RSS
Peter Beinart Refuses to Refer to Hamas as ‘Terrorists’ During Debate With Pro-Israel Professor
Peter Beinart, a prominent anti-Israel writer, being interviewed in January 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Peter Beinart, a professor, writer, and strident critic of Israel, has come under fire after refusing to classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, arguing that the designation carries racial undertones.
While debating with fellow City University of New York (CUNY) professor Jeffrey Lax on Wednesday, Beinart was asked whether he believes that Hamas should be considered a “terrorist group.” Though Beinart said that he believes Hamas has committed “war crimes” and engages in “targeting civilians,” he claimed that the term is “unfairly” applied to Palestinians.
Drawing an equivalence between Hamas — an internationally recognized terrorist group — and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Beinart argued that Palestinian civilians have also been subjected to terrorism at the hands of the Jewish state.
“I don’t like the word terrorism, because I believe it only gets applied to Palestinians,” Beinart said.
“I believe that Hamas has committed war crimes. I think that Hamas’s history of targeting civilians is immoral and a violation of international law, and I oppose it with all of my being,” Beinart added. “The reason that I don’t like the word terrorism is that it only gets applied to what Palestinians do, and I have seen so many Palestinians who have experienced terror.”
Lax, visibly astounded, responded that he would not let Beinart “get away with” defending Hamas from accusations of terrorism, pointing out that the Palestinian terrorist group “burned babies in front of their families” and “raped women and cut off their limbs” during its invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“You can’t call that terrorism?” Lax asked.
A visibly flustered Beinart conceded that the “horrible” crimes perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7 happened. However, the academic then drew a direct comparison between Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the Jewish state’s defensive military response in Gaza.
“If I’m going to call [Oct. 7] terrorism, then I also have to call the killing of huge numbers of Palestinian civilians [terrorism],” Beinart said, seemingly downplaying Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Beinart argued that the term “terrorism” has “become racist,” lamenting that “it is never applied to what America does, never applied to Israel or our allies.” He added that labeling Hamas a terrorist organization is comparable to calling a black American a “thug.”
Beinart, an anti-Israel writer, has established himself as one of the most prominent anti-Zionist public intellectuals in recent years. As a contributing opinion columnist for the New York Times, he penned an op-ed for the newspaper disavowing his previous support for Israel, claiming that he “no longer believes in a Jewish state.” He has accused Israel of oppressing Palestinians and erecting an “apartheid” state built on the notion of ethnic supremacy.
Though Beinart has condemned the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, murder of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 hostages in southern Israel, he has also compared the massacre to the Haitian Slave Revolt and Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He argued that Israel’s supposed long-term “oppression” of Palestinians caused the Oct. 7 mass slaughters to occur. He has also claimed without evidence that Israel has carried out a “genocide” in Gaza as revenge for Oct. 7.
In his new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, Beinart wrote that Jewish texts, history, and language have been “deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation [of the population of Gaza].”
The post Peter Beinart Refuses to Refer to Hamas as ‘Terrorists’ During Debate With Pro-Israel Professor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.