Hamas is only responding to the violence initiated by Israeli colonialism [1] [2]. There was no Hamas in 1948, when Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine and began occupying Palestinian villages [3] [4]; there was no Hamas in 1967, when Israel escalated their occupation and ended up occupying Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights (part of Syria). The Oslo Accords, the supposed “peaceful and diplomatic” avenue—mainly representing the Palestinian Authority, which is seen as a more peaceful alternative to Hamas—to a “two-state solution” (i.e. some Palestinian government with its own autonomy over East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, with the territories seized in 1948 still deemed “Israeli”) were undermined by the Israeli government itself, just as Israel shot innocent protestors peacefully marching along the militarized borders of the Gaza Strip.

Violent resistance to Israel is simply a response to their own violence, of which all of this could be ended by Israel agreeing to end their occupation/apartheid system. Israel has the complete power to eliminate these conditions of oppression that brought Hamas into existence, and nothing positive will come of them escalating this to the nth degree. This is to of course assume that Israel is merely targeting “Hamas terrorists” in the current fighting rather than using their resistance as a scapegoat to expedite the ongoing settler-colonial genocide.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - Arch-liberal John F. Kennedy in 1962.

Israel has refused time and time again to consider Palestinian lives, and has been tightening the screws on Gaza specifically ever since 2014. Israel is easily the party at fault, and everything with the way they treat Palestinians, there is no "nice" option, so the people who are sick and tired of being murdered seemingly for fun are going to fight back.

It's not about being behind Hamas. Hamas didn't come into being in a vacuum, but is a direct result of what was happening in the region for years. At first Israel let Hamas form or even encouraged it, attempting to use it to keep Palestine divided. Destroying Hamas, which has the highest cost for civilians, is useless if the circumstances that gave rise to it didn't change. Another Hamas will just form. It's like the US trying to bomb Taliban out of existence, they are in power now after all the death and tragedy.

Edit: if you want to know more, there's an archived Wall Street Journal article citing Israeli sources about how Hamas was formed, and the role Israel played in that.

Dr Finkelstein responds to Bernie Sanders' recent statement opposing a ceasefire.

only takes 20 minutes at 2x speed

Hamas should be dismantled, but it should be dismantled after Israel. In the current moment, "dismantling Hamas" means disarming Palestinians and/or excusing their murder by settler-colonists. In the current moment, Hamas is part of Palestinian resistance and therefore should be supported in the absence of a genuinely more viable alternative, which does not exist no matter what concern-trolling zionists tell you about "alienating supporters".

Hamas is just people fed up with their families' suffering. Why would you be opposed to that?

It's basically like when slaves like Nat Turner rose up and killed their masters and the families of the slavers. Is the random kid of a slaver responsible for slavery? Probably not. Will I cry for them and condemn the revolution against oppression? Definitely not.