Mick Hartley

From MEMRI, an article by journalist Musa’ad Al-Thobaiti in the Saudi daily Okaz – They Hide in Their Tunnels and Sell Out Their People For a Paltry Price:

"Hamas leaders, along with their children, live in luxury in five-star hotels [in Qatar], and have immeasurable wealth, and at the same time give high-flown speeches about resistance. As for [Hamas] fighters, after bringing death and destruction upon the Gazans, they hid themselves in tunnels and left the Gazans to face their fate [alone], exposed to the cruelest Israeli weapons and to a merciless army.

"When the Israeli forces entered Gaza, they did not have to fight in the streets, as they had expected, for the soldiers of [the Hamas military wing, the Izz Al-Din] Al-Qassam [Brigades], preferred to stay alive and forgot their claim that 'Gaza will become the graveyard of the occupier,' which they had used to drug the Arabs. [Instead] Gaza became the graveyard of the weak Palestinians, and it's quite possible that the members of Hamas left the tunnels and traveled to other countries.

"Sadly, these are the people whom the [Islamic] nation praises. A group of cowards and traders in blood, who are the root of the disaster of this region. A genuine, brave and devoted commander stands with his followers and leads them. These guys are interested [only] in the vanities of this world, yet there are people who are deceived by them, people who have lost their minds and are fighting for nothing and losing their lives for leaders who have sold them out for a paltry price – and behind them is a nation that has become addicted to shouting and warnings and is hanging on to anyone who sells it illusions."

There are of course the usual figures across the Arab Middle East keeping to the party line, but it's notable how many voices, as here, are disgusted with Hamas and disgusted by the mindless adulation of their savagery.

As I've said before, if a major aim of the Oct 7th pogrom was to bring the Arab world together in condemnation of the inevitable Israeli response, it doesn't seem to have worked out. On the other hand what they can't have expected – what no one expected – was the extraordinary outpouring of antisemitism and adulation of Hamas that we've seen across the western world.