Honour Bound
What atrocities of language and meaning can be construed through finessing the English language. Certainly for a purpose. The purpose often being that of political correctness, but also the end-game is to disarm an hostile or doubtful onlooker, to assure that community of outsiders that the quest is an honourable one, the methods perhaps unorthodox but well-meaning, and all questionable activities condoned by a code of honour. It is a moot point, that code of honour. Do we ascribe to murderers a fine spirit, a sensitive soul, a sense of purpose in community, an end-justifies-the-means escape?The Palestinian Authority had the means to reach a settlement with the State of Israel years ago, when there was an active spirit of accommodation between the two entities at the time when Israel agreed to the formation of the PA for the long-term purpose of responsibly governing the Palestinian territories. Had that spirit of accommodation resulted in a firm co-operative agenda there would today be the reality of the State of Palestine, alongside that of Israel.
Instead, Yasser Arafat and his crew continued their practise of public agreeable compromise on the one hand, and the fomenting of violence against what he steadfastly saw as "the occupiers" on the other. For public display was the accommodating PA, and the militant faction of Fatah acted by stealth, amenable to public denial, to undermine any real possibility (let alone intent) of accommodation with the State of Israel.
His successor successfully put forward for public consumption an accommodating determination on the political side, without confronting the necessity of controlling the militant side of Fatah. Abu Mazen might very well have been sincere about his intentions within the PA in reaching a peace agreement with Israel, but nothing concrete resulted in the Palestinian Authority's many deliberations within its parliamentary body, and in its consultations with Israel.
Israel's unilateral decision to withdraw from Gaza as a demonstration of its intent to make that area available to Palestinian resettlement was seen not as a concessionary gesture leading to peace, but as a victory for Palestinian terrorists whose idea of honour is to persuade impressionable, troubled young men and women hardly past the age of childhood to blow themselves up as living bombs taking with them as many Israeli women and children and other civilians as possible.
Honour bound to do the work of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him, but none others need apply). In reverence of the Prophet and Allah, murder is seen to be an honourable gesture of regard for the injunctions of the Koran. The ultimatum that Palestinian militants issued, that Israel set free hundreds of Palestinians, men, women and youth who saw fit to become pawns of Hamas as living bombs in exchange for one Israeli soldier was done, you see, in a spirit of courage and honour.
"We don't kill our prisoners like the Zionists", Islamic Army spokesman Abu Muthana told the Maan News Agency. "We treat and respect them, and these are the qualities of Muslims." PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh urged the militants to "use the language of wisdom and logic to end this".
Wisdom and logic. Treat and respect. None of these admirable traits have ever been in evidence to a world looking on at the behaviour of militant Islamists. Playing with language hardly equates with violent activities, actions dedicated to the annihilation of a perceived enemy. But there is a certain wisdom, is there not, in defusing suspicion with the clever use of disarming words, while actively pursuing an agenda completely at odds with the language of pacific intent.
There is then, wisdom and logic in lobbing Kasam rockets unremittingly into border cities in Israel for the purpose of demoralizing at the very least, and killing, if one is fortunate enough to have aimed well. The 24,000 residents of Sderot close to the Gaza border, with their 4,400 children live under a constant state of siege, although they're not the only ones to do so. The town's children have been evacuated for the summer months to safer, more normal environs, their besieged and beleaguered parents left to live in the city with the hope that something will deliver them from the living nightmare that has descended upon them.
It takes great courage, a great sense of honour to bitterly refuse to live in peace and harmony with one's neighbours. And in the process beggaring one's own peoples' lives and futures.
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 05, 2006
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