Have you actually bothered to ask a Palestinian person whether they think Hamas is on their side or not, or have you in your infinite cracker wisdom decided how it is? There are many resistance groups in Palestine and beyond, both Marxist and non-Marxist, both Islamic and secular, and Hamas is just one of these groups, and you know what? At the moment they are all united behind the cause of liberation, because it turns out they know how to recognize primary and secondary contradictions, and they are done letting the colonizers and their western "leftist" useful idiots divide them and pit them against each other.

The reality is that at the moment Hamas is the militarily strongest Palestinian resistance group, it is the most numerous and most well armed and it has the undeniable support of the population of Gaza whom they protect and are protected by. Why do you think the Zionist regime is collectively punishing the entirety of Gaza instead of - if Hamas was so unpopular - letting the people of Gaza betray Hamas and deliver them to the Israeli authorities? Why do you think the Zionists are so furious about the fact that Hamas was elected by the people of Gaza?

And do you realize that the Palestinian Authority in the occupied Palestinian West Bank territories - who are nothing more than a tool that the occupation uses to enable its colonization of the West Bank - has much less popular support than Hamas and if they were to run against Hamas in elections tomorrow they would lose? Of course none of this means that we support or endorse the reactionary and religiously conservative ideological position of Hamas. We have our ideology and they have theirs and there is a time and a place for resolving that contradiction, but it is not while a war of national liberation and resistance against apartheid and genocide is being waged.

If Stalin himself could see that it is strategically useful for communists to support national liberation struggles against imperialism and colonialism even when they are led by bourgeois and monarchist forces, and if Mao Zedong and the CPC were mature enough to realize the necessity of joining forces with their bitter nationalist enemies to expel the fascist, imperialist invaders, then why do you refuse to listen to the secular and Marxist-Leninist Palestinian liberation groups like PFLP when they tell you that the tactical alliance with Islamic resistance groups makes sense in the context of their struggle?

Do you know the material and social conditions of Palestine better than them? Maybe show a little humility and try learning from the groups who are actually involved in the struggle over the future of their homeland and their people. I know westerners look down on the people of the global south, particularly on Muslims, and think they need to be taught by the enlightened and civilized Europeans how not to be mindless fanatics and authoritarians, but do try and be a little less of a chauvinist while you're on this platform. Please? If you could tone down the paternalism and Orientalism that would be cool.