generalspeaking

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Hudna (هدنة) is an Arabic term meaning a temporary "truce" or "armistice" as well as "calm" or...

Or just plain prevarication, avoiding the more final term and commitment called peace. For it is not peace between Israel and the Palestinians, leading to two sovereign countries living side by side in acceptance of one another's right to present as nations in the Middle East that Hamas seeks. Its goal is clearly enough stated in their charter, and its leaders never hesitate to verbalize that goal, making no attempt to hide it.

This, its agenda to ongoing violence against the State of Israel, is what defines terror, jihad, the imposition of a war footing by any other name by a war protagonist that will not entertain the possibility that the country it insists on expunging from the territory has any right to be there. And it is that agenda also that has garnered it the acknowledgement by notable members of the international community that as a terrorist organization it should be treated as such.

Which has not stopped Hamas from vigorously exercising its commitment. Between launching concerted attacks on Israel, it accepts temporary cease-fires when to do so suits its agenda. Those temporary cease-fires, called 'hudna' in Arabic are part of the culture. The hudna is a breathing space, an opportunity to rearm, a hiatus between assaults. Since the last hudna, after Operation Cast Lead in 2009, Hamas has tunnel-smuggled vast amounts of arms into Gaza and placed them lovingly in depots.

Amassing that arsenal represents their commitment to arming themselves sufficiently until such time as they feel they are prepared to once again meet Israeli military forces in battle. A battle that will be joined and re-joined until Hamas feels it has attained its purpose. Battles that Israel engages in defensively in attempts to disarm Hamas and hope that in the interim there will be a miraculous change in ideology. A futile hope.

There is solidarity now in Gaza, where Palestinians now have something to think about other than the crippling security and taxes that Hamas has imposed upon them. Now their common enemy is once again attacking and victimizing Palestinians. It is not that Hamas has brought this response from Israel through its committed and ongoing attacks on Israelis, but that Israel is the oppressor and Hamas is courageously standing up for the rights of Palestinians.

It cannot be beyond notice to the rest of the Arab and Muslim world that Hamas is quite prepared to sacrifice as many Palestinian Gazan civilians; the elderly, women, children and infants as it takes to elicit sympathy from a watching world, and use all the persuasive public relations ploys inclusive of outright inventions to portray Israel as the aggressor, itself as the hapless victim. It is noticed, but the family (tribal) compact prevails.

"Others in the Egyptian government argued that President Morsi was gaining a new perspective on Hamas, and on what officials of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry have long said was the group’s pattern of sacrificing the lives of Gazans to Israeli military campaigns for little reason other than to burnish its claim to be the champion of resistance to the Israeli occupation. That status is a key to its hold on power, and an asset in its rivalry with Fatah, the Western-backed faction that controls the West Bank." The New York Times

But it does have its effectiveness, for the tide of world opinion does turn against the concept of a nation's military using its modern military technology against a population living in crowded urban conditions in the midst of which rocket launching pads are placed inviting artillery response to knock them out of commission, just coincidentally striking at members of the civilian public as a by-product of their placement.

The continued violent provocations, goading Israel to respond in protection of its citizens is seen as merely 'resistance' to the 'occupation'. That 'occupation', needless to say, is a result of the 'resistance'. What to any other nation on earth would be construed as assaults of war is considered to be 'resistance' in Palestinian parlance. Hamas's leaders vow they will not submit to Israel's demand that there be no further rocket attacks against Israel and its citizens.

Hamas demands that Israel abandon the blockade and openly permit Hamas, dedicated to Israel's destruction, to go about its business. Its business largely involving amassing instruments of destruction, arms through which it plans to eventually realize its goal of defeating Israel. Iran's commitment to arming Hamas, with the assistance of countries like Sudan, engaged on its own ethnic cleansing campaigns has been inordinately helpful to the Hamas agenda.

Beyond that, Hamas has been enormously encouraged by the Arab Spring which has brought its originator, the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt, and hovering on the brink of power in Syria and in Jordan. As a tentacle of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas is assured of support in its war on Israel. It is clear in its mission. Insisting that Israel open its borders, to sit passively by as an onlooker while Hamas then proceeds to import the arms it wishes to acquire.

Until such time as it feels entirely convinced the all-out war on Israel that it contemplates can be launched and the last hudna finally put to rest.

Labels: Defence, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Middle East, Political Realities, Terrorism