And Imagine Such a President

Someone here is very naive, and someone not. The first Indian-American woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives, she is not vile and pro-terrorist, unlike fellow progressives Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, and Rashida Tlaib.  And appearing on Sunday's Meet the Press, Washington State's Pramila Jayapal explained

Well, look, Kristen, first of all, nobody has any love for Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that has deprived the Palestinian people, absolutely, of many, many things in the time of their rule. And let's not forget that the last election, where Hamas was elected, was 16 years ago. Half of Palestinians are children. They were not part of that. And Hamas is not Palestinians. And Palestinians are not Hamas. We have to be very clear about that.

"Hamas is not Palestinians." Not only is that accurate, Jayapal she is one of very few people- politicians, pundits, journalists, whomever- who will acknowledge that. The people of Gaza are not the Palestinians of Israel proper, nor of the West Bank, nor of Jordan, the nation more than half of whose residents are ethnic Palestinians. There is a difference between the Gazans and the other peoples, unless all of life now is race and genetics, with no account for citizenship, national lineage, or anything else.

It is true, moreover, that the misguided individuals who voted Hamas into power did so many years ago and many changes occur over time, including the death of individuals and the birth of so many more.

However, reality mourned when Jayapal remarked (moments earlier)

.... we need immediate sustained humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza. We need the bombings – and, you know, you can call it a humanitarian truce, as 140 countries said in the resolution that was passed at the United Nations. The United States was one of only 14 countries to oppose that resolution. Call it a humanitarian truce. Use that time to make sure we get the hostages out, both American hostages and Israeli hostages....  And I think this is the moment for us to de-escalate, to call for cessation of hostilities, and to allow humanitarian aid through and the negotiators to work to get the hostages released.

Calling a truce, then expecting hostages to be released and Hamas to cool its heels is almost as naive as John Lennon's "Imagine," in which bad music was paired with lyrics so unrealistic as to be silly:  "Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger; a brotherhood of man."

Without regard to Lennon or Jayapal, a wise and balanced remark: 

In a conversation with @NorahODonnell, Secretary Hillary Clinton on those calling for a ceasefire:

“People who are calling for a ceasefire now do not understand Hamas, that is not possible. It would be such a gift to Hamas because they would spend whatever time there was a… pic.twitter.com/cCcL1JusCU

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 30, 2023

She also proposed a Public Health Rapid Response Fund to deal with pandemics... in 2016. But oh, those emails!

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