generalspeaking

Hamas Is Adamantly Victorious

Enterprising Hamas, building and utilizing hundreds of tunnels to smuggle tons of arms and equipment into Gaza; bombs, rockets, grenades, missiles, rifles. Pharmaceuticals, foods, clothing, not so much. That's left to the private initiatives of smugglers of other types of goods. Hamas is the government, after all, and as such engaged in the official duties of defending the right of the Palestinians to usurp the occupiers of their traditional lands.

Hamas might consider agreeing to a temporary truce in the current conflict, where Israel has erupted into military defence of its territory and its people from the proliferation of civilian-seeking rockets, but on its clearly defined terms. Israel is not too terribly keen on the terms that Hamas places on the table. Feeling that it is incumbent upon Hamas to cease launching rockets into Israel first and foremost, since it is that very issue that gave rise to the Israeli offensive into Gaza.

But then, it has never been particularly easy to reason with fanatics, to give them to understand that actions have consequences, and that first offence must be halted before defence retreats. "First, the aggression must stop; second the Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza ... immediately, of course; thirdly, the siege must be lifted and fourth we want all crossing points reopened, first of which is Rafah."
This is clearly perspective; that of Israel, that of Hamas, and the twain clash.

This is the defeated ululating its victory over the power that has quashed its capability. While the leaders of Hamas stationed in Gaza - hard put to fend off the assaults against their infrastructure, their weapons depots, their assault weapons, their foot soldiers, and indeed their very selves when they detach themselves from their underground bunkers - would prefer to speak of a truce, Khaled Meshaal, safe in Syria will have no part of surrender.

For victory is with Hamas. That's clear to anyone to see, to hear, to observe. It is because they say it is so. And clearly they should know. An Israeli commander said "I know that in the end Hamas will say they won... Will they put down their weapons forever? For sure, no, but I think they have learned a lesson from this war." Wrong, sad to say. No lesson learned. Victory is in the very act of surviving. Survival equates to resurgence.

And while Israel insists that Hamas must no longer be allowed to smuggle weapons through the Gaza-Egypt border, and must end its rocket-launching at Israel's southern towns, this is clearly representative of unreasonable demands. Typical, one might say, of Israel. However, it might yet transpire that Israel will agree to a unilateral cessation of hostilities. With the assurance from Egypt and the U.S. that the tunnels will be monitored.

It will, finally, bypass an agreement with Hamas. Which is determined, in Syria, to insist that Gaza-installed Hamas will continue its 'resistance' to the 'occupier', despite that the one and a half million Palestinians are desperate for the carnage to come to an end. They truly have suffered beyond endurance. "We took our money and passports. We have to carry some identification with us in case we get killed.

"Hamas can claim victory if it wants, but we just need this bloodshed to end" one woman, carrying her child, two others in tow, hurriedly explained, as she characterized the calamity which has befallen her and her people: "It is a catastrophe". A humanitarian misery. How is it possible to conduct a war of attrition against an armed and determined enemy which embeds itself resolutely within a crowded population of vulnerable people?

Despite which, from Beirut a Hamas spokesperson repeated they would keep fighting until their demands were met. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak is attempting to move heaven and earth to obtain a temporary, if not a sustainable, ceasefire, to enable humanitarian aid to reach the squalid and now-destroyed areas where Palestinians have been crushed into close confines and desperate for a surcease of this nightmare they are experiencing.

President Mubarak is dotting all his Is and crossing his Ts in hopes of achieving some measure of success. To that end, Mahmoud Abbas, Nicolas Sarkozy, Ban Ki-moon, and representatives of Britain, Germany, Spain and Turkey have been invited to Sharm el-Sheikh to join the talks with Israel on forging toward a settlement, leading eventually to peace. First of which is the establishment of increased security along the Gaza-Egyptian border.

The pact signed by Israel and the United States toward halting weapons smuggling into Gaza, is another vital step. The offers by Britain, France and Germany, suddenly alert to the need to offer practical assistance rather than stock tut-tuts, in sending warships to assist the overall effort is another boost to possible peace.

But absent the critical element of the inclusion of Hamas and its capacity for relenting on its expressed determination to destroy Israel, what can truly be accomplished in the long run? Intransigence personified: "Either we hear what we have demanded or the result will be the continuation of confrontation on the ground," Osama Hamdan, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, declared in Beirut.

Hamas has offered a one-year, renewable truce on condition that all Israeli forces leave Gaza within a week and that all the border crossings with Israel and Egypt are opened. Hamas rocket fire has dwindled but not ceased. Seven rockets hit Israel on Saturday. The defeated summarily dismissing the notion that they have seen defeat.

Is the past to remain the future forever?

Labels: Israel, Middle East, Political Realities, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, January 17, 2009