Saturday, June 19, 2010

Hamas is that Doggie in the Window


But this is hardly a waggling tale. The very word, “Hamas,” is an Arabic language acronym (for حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah) meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement.” Not a nice group of fellers, and their mandate is profoundly anti-Israel. Although this wasn’t mentioned in their 2006 election campaign where they displaced old world – and mega-corrupt – Fatah as the ruling party in Palestine, their 1988 Charter (the party was founded in 1987) demands the destruction of the State of Israel to be replaced by an Islamic government – taking over the land that is Israel today (and including the West Bank and Gaza). In 1992, they added a very nasty military component, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which sometimes goes well beyond the civilian party leadership in militancy. The Brigades are best remembered for the spate of suicide bombings and attacks on innocent Israeli citizens earlier this decade.

It’s true that some major factions of Hamas have backed off this extremist policy of obliterating Israel, but let’s face it, if you are prone to want to survive in Israel, do you really want to trust Hamas to accept a compromise? Wikipedia notes the “softening position”: “[I]n July 2009, Khaled Meshal, Hamas's Damascus-based political bureau chief, stated Hamas's willingness to cooperate with "a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict which included a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders," provided that Palestinian refugees be given the right to return to Israel and that East Jerusalem be recognized as the new state's capital.”

The world – and Fatah – didn’t accept the Hamas victory in the 2006 elections, and after a brief and violent struggle, Palestine broke into the Fatah-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza region between Israel and Egypt. Israel began an economic blockade of Gaza, and in 2008 Hamas responded by launching major rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza, random shots that often killed innocent Israeli civilians. Egypt brokered a ceasefire, but it was an uneasy peace, often shattered as factions within Gaza continued to mount attacks. Israeli troops made a minor border crossing in November, killing four Hamas militants. Hamas resumed the rocket fire. In December of 2008, Israeli forces stormed across the border, seeking revenge, pulling out in January of 2009, but intensifying their Gaza blockade by a ir, land and sea.

Add a hard-line Likud government – hell-bent on literally drawing lines in the sand – to a volatile mix of global condemnation of perceived Israeli “excesses” in responding to Palestinian movement for autonomy with an ever-expanding and provocative construction of new Jewish settlements deep into the Palestinian West Bank to a new form of purportedly peaceful challenge to the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza – the recent “flotilla” attempting to deliver relief supplies directly to Gaza – where nine people have been killed on a Turkish vessel… and you have a perfect storm. The world press did not focus on the violent excesses of Hamas in the very recent past – the suicide bombings, the random rocket fire into civilian areas, etc. – but on the loss of life on this peaceful mission. And the world press linked the United States to Israel’s violent attack on this flotilla. Israel’s underlying motivation – to allow the West Bank to prosper as an example to an impoverished and blockaded Gaza – has backfired.

Using medical cases (especially involving children) to evoke lots of international sympathy, Hamas has been highly effective in turning the public relations vectors strongly against Israel, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu steadfastly maintains that, “There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” Even the U.N. and other international humanitarian organizations are joining in the rising chorus against the Israeli blockade: “‘Look, it’s not like sub-Saharan Africa,’ said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinian refugees. ‘We are not talking about a natural disaster or famine caused by failed rains. But Gaza is a political c risis with grave human consequences.’… So although some can argue that Gaza's mortality rates are steadily improving, others could note that more Gazans died during Israel’s 22-day military assault 18 months ago than civilians were killed in Darfur during all of 2009… Acute malnutrition in Gaza is well below the ‘emergency’ threshold. But at the same time, a higher percentage of Gazans are dependent on food aid than is true of Somalis…Health officials report no serious problems with cholera, measles or diarrhea, yet 90% of Gaza's water is so polluted that it's undrinkable, and on average two patients die every month waiting for Israeli permits to leave Gaza for treatment, according to the World Health Organization.” Los Angeles Times (June 13th).

Bottom line: the Israeli economic blockade is a bust. It is a public relations nightmare, further isolating both Israel and the United States from the rest of the world, and Hamas is using this anti-Israeli frenzy to maximum advantage – creating a “legitimacy” to their cause, generating financial and other economic support from unexpected sources (like NATO member Turkey), aiding militants in recruiting anti-Israeli/anti-U.S. extremists into Islamist causes everywhere and generally trouncing Israel with nations that were really more neutral before the recent attacks. Hamas is firmly entrenched in Gaza: “In its three years in power, Hamas has taken control of not only security, education and the justice system but also the economy, by regulating and taxing an extensive smuggling tunnel system from Egypt. In the process, the traditional and largely pro-Western business community has been sidelined… Businesspeople in Gaza say that by closing down legitimate commerce, Israel has helped Hamas tighten its domination. And by allowing in food for shops but not goods needed for industry, Israel is helping keep Gaza a welfare society, the sort of place where extremism can flourish.” New York Times (June 11th)

But Israel is in an exceptionally difficult position because of its past hard line: while it has a very legitimate security fear concerning the importation of weapons (notably from Iran) into Gaza, its blockade has played into the hands of local militants. What’s worse, Hamas’ political stranglehold on Gaza is even more difficult to reverse, even if somehow the traditional business community were able to restore normal commercial activities. One way or another, Israel is going to have to figure out how to restore Gaza to being a functional economic reality without allowing Hamas to rearm and resume her attacks on Israel. It’s going to take supreme patience, strong global diplomatic efforts and an understanding that there are militant factions in Gaza that will never let go of their ambitions. But for Israel to avoid a continuing and devastating global isolation – one that very much rubs off on America – this balancing process is going to have to begin… sooner rather than later.

I’m Peter Dekom, and Palestinian prosperity is probably the only genuine solution for Middle East peace on the horizon.

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