About Time - Isn't It?
Seeing is believing, but I'm still having problems believing that I'm seeing it. "It" being a news story by reporter Steven Erlanger, reporting out of Jerusalem. Evidently, a Hamas official has been severely critical of the collapse of civil life in Gaza. Ghazi Hamad, a former Hamas newspaper editor and spokesman for the current Hamas government wrote an article published in the Sunday edition of the Palestinian newspaper Al Ayyam.In the article he points out that "Gaza is suffering under the yoke of anarchy and the swords of thugs". Really, he wrote that. We could say that, and believe it, and insist that it is the truth and nothing but the truth, but who would believe us? Here, a high-placed Hamas official writes just that and although it is true, undeniably, I'm still left wondering who will believe his words? Why is he so unfairly turning against the poor maltreated, misunderstood Palestinians?
Mr. Hamad handily points out that there was such great optimism (not in Israel, whose political commentators anticipated just what has occurred) when Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza a year ago (egad, was it really a year ago? can hardly believe it!). But, he wrote: "life became a nightmare and an intolerable burden". Yes, it would seem so. Instead of order there was chaos, instead of Palestinians working together to forge a decent society, there were gun-toting factions, destroying everything they could, including the potential for peace with their neighbour.
There was the incredibly stupid example of the greenhouses left intact in Gaza, paid for by American-Jewish philanthropists in the hopes that it would provide a growing agricultural industrial opportunity and jobs for Palestinians - and it was instead looted of everything that was required to keep it a going concern, despite that some Palestinians truly appreciated the opportunity and did their utmost to keep it intact and operational. Their efforts were for naught.
Still, one must give the man credit, for he deserves it. He has urged Palestinians to look to themselves for the causes of the instability, the lawlessness, the frailty of the future for themselves. They should stop blaming Israel endlessly for their own failings. In particular, said Mr. Hamad, the disorder in the Gaza Strip was the fault of the various armed militant groups operating there. And here's a nice little dig: he attributes them all to Fatah, white-washing his own party, Hamas.
He's right on target with this assertion, though: "We've all been attacked by the bacteria of stupidity. We have lost our sense of direction." Truer words, said the old gentlewoman, were never said. He actually pleads with the multivarious armed groups to "Please have mercy on Gaza. Have mercy on us from your demagogues, chaos, guns, thugs, infighting. Let Gaza breathe a bit. Let it live."
And even more amazingly, Mr. Hamad questioned the utility of firing rockets into Israel, attacks that cause few Israeli casualties directly (but plenty of angst, agitation and outright fear) but lead inexorably to Palestinian deaths when the Israelis retaliate. It's nothing short of amazing. He gets it! He understands the situation. He pinpoints with unerring accuracy the source of the misery, conflict and unutterable hardships visited upon the Palestinian people.
Go one difficult step further, Mr. Hamad, denounce Hamas's stated intent to push Israel off the map of the Middle East, encourage your party to accept the State of Israel as an equal in the region, and do your utmost to reach a concensus, then prepare yourselves for a state of eternal peace with a neighbour.
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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