Atlantic Council senior fellow Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a rarity. A Palestinian who grew up in Gaza, now using his think tank platform in the United States to publicly criticize Hamas and call for a better Palestinian future that doesn’t revolve around destroying Israel.
Even rarer is calling anything in The New York Times a must-read. But Alkhatib’s commentary is certainly not the kind of content we are used to seeing there.
Here are just a few excerpts out of so many we could have included. Make sure to read the full piece.
Now, in the ruins of my once beautiful homeland, we are witnessing the coda of the group’s two decades of horrific rule. By agreeing in principle to a disarmament plan after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and slaughter of hundreds of civilians led to over two years of Israeli bombardment that killed tens of thousands of Gazans, including much of my family, Hamas is acknowledging what Palestinian leadership knew 30 years ago: that only peace could lead to freedom and armed struggle was a disastrous strategy.
Hamas should have no role in Gaza’s future but, appallingly, so many in the West who consider themselves allies of the Palestinian people still see the group as honorable resistance fighters. Their support for, or failure to denounce, the group only helps perpetuate the degradation of Gaza.
…
Hamas turned Gaza into a cautionary tale for Israel of what might happen under Palestinian self-governance. Revulsion at the group’s rockets, tunnels, smuggling and violence empowered Israel’s far right, which used Hamas’s actions to excuse their attack on the two-state solution.
Repeated wars killed thousands of Palestinians and wounded or displaced hundreds of thousands, locking Gaza into a cycle of destruction, reconstruction, resource theft and deeper Hamas entrenchment. Billions of dollars were wasted and the development that I saw emerging as a child was arrested.
This alone should have delegitimized Hamas among Western activists, academics, students, journalists, protesters, politicians and those who claim to be pro-Palestinian. Yet after Hamas carried out the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on Oct. 7, triggering the worst catastrophe in modern Palestinian history, I watched with dismay and anger as activists, students, academics, politicians and writers expressed a chilling appreciation for the massacre.
At a rally the day after the Hamas attack, organized and attended by people who became key supporters of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the “resistance” and “Intifada” were cheered. A day later, student groups announced that they stood “in full solidarity with Palestinian resistance” and that they hold “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Activists began referring to the Oct. 7 massacre by what Hamas called it, the Al-Aqsa Flood. The influential leftist streamer Hasan Piker, who campaigned for Mayor Mamdani, the Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and other Democrats, has normalized Hamas and praised other terrorist groups, even while he coyly denied supporting terror.
The resistance narrative became a matter of solidarity with social justice groups and marginalized communities, with Hamas as a symbol of liberation. As a result, a poll in April found that 40 percent or more of Americans between 18 and 34 said they supported Hamas over Israel.
When, in conversations, I urged activists, protesters and university students to pair cease-fire demands with calls for Hamas to release Israeli hostages, I was told this centered Zionist narratives. When I would beg them to pressure Hamas to surrender for Gaza’s sake, I was insulted and told resistance would continue indefinitely regardless of the cost.
And that’s exactly what has happened. Alkhatib’s commentary has sparked an online firestorm, with plenty of Hamas fanboys getting hot under the collar.
Including the LA Times’s Middle East bureau chief Nabih Bulos, demonstrating his own clear bias.
And no surprise that Mehdi Hasan has weighed in.
These sorts of reactions merely prove what Alkhatib himself has highlighted: the obsessive Israel hate that drives so many in the so-called “pro-Palestinian” movement at the expense of the very people they claim to be helping.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region. Get updates direct to your phone. Join our WhatsApp and Telegram channels!
© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
