Promoting Hamas' Narrative for Infidels

Isa Soares and Daniel Levy agree: Israel's to blame and a cease fire will restore stability to the region.

Soarez interviews Daniel Levy: CNN Journalist promotes the narrative via as-a-Jew.

Posted on September 22, 2024 by Richard Landes

If you want a good example of how Hamas’ key propaganda gets conveyed to Western publics, consider the following interview of Isa Soares and Daniel Levy discussing the possibility of an Iranian reaction to the assassination of Ismail Haniyya in Teheran…

Isa Soares:

Daniel, great to see you. Look, this is clearly a region on edge as it braces for Iran to… oh, and all proxies, I should say, to retaliate. We’ve heard from Iran. Their message is clear. They saying that blood vengeance is certain. How do you think Iran may respond here? Will it be solo? Will it leverage proxies in the region?

“Blood vengeance is certain…” [no pause]. This illustrates the way Jihadis can defeat Israelis. No one expects the Jihadis (no matter how “moderately they’re otherwise portrayed in the same segment) not to play by the rules of blood vengeance. But if Israel does it, that’s a blow to her moral standing. In a Reuters story about the October 7 attacks which tries hard to make the Palestinian operation look like a military attack on Israeli soldiers, with no reference to the civilians targeted and slaughtered, the headline runs: Israel vows “mighty vengeance” after surprise attack. Part of the Jihadi cognitive war is merely smearing Israel with the mud (by liberal-progressive standards) in which they operate.

Daniel Levy: Well, of course, Israel has carried out these assassinations, these extrajudicial killings. In fact, off the back of ten months, over 300 days since an attack on October 7th, which can’t be excused since the mass killing of civilians, the devastation, the causing of humanity in catastrophe, 40,000 Palestinians dead, the 15,000 children. If you wanted to dial this down, you have to put an end to that.

Note the rapid shift from the “inexcusable” October 7th to “humanity in catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip, using Hamas-supplied statistics, highlighting the 15,000 children. “If you want to dial this down” (which, of course, any sensible and humane person would want) is another way of saying “cease-fire,” which is precisely what Hamas wants, on its terms. And it is perfectly willing to have Gazans die and fill their outraging statistics, further fueling their campaign to have the West intervene to save them. Daniel Levy is a major proponent of that desire.

And were America were the Biden administration to have a diplomatic strategy to de-escalate? That’s what they would have to lead with using their leverage to get a cease fire in Gaza, an end to those attacks so that one could have the possibility of a regional de-escalation. They haven’t done that.

In other words, ‘Allow me to play a role in granting Hamas what it wishes, and will, despite what I say, prolong the misery of the region while Hamas continues to target Israeli civilians and sacrifices their own people… a sure-fire formula for “regional de-escalation”.’

What we saw in April after an Israeli assassination in an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus was a measured Iranian response, which showed they had capacity, which was broadcast in advance, which allowed Israel to be tols: Don’t now ratchet things up. Will Iran go for something similar and will Israel respond similarly? Because what we know now for sure is that Prime Minister Netanyahu sees political benefit in an open ended war. The Biden administration has been unwilling to use its leverage to prevent that. And so we are at a crossroads and at a time of great unpredictability, as you said.

Iranians are rational and play by international rules… Israelis are irrational, led by a man who prefers war to peace for political reasons. No one listening to this analysis would have the faintest idea of the role Iran plays in the disruption of the region – Jihad thrives on chaos. It is Israel who must be restrained. Hidden in this seemingly logical analysis is the core driver of the conflict, Islamic imperialism.

Isa Soares: Yeah. And looking on going back to that attack in in April, of course, when just remind our you as Iran launched, what, 300 or so projectiles a heads up I believe Daniel was given right given how embarrassing the strike was in Tehran. I wonder how aggressive you think there will be, because the risks here as [inaudible] we heard him saying are not just huge, but so dangerous at this juncture.

Soares seems to have her eye on the ball more than Levy. Iran played by international rules and got humiliated. But does she understand the stakes behind not retaliating in a shame-honor polity? Or, when she speaks of the risks is she invoking the fear of regional war (to which the policy they promote contributes)?

Daniel Levy: Exactly. Look, assassinations, extrajudicial killings, Israel has a long history of carrying these out. It assassinated it killed the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin. It killed many of the Hamas leaders, a massive skill that it assassinated the leaders of Hezbollah Mughniyeh in 2008. Hezbollah is still there, stronger. It’s the Americans took out Kassam Soleimani in an extrajudicial killing the the Iranian revolutionary Guard supreme commander. Iran is still strong. So these actions do not shift the strategic equation or the military equation, but they can sap morale and they can generate a response.

He knows the impact of assassinations and they’re nil. Classic trope of the appeasers: don’t upset them, it only makes things worse. If you just don’t provoke, things will get better. Promise.

And the question here is, do either Israel or the U.S. has to have a strong tag that goes beyond the military? Now, Netanyahu shows no interest in politics or diplomacy.

And Hamas does, of course, show interest in politics and diplomacy. It was obvious to observers, outside the misinformed “whole world,” that Hamas had no intention of actually negotiating something Israel could accept without making Hamas “winners” in the eyes of their win-lose, so often lose-lose, Palestinian culture, and assuring yet another round of violence. Even the Biden administration woke up (very late).

Another problem is that, according to Biden administration officials, Hamas makes demands and then refuses to say “yes” after the U.S. and Israel accept them.

That was a pattern already clear when Levy made his remarks.

Does the Biden administration show an interest in those things? Because if the signal Iran is receiving is that Israel continues to have a green light to do anything, then Iran may draw the conclusion and Hezbollah may rule that this is going to end in a regional war. So we might as well set out all. There is quite a consensus, as you know, all of this closely, that the escalatory actor, the unpredictable, dangerous actor is not primarily Iran and the axis of resistance.

Now that’s impressive, especially the use of the term “axis of resistance,” which is of course how they want us infidels to see them (and how, apparently, Levy sees them). The only way to avoid regional war is to rein in Israel. To say that Hamas (part of the “axis of resistance”) is not a – the – primary escalatory actor, the unpredictable, dangerous actor, who triggered this whole crisis with its savagery on October 7th, is an astonishing piece of misinformation.

What he really means is: in the scenario in which we get a cease fire (and Hamas survives), Israel is the actor whom we cannot control.

It is primarily Benjamin Netanyahu and the axis of Zionist extremism. And I think it’s correct to call it that. The US has to decide whether aligning with the Arab states have to make that decision or whether they’re going to wind this down. That’s next.

Nice. So we know the Iranians and their Jihadi allies, Hizbullah, Hamas, and Houthis, by their demopathic tag, specially created for useful infidels “axis of resistance,” and we identify the Israelis by the tag that the “axis of resistance” would most like useful infidels to use: the “axis of Zionist extremism.” For Hamas Media Protocol Compliance, this is an A+. A Hamas spokesman would have no problem whatsoever with this “analysis.”

Isa Soares: Very quickly, Daniel, I seen The Daily Telegraph just over the weekend quoting a senior Israeli source said that Joe Biden’s decision to quit the presidential race has emboldened Benjamin Netanyahu to take bolder action against Iran. I mean, what do you make of that comment? What do you make of the timing of some of these assassinations, even if Iran even if Israel says it’s not behind it?

Let me have you beat your drum some more…

Daniel Levy: I do think this is part of the calculation in the equation. But it’s not Biden quitting the race that has emboldened Netanyahu. It is that America has been dishonest with its own public, with the world, perhaps with itself by saying the only problem was Hamas and the axis of resistance and not acknowledging that they have leverage with Netanyahu. They haven’t used it. They continue to send the arms.

So now we find out that saying Hamas is the problem is lying. America doesn’t understand that it can force Israel to stop and that therein lies a cease-fire and regional stability. And while it would be hard to find an Israeli who doesn’t think the US has used arms shipments to twist its arm, for Daniel it’s nothing.

We would not be where we are today if the US Biden administration had not allowed this to happen, had not indulged and given Israel a green light, and it’s humiliating. The thing that they think they can use is to leak stories to their favored media outlets – I’m not referring to you here – that, “Hey, I was tough with him on a phone call. That’s not serious. That’s American weakness. That’s humiliation.

Still in high register. Not only is Biden weak, but he’s to blame for the terrible situation we’re in because of his not restraining Israel – as if restraining Israel would improve the problem. But then, for Levy, Hamas is not the problem.

Perhaps what’s most interesting aspect of this last ejaculation on his part is the invocation of the shame-honor tropes – weakness and humiliation. Israel is humiliating America by defending itself; America is humiliated until it forces Israel to let Hamas survive and take over the Gaza Strip again. Own-goal diplomacy asserted with passion and authority. And by an as-a-Jew.

Isa Soares: I’m glad you clarified that you’re not looking at me. Appreciate, Daniel. Good to see you. Daniel Levy there. Thank you very much.

Well, I would never humiliate my own side by suggesting we’re being used as tools.’

I wonder whom Daniel is thi’nking of, if not CNN? Fox and the Biden Administration fooling the American public?