Hasan Piker and the Narrative about Israel – Untethered to Reality and Harming the Cause of Palestine

Hasan Piker has doubled down on his affirmation that “Hamas is a thousand times better than [Israel]”. Piker is “one of the most followed political voices in the country” on the left, according to Rethan Salam, President of the Manhattan Institute. An assessment of his claim will show that Piker’s toxic narrative about Israel is totally untethered from reality, which has not stopped it from circulating almost unchecked. Through such distortions, the Palestinians’ allies have led them to the dark side of their national aspirations — destroying Israel rather than building their own potential state.

Compare: In Israel there is freedom of religion. It is far from perfect, but Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Druze and other minority religions are recognized and given a modicum of government support. Personal status cases, weddings and divorce are given over to the pertinent religious courts to decide. While there are cases of discrimination and unequal government support, freedom of religion is so vibrant in Israel that it has the only Christian community in the Middle East that is growing in population. In every other Muslim country, the Christian community is under such pressure that it is declining or even disappearing.

There is no freedom of religion in Hamas-controlled Gaza. Hamas not only rejects alternative religions, but reserves the right to treat Muslims who differ from its religious beliefs as Kaffir (unbelievers) who can be suppressed — even killed. Muslims who convert to another religion can be executed for blasphemy.

Israel has freedom of speech. Press and media channels include unrestricted criticism of the government and of the state. Under Hamas, there is no freedom of speech. Individuals or outlets that criticize Hamas or its policies are subject to violent suppression and termination with extreme prejudice.

In Israel there is political freedom, a robust opposition, and the constant creation of new parties, giving political outlets to those who oppose the government. Arab political parties consistently place 10-15 MK’s in the Knesset. In 2021, an Arab party even joined the ruling coalition for the first time. Arab jurists serve in various levels of Israel’s justice system. This includes Khaled Kabub, a Supreme Court Justice since 2022.

Hamas seized control of Gaza by a violent takeover (after its victory in the 2006 Palestinian election was suppressed). Fatah officials were either fired, exiled, or killed to intimidate and suppress opposition. No opposition parties or non-terrorist militias were allowed in Gaza. No Jews are allowed to live, let alone function politically in Gaza. The last time a Jew lived in Gaza was as a hostage in an underground tunnel.

No Jews are allowed to live, let alone function politically in Gaza. The last time a Jew lived in Gaza was as a hostage in an underground tunnel.

The U.N. office of the High Commission for Human Rights reports that Hamas took advantage of the Gaza war to beat, maim and publicly execute dozens of Palestinians. These extrajudicial punishments included “executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks and beatings.” They were framed as punishments for alleged “collusion with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, drug related offense or affiliations with internal rivals.” Hamas’ actions were publicized during and afterward to instill fear in the population and eliminate political dissent.

In Israel, women practice in every profession and workplace. By law, sex discrimination is prohibited and political parties are required to include women in their electoral lists. (The Haredi parties are violating these requirements and have been condemned by the Supreme Court for doing so.)

Under Hamas rule, women are coerced to stay in the home, to wear hijabs when they go out, and are not permitted any public or political leadership. Honor killings are carried out against women who are perceived as socially too free or living on their own away from family.

In Israel, homosexuals are protected by law from discrimination. There is a flourishing gay culture and night life. Palestinians have been known to cross over to Israel to be able to live as LGBTQs. Tel Aviv has been voted the most gay-friendly city in the Middle East. The Speaker of the Knesset is openly gay and his life partner attends public functions alongside him.

Tel Aviv has been voted the most gay-friendly city in the Middle East. Under Hamas, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death.

Under Hamas, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. Several years ago, a commander in Hamas’ military wing — married with children — was outed as a homosexual. He was removed from his post, tried and eventually condemned to death for his “deviant” behavior.

In Israel, there is a flourishing start-up/high tech ecosystem — one of the best in the world. Israel leads the world in health sciences and cybersecurity. Israeli scientists have won Nobel Prizes and other international awards recognizing their contribution to the advance of science and medicine.

Under Hamas, the education system is fundamentalist and anti-science. By supporting Hamas — instead of encouraging the highly-educated Palestinians to focus on building their society and economy — the net outcome is that the Palestinian universities have not yet yielded a single Nobel prize winner or world class savant. They have produced terrorists — including among faculty. They have also served as cover for Hamas infrastructure and terror cells.

By supporting Hamas — instead of encouraging the highly-educated Palestinians to focus on building their society and economy — the net outcome is that the Palestinian universities have not yet yielded a single Nobel prize winner or world class savant. They have produced terrorists — including among faculty.

Israel’s founding Declaration of Independence proclaimed that the state would be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel. It pledged “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or status.” It appealed for peace with the Arabs and invited their partnership in the upbuilding of the state on the basis of full and equal citizenship.

Hamas’ founding charter set as its goal the destruction of the state of Israel. “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it as it obliterated others before it.”  It proclaims that the land of Palestine is exclusively Muslim and calls for jihad to eliminate the invaders, i.e., all Israelis. It also speaks of an eschatological final battle in which all the Jews in the world will be wiped out.

The Jews are the only indigenous people that was exiled and/or decimated by its conquerors yet came back, rebuilt its homeland, and regained sovereignty (unlike the American Indians, the Canadian Inuit Peoples and the Australian Aborigines).  Hamas and Hasan Piker dismiss the Jews’ return to their homeland and pass a death sentence on Israel as a “settler colonialist” state — instead of working for two states living peacefully side by side.

This extended comparison of Israel and Hamas raises two questions. One is, what are Hasan Piker’s values in asserting that Hamas is a thousand times better than Israel? Does he believe that executing and kneecapping political opponents is a thousand times better than democratic politics? Relatedly, why is he accepted as an ultra-progressive Democrat? What is ultra-progressive about honor killings? Or condemning gays to death?

The second question is: what does it say about the takeover of the Democratic Party in places like Michigan’s Senate primary or New Jersey’s 12th Congressional district that a leading candidate invited Hasan Piker to campaign alongside him and agreed with his claims that Hamas was a thousand times better than Israel?

Piker and other allies continue to push the Palestinians to follow a death cult rather than strengthen the groups that want to build a prosperous economy, a university and civic welfare network — as the Palestinians in Gaza did from 1967 until the Oslo accords. That path paved the way for a potential Palestinian national fulfillment and was supported by a majority of Israelis.

Those who focus on destroying Israel have convinced 80% of Israelis that a Palestinian state will never live in peace with the Jewish state. True, they have successfully demonized Israel for the moment, but they have doomed a two-state solution. The only hope for a better future is to turn the Palestinians away from Hamas and back on the path of building their economy and a democratic society that conceivably could regain the trust of Israelis.

Rabbi Irving Greenberg is a Senior Scholar in residence at the Hadar Institute of New York and Jerusalem. He served as chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from 2000-2002. The views expressed in this piece are personal, not of the institutional affiliations.