Impasse Solution? Not Quite
Well, Palestinians can hardly be blamed for skepticism, they're tired of this blood-feud between Hamas and Fatah. About 60 people in Gaza, and that includes unarmed civilians, children and women, have been killed in their brotherhood-inspired violence and gun battles in the last two weeks, while hundreds of Palestinians have been injured. Big price to pay for a brotherly misunderstanding.
But it's not quite that, is it now? By all appearances, and that reflects reality, the fratricidal in-fighting the world has witnessed is reflective of the two sides' consuming intent on ascendency for only one. The other to be completely extinguished as a political power in the area. The opposition to be obliterated. So if that's the primary goal for Fatah and Hamas what does that say of their commitment to the Palestinian people at large?
Fervently wishful statements such as are being expressed by some Palestinians to the effect that they can all go to hell are telling. "Only God can help the people of Gaza, not Abu-Mazen (Mr. Abbas) or Mashaal. These people have been killing our country. It is as if they don't want us to have our own nation." Weren't those very charges more latterly used to describe the State of Israel, which is itself now anxious to reach an accord with the PA on behalf of Palestinians?
Daily television viewings of Fatah and Hamas militias facing off against one another; abductions, street battles between masked militia members, blowing up of Fatah- or Hamas-linked institutions, random shootings where unarmed civilians including children are caught in the cross-fire have become dreaded fare of late for Palestinians, huddled in the presumed safety of their homes, fearful of venturing out onto their suddenly-unsafe public arenas.
"I don't think they'll sign a real peace that includes a national unity government; at best they may agree to stop shooting each other for a while. Still, that would be progress." How's that for a weary appraisal, post peace talks arranged by Jordan and Egypt, and prefacing the one in Mecca by Saudi Arabia? "They have to get past this existential question and discuss ways that they can learn to live together, but they can't" goes another appraisal. And this from their supporters.
Ironically, of the many injured PA residents, including some militia, treatment is taking place at Barzilai, the primary receiving hospital for Israelis injured in PA Kassam rocket attacks, or in Gaza IDF counter-terrorism activities. Doctors at the hospital express no interest in the politics or militia-affiliation of those they treat and the Palestinians themselves express no interest in revealing themselves - their treatment is uppermost in mind.
So we have Hamas's leader Khaled Mashaal and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas meeting in Saudi Arabia to halt the internecine bloodshed. "We want a true partnership between Fatah and Hamas...I call on all our brothers...to restrain themselves and to remember our real battle with Israel." This is the Israel whose hospital has received their fighters, whose doctors are healing their bodies.
Isn't the real point here not to continue 'battling' with Israel, but finding a way to make peace with Israel? Is war, combat, destruction, blood-letting just so damn attractive that these jihadists cannot see the quality of life bereft of these exciting events? Isn't the focus of everything that these two groups, Fatah and Hamas, are oriented toward ostensibly for the betterment of the suffering people they represent, the Palestinians?
Will this message never make its intrinsic way through to the dense grey material in their craniums?
Hope remains elusive for all concerned. The BBC revealed that an Arab PA political analyst delivered his opinion on the matter: "...all the declarations of brotherhood out of the mouths of Hamas and Fatah leaders are 'lies' and that the slogans are only offered as a front for preparations for far greater violence to come".
Is anyone really listening?
Labels: Middle East
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, February 07, 2007
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