Canada's Elmer Fudd of Foreign Affairs
If our new Minister of Foreign Affairs has some startling new insight into the purpose of Hamas with respect to the safety of the State of Israel, he should share it with the rest of the world. Meanwhile, because most interested people understand that Hamas is fully dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel, Mr. MacKay is demonstrating a frightening lack of understanding with respect to the thrust of this group, listed as a terrorist organization by his very government, among other nations.
Hamas has stated its purpose is to destroy Israel. Hamas's financial umbilical cord linking it directly to Iran whose president has unabashedly stated time and again his and his country's intent to destroy the State of Israel would be reason enough for alarm, even if Hamas spokespeople did not iterate and reiterate that very same agenda. Hamas states it is willing to continue the current state of affairs whereby it has suspended attacks on Israel, conceding at the same time that it can just as easily reinstate its agenda of murderous attacks on an ongoing basis. This lethally jihadist group views any but Islamic states within the Middle East as an affront to their religion citing passages in the Koran which "forbid" that land once within the Muslim purview be permitted to fall into "infidel" hands, and avows it will never make peace with the State of Israel.
Before it might be willing to declare an outright ceasefire (note: ceasefire, not peace) with Israel, Hamas insists Israel must withdraw to pre-1967 boundaries when it fought a war of survival against a combined attack by its neighbours. It must also, Hamas insists, permit the reintegration into the State of all Palestinians who fled at that time, and their descendants. Whither the State of Israel, once its population of non-Israelis overwhelms the Jewish population, and how to defend itself both from within and without? Does it sound as though Hamas would be amenable to afternoon tea for the purpose of "proactively" succumbing to entreaties to recognize Israel and renounce their commitment to murder and violence?
Russia's foreign minister is on record as explaining that Russia does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist group simply because Hamas has never posed a threat to Russia itself. In the same token Russia is greatly affronted that the West does not consider Chechen "freedom fighters" to be terrorists, while Russia, needless to say does. Russia is anxious to reassert itself upon the world stage as a world-class player which it certainly is, but it seeks also to restore the lustre of its former position when it was, along with the United States, one of an anxious world's two great super-powers. We should think again before congratulating Russia upon this initiative, since a corollary to this "proactive" meeting was a carrot in the form of potential arms shipments to Hamas.
By meeting with a Hamas delegation, Russia did not, as Mr. MacKay asserted "made significant progress in communicating" the position of the European Union, the United Nations, United States and Russia. That position was initially stated forcefully, along with the threat to cut off badly needed aid, and there was no room for misunderstanding: that the quartet expected the newly-elected Hamas leadership to renounce violence and their longstanding commitment to the extinguishment of the State of Israel. This venture by Russia served merely to muddy the waters, and the statements attributed to Mr. MacKay have the effect of making Canada look like an appeaser, willing to accept the improbable as reality.
As for Hamas considering International oversight of aid, and Mr. MacKay stating his encouragement on that possibility, we would do well to consider that foreign aid to the Palestinian people which no one in their right mind would ordinarily wish to withhold may have the effect of stimulating their sadly neglected economy, ensuring people are fed and jobs become available, but it also frees up funds internally which might otherwise go toward that purpose, to continue to fund a war no one should want to continue.
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, March 07, 2006
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