To Matthew Burdette, the progressive anti-Semitism that has become so evident over the past year resembles nothing more than the ancient Christian idea of supersessionism. This doctrine, rejected in modern times by the Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations, teaches that the Jews were chosen by God but lost their status with the arrival of Jesus, having been superseded by the church (in the sense of the collective body of believing Christians). Burdette writes:

Liberal progressivism is the product of a supersessionist interpretation of Christianity: it is an embrace of universalism and a rejection of particularity. It can tolerate difference only as long as none of the differences matter.

That God identifies himself as the God of Israel strikes [supersessionist] Christians as an intellectual embarrassment. It is untenable to imagine that the God of all creation should be radically identified with the concrete realities of human history. . . .

In order to avoid facing this contradiction, the supersessionist blames Israel: they cling to their special status, refusing to be one of us. Of course they have a place here, were they only willing to let go of their claim to be God’s covenant people.

But the result of this runaway universalism is exclusion: to the supersessionist, in Burdette’s words, “God is understood to be the God of all by being the God of all but the Jews.”

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.