In what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity (thank you, Jules Winfield), the similarities between MAGA and Hamas became clear to me when listening to news of the Phase 1 implementation of the Israel/Hamas peace treaty. Despite all attempts to weed them out, HAMAS followers took to the streets, making known their return to power. Phase one calls for the release of 33 hostages held by Hamas, and the first three were released on the same day as the Trump inauguration. The release of 737 Palestinian prisoners and detainees began around the same time Trump announced pardons for 1,500 of the January 6th participants. Already released are the leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
It may be hard to wrap your head around thinking of MAGA as a terrorist organization. Consider where they evolved from. MAGA didn’t spring up when Trump rode down an escalator in 2015. Trump merely gave a name to something that has existed since 1865, when white supremacists in the South found themselves temporarily out of power. HAMAS is relatively new compared to the essence of MAGA. HAMAS has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 before there was a State of Israel.
MAGA is based on white supremacy with a bit of misogyny on the side. The people they hate generally align with that of their predecessors, the Klan, including Black people, non-white immigrants, Jewish people, and Mexicans. The Klan despised Catholics, whereas MAGA reached a detente with many Catholics over the issue of abortion.
When HAMAS won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, women feared they would be forced to live under a strict religious dress code, which generally didn’t happen. Women have suffered due to the economic conditions and general lack of employment. When Trump first became President in 2016, women feared they would lose the Constitutional right to abortion. Trump appointed three Supreme Court Justices, which made that happen.
Women play almost no role in Hamas’s leadership, never having held more than one minister position out of 25, the Minister of Women’s Affairs. Several women were nearby during Trump’s first term, but none had real power. His second-term appointees won’t change that, but does anyone besides Trump have any real power in his administration?
You may find it hard to reconcile comparing MAGA to Hamas, particularly after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which 1,139 Israelis were killed, most of them civilian. Some women were raped and children killed as well. Surely, MAGA couldn’t have done anything to that, could they?
The Ku Klux Klan that preceded MAGA has instigated multiple violent attacks ranging from individual lynchings and rapes to the destruction of Black sections of towns like Ocoee, FL, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK, and Rosewood, FL. The South was full of “Sundown towns” where Black people and others of color had to be out of town by a specific time or face arrest or worse. When Donald Trump purchased the mansion in Palm Beach, FL that he turned into Mar-a-Lago in 1985, Palm Beach was a sundown town. Perhaps that is what attracted him to the area.
When Hamas was in power before the current war, they shared some power with the Palestinian Authority. Events of the past few days suggest that Hamas may be in full control, particularly after the complete withdrawal of Israel’s forces from Gaza during Phase II. Hamas is attempting to consolidate power, but it remains to be seen if they’re successful.
Trump’s return to the White House involves a consolidation of power as well. Long-time civil servants are being replaced with MAGA acolytes. Previously non-political positions will now be inhabited by cult members. Former red lines have been erased, and several members of the new administration have been accused of sexual assault and rape, which has become a badge of honor. A man who twice gave a Nazi salute before an inauguration event crowd has an office in the white house.
The citizens of Palestine are right to be concerned about what comes next with Hamas once again in control. They have as much to fear from their neighbor Israel, with near unlimited weaponry from America. Future destruction may come from the outside or within.
American citizens are right to be fearful as well, particularly if they are Black, brown, red, or yellow, not including the rich, who are partially exempt. If your identity is partially defined by an initial, especially a “T,” MAGA is coming for you. Hamas controls what their children read, and MAGA does the same.
The more I think about it, MAGA is much like Hamas. Instead of chanting, “From the river to the sea,” they say, “We will not be replaced.” They want to make America great again without ever saying when they consider America great. I suspect they’re thinking of a time before 1865.
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This post was previously published on The Polis.
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