What?!! Let's Have That Again?!
Why be surprised, after all, it's been said that if there is one thing that Palestinians in conflict with Israel have become adept at, it's public relations. What, after all, is public relations, advertising, all about if not a kind of psychic coersion? Public relations assists in disarming and charming, in persuading and bringing doubters on board. Public relations is artifice by any other name. Want to mould public opinion? Hire a public relations firm. Or become so skilled at it, with the simple realization that people really want to believe what they're told, in fact whatever they're told, if the delivery is soft-peddled and sufficiently persuasive.So now we have Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas's newly-installed PA government (by popular vote) scolding American citizens through the kindly helpful medium of the Washington Post. Israel, it seems, along with its friend and mentor, the United States is guilty as charged, of: "economic and diplomatic warfare". Should we be alarmed? Guilty of economic and diplomatic warfare. That's interesting to be sure, but are they as guilty, for example, of a government that espouses the destruction of a neighbouring country and will adopt any means possible to achieve that end?
Israel, Mr. Haniyeh complains, has refused to bargain with Hamas (like cheerfully greeting "good morning" to the next-door neighbour who keeps warning he plans to bash your head in) and to accept Hamas's "solution" to the Middle East conflict based on a long-term truce, or hudna, which Hamas reasonably recommends, between Israel and a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the 1967 borders of the West Bank. All the while insisting on the absolute right of the Palestinian people (presumably still led by Hamas) to lift the hudna, the truce, at any future time, to resume conflict. And to drive Israel into the sea. Or oblivion. Take your pick.
How's that for a solution. Sounds too much to me like a final solution, one already attempted by another, earlier-in-history admirer of the Jewish people, its history, culture and achievements throughout the history of mankind.
Mr. Haniyeh further complains that the new Hamas government was met from the onset by acts of explicit, declared sabotage by the White House. Well, not only by the White House, Mr. Haniyeh; please do include Canada, the European Union, and Israel itself, all of which entities doubted the practicability of reasonable dialogue between countries one of whom explicitly stated that its goal was the destruction of its neighbour. Mr. Haniyeh can use the words he likes, and he usually does, but what he calls explicit, declared sabotage, can also be described as reasonable sanctions toward an unreasonable governing entity. Sanctions which would be removed instantly his government agreed to the formal recognition of the State of Israel and that he and his movement were prepared to bargain in good faith for the good of his country, that of Israel, and the Middle East at large. It hasn't yet happened, although this was made crystal-clear to Mr. Haniyeh and Hamas. So why complain so piteously of unfair treatment?
While Mr. Haniyeh complains bitterly about the colossal waste of American taxpayer money in supporting the State of Israel (or, as he puts it: "Israel's war-making capacity - its defence"), he conveniently forgets the millions upon millions of dollars the United States, Canada and European countries have pledged and given in support of Palestinians, in support of the Palestinian Authority (some considerable sum of which has gone unaccountably missing) and to no ultimate avail.
Mr. Haniyeh rails against the undermining of his Hamas government, but again forgets to mention that his government has been complicit in attacks against Israeli settlements; indeed, has pledged to continue permitting incursions and rocket attacks against the State of Israel and its citizens. Surely the actions of a truly responsible, responsive and eager-to-reach-peace government. He insists that the "full dimensions of Palestinian national rights" be recognized, and that would include, he enumerates, "statehood for the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem and resolving the 1948 Palestinian refugee issue fairly".
Fair to the Palestinian people, yes. In its full implementation, however, death to the State of Israel. How utterly reasonable.
That there has been wrong-doing on both sides, harmful one to the other is not now in question. That the Palestinian population has suffered long and hard and they deserve a state of their own is not now in question. That the State of Israel ultimately must find a peaceful solution to living with its neighbours is not now in question. What is in question is whether conditions will ever be acceptable by Hamas and its supporters to allow itself to govern in a responsible manner. That this government is content to continue to sacrifice the health, security, livelihood and lives of its people is the question. Only they can answer that.
There is a time when conflict must make its exit if two separate entities with divergent but very human needs are ever to live in acceptable harmony with one another. Enmity and aggression only breeds more of the same, and the opportunity to recognize each others' needs and to stop demonizing one another and recognize their common humanity, common needs and goals is now.
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 12, 2006
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