Jacob Ben-David Linker 🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸✡️🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸

@jacobalinker · Twitter · 2025-06-06 13:41 UTC

Here's an example of blithe western racism in middle eastern analysis. Carlstrom sees no difference between two different groups 40 years apart of different ethnic-political backgrounds if they're both Arab. Yasser Abu Shabab is a Tarabin Bedouin whose troops are clan members, Fatah people, and ex-Palestinian Authority Security Services. According to one report, an aide to Mahmoud Abbas helped vet his recruits, and an outside Arab Government is helping to train them. Meanwhile, Israel and Egypt cooperated with members of Shabab's clan (the Tarabin) in the Sinai to combat ISIS there. In contrast, Hamas had distinctly Islamist politics (the Muslim Brotherhood) and emerged out of distinct semi-ethnic communities (Fellahin and urbanites) who were displaced from 1948 which ended up in Gaza. The only exception to this is Khaled Mashaal, who was in the West Bank and a Jordanian citizen. But because they're all Arab Muslims, Carlstrom can't differentiate between these different Palestinians. It's bigotry in the form of self-proclaimed "enlightened" and "historically-informed" analysis. Not to mention, Israel tolerated the Islamic charities that became Hamas later in 1987 at a time when they were overwhelmingly nonviolent (1967 to 1987). Their resort to arms was initially a defensive measure against Fatah and the PLO, who were killing all opposition (Pro-Jordanians, Moderate semi-binationalists, apolitical local leaders, Islamists, etc.). Carlstrom is engaging in the same kind of stupidity that you hear when people say America armed the Taliban in Afghanistan. No we didn't. We funded the Mujahideen, who mostly became the Northern Alliance which opposed the Taliban. The Taliban, by contrast, emerged overwhelmingly out of the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. But because they're all bearded religious muslims, folks like Carlstrom can't tell them apart.