An aspect of South Africa's liberation struggle as practised by the ANC which Peter overlooks is that apartheid was intended to de facto enslave or render Indigenous Africans subservient rather than pursue their expulsion or extermination, unlike the Zionist model which lends greater urgency to Palestinians attacking and terrorising Zionist occupiers(including individually oft indistinguishable supporters of ethnic cleansing or genocide, namely so-called civilians)as a preferred modality of resistance. A discussion between Peter and a representative or supporter of Hamas or Within Our Lifetime would be usefully morally and intellectually challenging and an appropriate opportunity to foreground the armed resistance sector of Palestine's liberation movement. A genocide-supporting rabbi or IDF gunman would of course be as interesting an opportunity for clarity.
Read the Goodwin essay that Beinart cites: "How the ANC held the line against targeting civilians." White non-combatents in S. Africa were not targeted, NOT, as you state, because conditions were less "urgent." Major African resistance members made a decision not to target whites in the general population because they deemed it consequential for the success of resistance to apartheid that non-Africans be included in that resistance. It is also, arguably, the case that violence against non-combatents is corrosive for resistance groups, and in addition, that moral claims are strategically justified. See also Eqbal Ahmad: "[The ANC's] outlook and organizational style was deeply influenced by Communist Party traditions, which emphasize the centrality of politics in struggles for liberation... and avoidance of appeals to race, religion, and ethnicity." p. 78, Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad.
An aspect of South Africa's liberation struggle as practised by the ANC which Peter overlooks is that apartheid was intended to de facto enslave or render Indigenous Africans subservient rather than pursue their expulsion or extermination, unlike the Zionist model which lends greater urgency to Palestinians attacking and terrorising Zionist occupiers(including individually oft indistinguishable supporters of ethnic cleansing or genocide, namely so-called civilians)as a preferred modality of resistance. A discussion between Peter and a representative or supporter of Hamas or Within Our Lifetime would be usefully morally and intellectually challenging and an appropriate opportunity to foreground the armed resistance sector of Palestine's liberation movement. A genocide-supporting rabbi or IDF gunman would of course be as interesting an opportunity for clarity.
Read the Goodwin essay that Beinart cites: "How the ANC held the line against targeting civilians." White non-combatents in S. Africa were not targeted, NOT, as you state, because conditions were less "urgent." Major African resistance members made a decision not to target whites in the general population because they deemed it consequential for the success of resistance to apartheid that non-Africans be included in that resistance. It is also, arguably, the case that violence against non-combatents is corrosive for resistance groups, and in addition, that moral claims are strategically justified. See also Eqbal Ahmad: "[The ANC's] outlook and organizational style was deeply influenced by Communist Party traditions, which emphasize the centrality of politics in struggles for liberation... and avoidance of appeals to race, religion, and ethnicity." p. 78, Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad.