatorships, especially in totalitarian societies with significant fractions of the population that righteously support the dictatorship. Even if I believe the pollsters are being honest in their sampling and reporting — and I don’t — respondents are unlikely to be truly random. Even being willing to show up, or to respond at all online, puts one at risk. Or at least the reasonable perception of risk. The righteous supporters of the dictatorship are disproportionately likely to be a respondent. And, even if the poll reaches the population at random, respondents should reasonably wonder whether it’s truly anonymous. I would worry. And there’s only one way to respond to ensure one is safe: answer with pro-dictatorship responses.
Lack of anti-Hamas demonstrations? Why, though, do we only see pro-Hamas demonstrations? As I have discussed, it is practically a tautology that this is what you will see. The fact that we see only pro-dictatorship demonstrations, even abroad, tells you nothing.
Why don’t Gazans overthrow them? Does the fact that Hamas hasn’t been overthrown somehow mean Gazans support them? Of course not, and yet I hear constantly, from both anti-Israel and pro-Israel factions. Toppling dictatorships is not simply about a population rushing the government buildings. It’s about dealing with a social mania that came along with the dictatorship itself, and infects a significant part of the population who enforces it bottom up. We anti-lockdowners couldn’t even stop the Great Covid Debacle, and Covid lockdowners aren’t anywhere near the brutal thugs “running” Gaza and Iran.
The victims of dictatorships tend to not even get “a side” in the debate. The various opposing camps almost invariably end up lumping the victims in with their oppressors, in part for the bad “reasons” I just mentioned and tried to dispel, but also due to other factors:
The dictatorship itself is obviously motivated to claim that the victims are on their side; Hamas is motivated to claim that Gazans back them. And they believe it! Dictatorships — and societal level evil generally — believe they have the righteous good on their side. They’re in charge in order to do their population a solid. The voices of the oppressed victims of the dictatorship therefore won’t eke out through pro-dictatorship narratives.
What about foreign enemies of the dictatorship? After all, that dictatorship is invariably the enemy of some other nation or nations, in this case Israel. But these external enemies are motivated to keep it simple; it’s easier to lump their enemy’s oppressed people into the camp of the enemy, making their actions (war, sanctions, rhetoric etc.) easier to justify to themselves. And, at an rate, the oppressed population (Gazans) usually have other historical grievances with the external enemy (Israel), and that external enemy is unlikely to be a reliable channel for broadcasting their plight. Again, the dictatorship’s victims don’t have a voice
Ok, how about a third group, foreign factions that are against the enemy of the dictatorship? That is, the “pro-Palestinians” in the West who are against Israel? Aren’t they a voice for Palestinians? It says so right in the name! However, they primarily identify themselves as being against the “powerful” enemy of the dictatorship. In this case they’re driven by being against Israel, and it only needlessly complicates the narrative to distinguish Gazans from their oppressive dictatorship. Keep it on point: “Israel bad.” The dictatorship itself is viewed as good — as freedom fighters. Never mind that the dictatorship is the farthest thing from freedom fighters. And never mind the domestic victims of the dictatorship, the actual Gazans.
So, there the oppressed population — the Gazans — sits while the world argues over them.
And yet no side recognizes the most important fact of their condition, the fact that is immediately apparent to us Persians:
That they live under a brutal dictatorship, a dictatorship that has made itself the enemies of other groups, further worsening their condition and fate. That that dictatorship is the enemy, and the barrier to peace and a better life
.
Here are, by the way, a few Palestinian (and a Yemeni) voices I recommend…
Find the Science Moment 10/7 Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHmody2xNMCtEBJb_WHFiQPpFF-kcj5og
That’s the “Woke Conspiracy Theory Right” at the bottom right.