With Israeli voters about to go to the polls in one of the least compelling (though not because the issues are unimportant) elections in recent memory, Hamas has marked a revolutionary change by not punctuating the voting with suicide bombings. Such a fate is what torpedoed Shimon Peres’ best opportunity to become prime minister just after Rabin’s assassination. The firebrands within Hamas decided that Labor was as much an enemy as Likud and provided this analysis through a suicide bomber’s explosive belt. With this election, Haaretz reports that Ismail Haniye has represented Hamas’ newfound moderation with an interview in which he asserted that his party does not want confrontation with Israel:
Ismail Haniye before Palestinian parliament session (photo: AP)“Hamas’ presence in the regime [the new Palestinian government] is the beginning to solving the crisis – if the Israelis want this to happen,” he said.
“We don’t seek a bloodbath in this region,” Haniyeh said. “We want rights and dignity for the Palestinian people, and to put an end to this decades-long complicated situation.”
Haniyeh said the intention of Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party to carry out unilateral withdrawals from parts of the West Bank is unacceptable.
“We will obviously not prevent Israel from withdrawing, but this doesn’t mean that we consider the borders they set to be those of the Palestinian state.”
Asked if Hamas would hold talks with Israel, Haniyeh said…:
“The problem is with Olmert, with Kadima. He said he would not have any contacts with the Palestinian government.
He announced a position. The problem is not with us,” Haniyeh said.
In a speech before the Palestinian cabinet, Reuters reports that Haniyeh reached out his hand to the Quartet nations saying Hamas was ready to negotiate with them for a just peace:
“Our government will be ready for a dialogue with the Quartet … to look into all ways to end the status of struggle and to achieve calm in the region,” said Haniyeh, who will take over a Palestinian Authority on the brink of financial collapse.
“Our people are in need more than any other nation on earth for peace, for security and stability. Our government will not spare any effort to achieve a just peace in the region.”
Of course, Haniyeh’s statement that “‘We have never been seekers of war. We have never been callers for terrorism and bloodshed” is belied by the party’s bloody history of suicide bombings. But what I and most Israelis are interested in is what Hamas plans to do from here on out. If they can keep the peace, then they should become a suitable partner for negotiations with Israel. Whether Ehud Olmert and the new Israeli government recognize a partner when they see one is another story. This is why it’s important to have outside parties like the Quartet and EU monitoring the situation and giving both sides feedback and positive reinforcement when it is warranted.
Lots of talk among the trees. Maybe we should step out and look at the forest from a little way off. Briefly and two points. 1. Partition by the UN. Now there’s a contemplation. India was also partitioned -Pakistan and Bangladesh. So Bangladesh revolted against Pakistan and is now an independent nation. Bangladesh is too poor to make any more trouble-but Pakistan and India now are part of the nuclear community and maintain military forces against each other. Israel and Palestine. Not a day’s peace since partition. Then there are the voluntary break-aways of the former USSR. Other pieces want to break away but are militarily stopped from doing so. It seems there’s a real problem with drawing lines in the sand- Africa, Middle East, Russia, Ireland. So how did it work in Europe?
It seems constant wars resolved the issue. Great numbers of people were killed, whole tribes were wiped out and/or integrated into other groups. But erased as identifiable identities. Is this the inexorable pattern? Of course today we have our technology for mass wipe-out. So maybe the inevitable course of history will speed up. What is certain is that partition does not work. All the political posturing is without merit.
2. The marvelous US support of Israel. Somebody has got to be kidding. In a nutshell- Christ will make his second coming after the Israelis and Moslems kill each other in the last war-Armageddon. The last few Jews standing will then convert to Christianity and everybody is lifted up in the rapture. This is the position of the US and the reason for the total support for the Jews. All the rest is sugar coating for the blind and deaf. If those in the US power halls would believe the Jews would tell them Christ is not and never will be an option, Israel and the so-called powerful Jewish lobby can kiss themselves off. For reminders, Ron Reagan was also intensely religious, but very discreet.
Solutions? No partition, no wall, no obliteration -just integration. Whichever which way.
Don’t push below the level of consciousness that the US is rascist and Christian. Jew, Moslem, Hispanic, African-American- Brown people and semites just aren’t part of the right classes. The US is not a player for peace. The power players are mesmerized by their arsenal of 2000+lb. bombs and all the toys they can play with. The US represents a real danger on the world scene.
So bring on the peace makers, the mediators, the citizens in dialogue. Will people die during the effort? Sure. Will more people die if there is no effort? Oh yes, yes indeed. So what do you want to die for is the real question. But history is writ large and clear-we die warring, and we will die trying to live in peace. As a post script, we really don’t have to love each other to live in peace.And we don’t have to admire the other guy’s culture or way fo thinking. It’s just like marriage. So when do we have the world wide call for volunteers and peace sessions? I’m not suggesting we try this in the Sudan,Zimbabwe or North Korea. Futility is not the end game for 50 years of negotiating for peace.