It’s hard not to notice one interesting way in which Islamic supremacists have been tying themselves in rhetorical knots as they try to explain their recent behavior in Gaza and Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Hamas both celebrate themselves as “resistance” movements — resistance to Israel, resistance to the arrogance and imperialism of the West, resistance to the apostate Arab regimes who have allied with Israel and America. And resistance, it should be added, to anyone who resists getting out of the way of the war machine quickly and voluntarily.

Hezbollah has created a conundrum for itself, as the group has turned its military might against the same people it has always said its resistance existed to protect, and so the resistance feels a lot like the occupier these days. And Hamas is facing a similar PR problem. Israel no longer occupies Gaza and has always said that its fight with Hamas will end when Hamas’s attacks on Israel end. So what is Hamas now “resisting,” exactly? Well, one of the group’s leaders said today that it seeks “to continue the defense against the Israeli settlements and cities around Gaza.” (Someone please alert Gershom Gorenberg.) Ah, yes — occupied Sderot. Just a little south of occupied West Beirut.