Malice in Wonderland
Something about religion as happy delusion, that if you spiral sufficiently deeply into the mysticism of absolute belief it acts as a hallucinogen. People go to great lengths to experience that kind of sublime high, that utter trust in the unknowable. Which Marx labelled "the opiate of the masses".So here is Ismail Haniyeh, confident in the knowledge that he is an anointed of Allah (Praise be to Him) in his declaration that it is against everything dear to Islam to permit a non-Muslim entity to exist in Allah's declared holy land, and the ongoing purpose of Hamas is to extinguish the State of Israel, obliterate it, cleanse the holy land of its impure presence. We understand that, and that, precisely, is why much of the world sees their ascension as reason for alarm, and why Hamas is given the official status of pariah, a terrorist group, among non-Muslim nations.
But in the Middle East nothing is as it seems; did Lewis Carroll model Alice's tumble down the rabbit-hole into Wonderland with just such irony in mind? The mindless double-speak that issues from the mouth of Haniyeh and others like him is certainly reminiscent of that spoken by Wonderland's strange creatures; meaningless gobbledygook.
On the verge of Israel's election Hamas states it is prepared to discuss peace with the Middle East Quartet of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia. Why? Is Hamas directly threatening them with annihilation? Will it extend its latent goodwill gesture to its near neighbour and discuss peace with Israel? Not a cease-fire, not a temporary truce, but a peace pact? Oops, now that's going a little too far.
Haniyeh, with unblinking candour states that Hamas has "never been callers for terrorism and bloodshed". Oh, could've fooled us. All those murderous attacks in Israel upon civilians, not combatants, with the understanding that civilians are combatants; they're Jewish, aren't they? Now they're ready all of a sudden for dialogue - with the quartet- "to look into all ways to end the state of struggle and achieve calm in the region". Would this be before or after Israel has been smashed to smithereens?
Oh, this would be once Israel has ageed to voluntarily dissolve its statehood, and its citizens agree to become head-tax-paying citizens of a Muslim country, none other than Palestine, which would comfortably spread itself over its nemesis's former dearly-held, protected and fought-for territory. How reasonable, how perfectly rational.
Who could ever have doubted that Hamas was ever anything but moderate in its outlook, its actions, its purpose and claims for territorial imperative in the name of Allah. Did they say they would live peacefully alongside the State of Israel, as a responsible neighbour, willing to offer lasting peace and the opportunity for the Palestinian population to finally pull themselves up from the state of hopelessness they find themselves in?
Um, isn't this the same Hamas leadership which avowed a mere few days back that in taking over the helm they were not obligated to halt any attacks on their neighbour? That, indeed, as good Muslims they had an obligation to encourage Islamic Jihad or any other Islamists, or excitement-seeking Palestinians-at-large to embark on murder missions in the name of Allah?
Have another magic mushroom.
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, March 28, 2006
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