As the Hamas team laughs
By Gideon LevyThe Hamas team had not laughed so much in a long time. The team, headed by the prime minister's advisor Dov Weissglas and including the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, the director of the Shin Bet and senior generals and officials, convened for a discussion with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on ways to respond to the Hamas election victory. Everyone agreed on the need to impose an economic siege on the Palestinian Authority, and Weissglas, as usual, provided the punch line: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," the advisor joked, and the participants reportedly rolled with laughter. And, indeed, why not break into laughter and relax when hearing such a successful joke? If Weissglas tells the joke to his friend Condoleezza Rice, she would surely laugh too.
This is the spirit. Israel cracks a joke (supposedly), and USA laughs, while Carter wrote in a piece in Monday's edition of The Washington Post: "During this time of fluidity in the formation of the new government, it is important that Israel and the United States play positive roles." But then, he is just an ex-President. Who listens to them after they are parked?
Last year, United Nations issued a report stating that Palestinians living in the occupied territories were facing a humanitarian catastrophe because of lack of food and the inability of the U.N. to travel freely within the territories and deliver food to families. The report also stated that 9 percent of Palestinian children under age 5 suffer from brain defects caused by malnutrition. Now, the U.S. wants to try to prevent the U.N. from delivering all food to Palestinians and they laugh about it. [CFL Alert]
What the US and Israel are trying to do is to destabilise the Palestinian government so that newly elected Hamas will fail and elections will be called again. This is what some Israeli officials and Western diplomats declared. Israel's cabinet has approved punitive sanctions by withhold an estimated $50m (£28m) in monthly customs revenues due to the PA, as well as impose travel restrictions on Hamas members. That's not all. The EU decided that they will neither invite HAMAS leaders or any of its members, nor contact HAMAS before seeing the new government's program. I see this is worse than what USA and Israel is trying to do. I don't know why everyone thinks that he has the right to punish Palestinians for their democracy. Isn't that what you all wanted? Democracy! Plus, if Hamas must renounce violence, so should Israel:
Ottawa also made clear last week that Canada would withdraw financial support — unless Hamas renounced violence, recognized Israel and accepted previous Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.
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At first glance, this seems reasonable. But why are these demands placed only on Palestinians? Shouldn't Israel also have to renounce violence? As the World Council of Churches recently argued: "If violence is incompatible with democracy and with peace, it is incompatible for both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities."
As for recognizing Israel, Hamas has implicitly indicated a willingness do this — if Israel ends its occupation. Hamas official Khaled Mishaal told a Russian journal last week that Hamas would halt its armed struggle if Israel withdrew from Palestinian land it has occupied since 1967.
What else does anyone want? You want peace? So does the Palestinians. Withdraw from the Palestinian land and live in Peace. If they don't keep the promise, go back and kill them as you do now. It is that simple, and no one will blame you - Israel!
This context is so often missing from mainstream commentaries:
The lopsided nature of Ottawa's demands is striking, particularly since Israel already exists as a country, with secure borders and the unwavering support of the most powerful nation on Earth. Meanwhile, Palestinians, after 40 years living under military occupation, are essentially powerless.
This context is so often missing from mainstream commentaries like Bell's.
Bell purports to be urging moderation on both sides, but his notion of moderation consists of demanding the Palestinians renounce their resistance to Israeli occupation, while making no demand that Israel end its occupation.
He doesn't even mention that Israel continues to build settlements on Palestinian land and to construct a massive wall incorporating large chunks of Palestinian territory inside Israel.
Aren't these aggressive actions part of the problem?
If Palestinians are going to be required to renounce violence — as they should be — shouldn't Israel also be required to renounce violence, and to stop building settlements and walls on Palestinian territory?
Rather than belittling others for allegedly failing to grasp our "democratic concepts," we could begin by showing we grasp these concepts ourselves.
The only good news comes from Sweden. The state-run aid group on Monday pledged more than five million euros in additional aid to the Palestinian territories. Thank you Sweden. It is sad to see some Arab countries are afraid to upset their big brother while Sweden refuses to me amongst the Axis of Evil against Palestinians.
And I'm supposed to LOVE USA and its allies?!
Contextually Related posts:
Anyone,
I don’t know if this is the best choice of site to ask a question.
I just read an article today about Abbas making a statement about Palestinians making sure that Al-Queda does not infiltrate their territory. It alerted me because I know that here in the US all you have to do is mention AlQueda to condone anything we do. Witness our invasion of Iraq, no WMD no AlQueda until we stepped in and opened up a pandora’s box. Anyone?
The Palestinian people needed to make changes. Electing Hamas is definitely the first step.
Listening to the US tell them who to elect is idiotic. Why should they listen to a nation that only cares for the Isrealis?
If they want to be a mediator in the situation, they have to look at both sides of the situation. If the US and its allies are unwilling to do that, then they should keep quiet.
Whoever thinks that Isreal is the victim in this situation is sadly misinformed.
Does anyone find it surprising that Isreal and the US are dictating to the rest of the world not to recognize Hamas? I certainly don’t. Nothing would make them happier than to see the Palestinian people suffer even more. Hopefully, other nations of the world will be brave enough to do what is right and not what they are told to do.
The Palestinian people, God willing, will survive this heart-breaking situation. In the end, they will get their justice. They have God on their side.
It is Ironic isn’t it, the US pushes the Palestinian authority to hold the elections, against the wishes of the corrupt Fattah government to postpone them, and then when the people elect a new party that they do not agree with, they punish the people..
By the way to everyone who said that the Palestinians must live with their decision, to some degree you are correct but let’s not forget that Hamas only won 73 seats out of 132 that leaves more than 40% of Palestinians who did not elect them, just as more than 45% of Americans did not support Bush.
Having said that, I think that Hamas must denounce violance and recognize Israels right to exsist otherwize the peoples suffering will not end.
What I have observed in Hungary seems very much like what I am seeing in Palestine, so that Hamas got elected just shows me that Palestinians are people too.
Hungary is one of the ‘new’ Central European democracies and it has only been a free country since 1989/1990. Sometimes I call Hungary for ‘the Wild East’ (as opposed to ‘the Wild West’) as it is still having problems with issues like organized crime, corruption, and dirty politics. I am definitely not saying that my new home is bad, because even though there are serious issues in many areas of Hungarian society, Hungary is less imperfect in many areas compared to the ‘established’ democracies in Western Europe.
Anyway, in Hungary, there has still not been one government coalition that has managed to get re-elected for a second term. Basically, everybody knows that corruption is not just a ‘feature’ of one particular party, but corruption is seen as one of the facts of life.
In the Hungarian elections there are basically three types of voters, one group is the ‘ideological group’ that stays with the same party because of its politics and views on society, at the other end of the scale is the ‘unhappy group’ of voters who are fed up and will vote for the party that critizises the sitting coalition the most – regardless of political color. In the middle are the ‘sceptics group’ of voters who make their decision based on whether a party is in the right political area (center, center-left, center-right) and how well they argument. Each or the three groups have about 1/3 of the voters each, so in this respect I guess Palestine looks a bit like Hungary.
I don’t think that Hamas managed to get a majority because the majority of Palestinians are terrorists; there were just a large ‘swinger’ group that was fed up. After the next election, when Palestinians have seen that Hamas is capable of being just as corrupt as Fattah, then the balance will probably ping-pong back in Fattah’s favor. So, congratulations with a relatively normal democracy, Palestine!
I just hope the Hamas guys are clever enough to understand that the only way they can gain international support and use the political power they have gained is to denounce terrorism; either by laying down their weapons (the best solution) or by splitting into two seperate operational areas like the IRA/Sinn Féin. I think terrorism/armed resistance and politics are counter-productive if they are mixed.
The terrible things that happen there are in the shadows since the war in Lebanon broke out 2 months ago.
Maybe Blair’s visit and the promises for a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaderships will start negotiations for peace.
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Blair, negotiate peace? Really, funny.
And maybe Sharon will wake up from his 9 months of being brain dead and declare that he was wrong all along, that the settlers should NOT grab every hilltop they can, that he’s sorry for Sabra and Shatila, and then he’ll recall the IDF and settlers from Gaza and the West Bank, declaring that the Palestinians will be allowed to have the sovereign state that was promised to them at Oslo.
Or maybe the brutal horrors of Palestine’s occupation will continue, unabated and unchallenged by any foreign leadership for another 60 years. Maybe that.