Whoopi Goldberg’s Hamas Odyssey

Whoopi Goldberg is the co-host of a talk show – “The View” — peopled by argumentative, annoyingly talkative women, most of whom are long on opinions firmly held and short on relevant knowledge to support their opinions. Among those exhibiting the program’s special house blend of ignorance and presumption, Whoopi Goldberg is the chief offender.

Recently she casually tossed off her view of Hamas, which was of the “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” variety. Goldberg’s too-sanguine view of Hamas can be found here: “Whoopi Goldberg, Here’s Why Hamas Is Recognized as a Terror Organization,” by Chaim Lax, Algemeiner, November 25, 2022:

Whoopi Goldberg, the famed American actress and co-host of the ABC daily talk show The View, has come under fire for seemingly questioning whether Hamas is a terror organization.

During a discussion on The View about Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s past statements on foreign affairs, co-host Sara Haines brought up Omar’s June 2021 comment that equated the United States and Israel with the Taliban and Hamas.

What Omar tweeted in June 2021 was this: “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”

The Minnesota Congresswoman (D-Mogadishu) thus put the U.S. and Israel on the same moral plane as the fanatics of Hamas and the Taliban. But what “unthinkable atrocities” has the United States committed in Iraq or Afghanistan? The American troops made great efforts in both theatres of war to minimize – they could not eliminate altogether – civilian casualties. Israel is even more solicitous of civilians. Given that Hamas in Gaza deliberately hides its weapons and launching pads in or near civilian structures — schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, offices – the IDF does everything it can. It telephones, emails, and even uses the “knock-on-the-roof” technique to warn civilians away from targets. Israeli pilots will abort a mission if they observe civilians, especially children, who are likely to be hurt. That is why Colonel Richard Kemp, a British officer who has taken part in five military campaigns, has called the IDF “the most moral army in the world.”

While Haines was expressing her indignation at Omar’s comment, she referred to Hamas and the Taliban as “organized terrorist communities,” to which Goldberg responded, “Depends on who you talk to.”

A relativist on stilts, apparently Goldberg doesn’t believe there is an immutable truth to be discovered or revealed, only various competing “truths “ that will “depend on who you talk to.” And who’s to say which “point of view” is correct? Here we can join hands with judgment-challenged Whoopi Goldberg and go round the mulberry bush, and where she’ll stop, nobody knows. Were Hitler, Stalin, Mao monsters? How would Whoopi Goldberg react, do you think, if Ms. Haines all insisted that our view of the white men who killed Emmet Till, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King “depends on who you talk to.”

So, to help Whoopi Goldberg and her viewers understand who considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization and why they do so, the following is a brief guide to everything you need to know about the organization.

Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is currently recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, Canada, the Organization of American States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In addition, New Zealand and Paraguay have designated the military wing of Hamas as a terror organization.

The reason that so many states and supranational bodies designate Hamas as a terror organization is that, since its founding in 1987, Hamas has been responsible for some of the most heinous attacks on civilians in Israeli history….

Some of the most notable attacks carried out by Hamas during those years include the 2001 suicide bombing of the popular Sbarro restaurant in downtown Jerusalem (which killed 15 people, including seven children), the 2001 suicide bombing of the Dolphinarium Disco in Tel Aviv (which killed 21 people, most teenagers), the 2002 suicide bombing of a festive Passover Seder meal in a Netanya hotel (which killed 30 people and injured 140) and the bombing of the Hebrew University (which killed 9 people, including four American citizens)….

In addition, Hamas held Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit hostage for five years and only released him in exchange for thousands of Palestinian terrorists who were imprisoned by Israel….

Hamas is responsible for more than 16,000 terrorist attacks on Israelis since 1980, including suicide bombings with mass casualties, shooting, stabbings, kidnappings, and, above all, rocket attacks from Gaza into civilian areas of southern Israel.

This comment by Whoopi Goldberg about Hamas [“depends on who you talk to”] is but the latest in a series of ill-informed statements that the American actress has made about Jewish and Israel-related matters.

In early 2022, Goldberg was suspended from The View for two weeks, following her claim that there was no racial aspect to the Holocaust and that it involved “two groups of white people.”

From her comment, it is clear that the only “racism” she recognizes or really cares about is that exhibited by whites against black people; she’s far less concerned when it is, as she put it so memorably, about “two groups of white people.” This suggests a palpable want of interest and sympathy for those “white people” – Jews – who through many centuries have been subject to diabolical persecution and who, within recent memory, were murdered by the millions.

Ten years earlier, during Operation Pillar of Defense (one of the military operations that Israel fought against Hamas), Goldberg came under fire for retweeting that “men, women & children in Gaza, Palestine have been getting Massacred [sic] for the past week.”

In response to the backlash, Goldberg tweeted that she’s not going to stop “having an opinion cos someone somewhere is not gonna like it” and that she was looking for more information to understand the situation….

No one was, no one is, trying to stop Whoopi Goldberg from expressing her opinion jes’ “cos someone somewhere is not gonnna like it.” But at the same time, Ms. Goldberg needs to be informed, her opinions are not immune to criticism if they appear to do violence to the truth. And when she retweeted with approval the accusation that the IDF was “massacring” men, women, and children during Operation Pillar of Defense, we are entitled to ask on what evidence she bases such an accusation. She promised to “look for more information to understand the situation.” I have no evidence that in the ten years that have passed, she has done this. Her recent comment on Hamas makes clear she does not consider it a terrorist group; she is sunk in the swamp of relativism. Whoopi thinks that how you characterize Hamas is all just a matter of your point of view. “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. “

Back to the books, Ms. Goldberg. Burn a little midnight oil and find out what is in the Hamas Charter about the group’s goal — the destruction of Israel. Read the lists online of Hamas’ terror attacks and the names of the Israeli, and other, victims. Read, too, about the many countries and supranational organizations such as the EU that have banned Hamas as a “terrorist organization.” Then demonstrate to your audience of millions that you have learned something, you were wrong to doubt the description of. Hamas as a terror group, and wrong, too, to engage in the moral relativism of it all “depends on who you talk to.”