Big news today. Hamas, Fatah and the new Egyptian government have pulled off a masterful coup and negotiated in total secrecy an agreement that would reconcile the two previously warring factions in a unity government. The plan is startling for a number of reasons. First, because the Palestinians have been unable to agree on anything for the past five years. Nor have they ever been able to keep much of a secret over anything that has divided them. Second, because this new Egyptian government as able to accomplish in a few weeks what the Mubarak regime had failed at for several years. Third, because the U.S. was caught completely flat-footed having no idea this was coming. Fourth, because the unity government completely pulls the rug out from under the much ballyhooed Bibi-plan which was to be unfurled before a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress.
Today’s news promises to upend the apple-cart of Middle East consensus in a number of ways. Until now, Bibi had been shrying that the Arab Revolution portended ruin for Israel in a radical new Middle East. He forecast a Muslim Brotherhood-led government abrogating the Sinai treaty and generally retreating from peace with Israel.
He’d been sittin’ pretty after besting Pres. Obama over settlements and wangling a coveted invitation from the Republican Speaker of the House to showcase his new “peace plan” before a Joint Session of Congress. Bibi has now been left in the dust to sputter with rage and threaten the end of a peace process which only he and Obama found credible. And he has only himself to blame. He’s fulminating saying the PA must decide whether it’s for peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. I guess it’s chosen, hasn’t it? Peace with Israel was, thanks to Bibi’s filibustering, a bust. So what was the PA’s only other choice? If it wanted to present the world community with a united front come September the PA almost had no other choice but to reunite with Hamas.
Bibi also released this inexplicable statement:
“I think the very idea of the reconciliation…leads one to wonder whether Hamas will take control over Judea and Samaria, as it did over Gaza
Say what? How will Hamas take over what he calls Judea and Samaria if Israel controls them? Or is Bibi pretending there was ever a chance that his government would return the West Bank to the Fatah, so that it could then fall to Hamas? Puh-leeze. And as for that claim of Hamas taking over the West Bank, this is like the kid who cries wolf. He does it one too many times and no one believes him when there really is a wolf at the door. Remember the time he said Iran wanted to destroy not just Israel, but the entire Jewish people?
If Hamas and the PA can succeed in this venture, then they have a much more credible claim for a new state. It remains to be seen whether two movements which hitherto have had nothing but disdain for each other can carry this through. If they did it would be a major achievement and signal they are ready to create their new state. But there definitely needs to be a new leadership especially on the Fatah side. If Obama has any smarts he will pressure the Israelis hard to release Marwan Barghouti from prison. He appears to be one of the only Palestinian political figures who could unite both factions. Israel will naturally not wish to do anything to encourage such success and will resist releasing anyone who can further derail their do-nothing “peace policy.”
The Obama administration risks becoming even more irrelevant than it already is if it doesn’t do a 180° turn and radically rethink its approach to the Palestinians. Cozying up to Bibi as he’s done for the past few months will bring him nothing now. The president seems to think there is no penalty for U.S. positions which insult the Palestinians. How else to explain our veto of a Security Council resolution opposing settlements, a position we pretend to support? Did we think we could get away with this and the Palestinians wouldn’t notice? Now, it’s Barack’s turn to pay the piper.
Oh, sure we can withhold all that aid we give to Fatah to train their police and security personnel. That’s what Rep. Gary Ackerman would do. That will really take us far in our effort to influence the Palestinian side. It would be like the kid who plays marbles and loses and then take them home in a fit of pique.
Finally, if the Palestinians do pull this off (by no means a given), then Abbas’ plan to raise the flag of a new Palestinian state at this fall’s General Assembly meeting begins to look more and more feasible. A reunited Palestinian cause makes an infinitely more credible argument before the international community.
Egypt too has surprised everyone. Predictions by the Israelis and their neocon supporters in Washington were that the Brothers were standing by to take over the government along with their army allies. Now we see the new government in only a few weeks accomplishing a task Mubarak didn’t achieve in years. It makes you wonder what else democratic Arab governments might be able to accomplish which their autocratic predecessors couldn’t or wouldn’t tackle. With this single success the new governments that resulted from the Arab Spring have established even more credibility than they already had. It has given a shot of adrenalin to the movement for Arab freedom.
Much can happen to derail this efforts. I predict the Israelis will do all in their power to provoke mischief including assassinating Hamas leadership if given the opportunity. Plus Palestinians themselves could cause this to implode.
Obama, it seems to me has a fateful decision to make: is he on the train to Palestinian nationhood or is he staying on the road to nowhere with Bibi et al. Is he going to embrace the Arab push for freedom and liberty or is he going to make his bed with the Old Guard Mubaraks, Assads and Bibis. If it were me the decision would be easy. But then again I don’t have the set of conflicting interests he has.
These are fateful days, Mr. President. Which side are you on, tell me which side are you on.
you say that the charter is meaningless. why don’t they annul it then? it’s pretty obvious that the existence of said charter acts as a great factor in the HASBARA campain of delegitimizing hamas. wouldn’t you agree?
We’ve discussed this very question in the threads before a number of times & I hate repeating things. I want them to annul it & you want them to & every hasbarist around uses the charter as a hammer against Hamas. But neither you nor I are members or supporters of Hamas & it just may be that they have other things that are more important to do than concern themselves w. this meaningless document. I don’t make decisions for them.
of cause you don’t make decisions for them. you just close your eyes and lie to yourself for them.
I don’t ban people outright w/o warning though I was sorely tempted in your case. If you make further such lame, lying attempts at wit in future you will immediately lose yr comment privileges.
thanks for the warning oh, liberal, enlightened, cognative dissonant, confermation biased, one.
ban away!
Violate the comment rules again & I will do so gladly.
Mr Silverstein
how come you ban every Israel who dare criticizing you ?
On this thread you criticized me because i spelled the name shada the way i hear it claiming i was being disrespectful.
but you said Nothing to another commenter who referred to me as a he ?
Yes it is your house and your rules, but from someone who writes so many words on how the Israeli gag orders are intended to shut people off, i expect to let people to express their standings.
herenot wasn’t being rude.
Actually, I ban people who consistently violate the comment rules whether they’re Israeli or not. And I ban individuals who are pro Israeli & pro Palestinian. But I only do so after pointing out what rule they’ve violated & warning them, often several times.
You “heard” the name “Shehadeh” pronounced “Shada?” Now that’s a new version of what you claimed before. Before you claimed “Shada” was an entirely legitimate Hebrew spelling, which I disputed asking you to present any credible source which had every spelled his name that way. Now your story is that you “heard” the name that way. You know, we can’t be responsible for everything you hear. You clearly hear what you want to hear & disregard the rest.
Actually, I’m the one who decides whether someone has violated the comment rules, not you. I’d suggest that the 2 of you go write yr own blog together & set up yr own rules & watch how many readers come to visit.
“…These are fateful days, Mr. President. Which side are you on, tell me which side are you on.”
He’s on your side Richard. He gave it a shot early on, but as you well know Obama picked a fight he wasn’t ready for, suffered humiliation and further complicated the loss of US prestige and influence in a region vital to US security and national interests. Current domestic politics aren’t quite ready yet for what the US will ultimately be forced to do regarding the Israeli/Palestinian question.
Personally, I would have much preferred Obama pressing the Israelis after he had secured his second term than stirring up rabidly racist, Islamophobic Zionists in an all out effort to see him denied a second term. They never liked or trusted Barak Obama in the first place. He has to neutralize the arrows he filled their quivers with by making Netanyahu and fellow travelers smile at all opportunities. In other words, eat crow when necessary and bide his time playing a double hand with Israelis and Palestinians satisfying neither.
I believe he will defeat the Republicans and Zionists come the next election. I’m however not sure that he can reclaim the US role over the Israeli/Palestinian question. As you and others have observed that issue has now become internationalized. And with the inevitable emergence of Palestinian unity and an Egypt more in tune with the popular beliefs and demands of its peoples, an infinitely far worse development is evolving internally and on Israel’s borders than a nuclear armed Iran and Hezbollah.
Slowly but surely US support, the last redoubt of Israel is cracking and withering away as it had previously waned and perished for white-racist Rhodesia and apartheid S. Africa. Israelis being racist and committed to apartheid is an accident begging to happen. The day is coming, sooner or later when Israel stands alone and discovers its jingoism and hysterical rants are nothing more than bluster and empty threats as Zionist wet dreams of a greater Israel give way to Olmert’s living hell of a unified Palestinian civil rights & liberties campaign in Israel proper, WB and Gaza.
The Zionists can’t win Richard. Their only hope for a Jewish home in Palestine is the two state solution, but the sweet heart deal Netanyahu could have struck with Mahmoud Abbas is gone forever. It will now require great pain to accomplish a life saving bargain with the Palestinians today. And every day that passes that pain will become ever greater until its not what Israelis want anymore that matters, its that Palestinians are getting stronger and smarter and will ultimately realize they can have it all, not a miserable slice.
Its not the gun that will decide Israels fate.
Richard, you seem to think that your own ignorance is Judy’s responsibility to correct. It isn’t. The fact that you know so little about Hamas is your problem, not hers.
C’mon, Richard, gimme a break here. I was asking for a clarification of what you meant by a Palestinian state coming into existence in September, not looking to own your house or possess your child.
I’m sure our children have enough to deal with and don’t need any additional craziness from their parents.
If this was an attempt to be witty, leave it as I tell my dog. Not funny. Not even close. If you knew what a stalker is doing to my children online you wouldn’t even attempt to make a joke out of that.
Richard, accept my sympathy and concern for your children, and remember that I didn’t bring them into the conversation. you did, for some reason.
what I WAS asking is what you meant by a Palestinian state coming into existence in September.
answer if you will or not.
in any case, may your children be safe and well.
nobody is angry and nobody is caught flatfooted as of yet.
when and if the details of the deal are published, perhaps then there will be cause for emotional reaction, but jeepers, Richard, they’ve been under pressure to work out a deal, and attempting it, for about two years.
they even announced a deal back in 2009 that Hamas never got around to signing.
Obviously judging by the statements made by the Mahmoud Azahar who stated no for recognizing Israel no for Negotiations
link to messageboards.aol.com
Obama will be on Israel Sides not on yours.
Finally the side that you are on is well known through your support of the action accompanied by the statements of Azahar.
oops, you will claim i lie. whatever.
You’ve as usual misstated what Zahar said. He said the interim government, which will rule for approximately a yr. does not have a mandate to negotiate a peace settlement. He didn’t say any of the things you stated in the terms you claimed. Of course, the eventual elected gov’t will negotiate for peace because it will have a mandate to do so or will assign a body to do so on its behalf as the PA did when Hamas won the 2006 election.
You don’t lie, you just don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand my views or else you willfully distort them.
Mr. Silverstein
Abu Mazen stated today during an interview on channel 10 news that the intermediate government will not handle anything but gearing up for elections in the PA.
he stated that he’s the one who will decide on the political agenda of the government and they will execute his directives / policies.
seems to me we already seen this particular movie and the difference between Hamas and Fatah especially on the negotiation with israel subject, cause many fatah members to fly down from Gaza’s roof tops.
This move by Fatah, actually serves Bib’i better then it serves anyone else in the middle east.
Hamas will not change it charter (as it is a religious document) and will not gain world support.
Bibi will.
Nonsense. We’ve exhausted the Hamas Charter meme ages ago & it is irrelevant to political reality. I do so enjoy your predictions of what will happen based on nothing except your own right wing political prejudices & divorced from anything close to reality or common sense. I’m betting the Palestinians will prove you wrong and I’d say there’s a 60/40 chance there will be a Palestinian state in September.
My statement is based on a minor factor – History in this case even a recent one.
But your statement shows how little you know of Hamas.
Hamas is controlled by the Shura Council, which is controlled by the religious committee; the identity of the religious committee is classified and is not published. They control the path the Hamas follows.
Similar to Iran in which the real controller is the ayatollah and not the president, Hamas has it’s own version, who dictates everything.
If you wish to know more about Hamas, and Ahmed Yasin may I suggest you’ll do some real reading ?
Start with this:
link to geo.haifa.ac.il
I’ve never heard of the Shura Council and it’s never been mentioned in any major media publication I’ve read. It sounds more like a hasbara version of the Protocols of the Elders of Hamas.
I don’t accept propaganda sources here as credible. Look at the comment rules & you’ll see which sources are credible & which not. Do not, as I wrote, try scoring pts by seeing who can bring the best propaganda to smear one side or the other.
depending on what you mean by ” a Palestinian state in September”, people might want to know what it is that you’re willing to bet.
60-40 seems like an awfully optimistic and rather unlikely estimate of the chances of something real.
perhaps you aren’t meaning something real but something more theoretical.
If you mean you’d like me to bet my child or my house, no I didn’t have that in mind.
Mr. Silverstein.
First, i don’t understand the propaganda comment, are you saying that that the Hikin Geo-Strategic Cathedral in Haifa university is considered Propaganda ?
did you even looked at the link ?
ok, how about haaretz and Reuters ? is that propaganda to ?
this is not Hasbara, you just don’t really understand the culture you are trying to analyze. typical american approach.
link to haaretz.co.il
בתוך כך, סוכנות הידיעות רויטרס דיווחה אתמול כי חמאס ערך באחרונה בחירות חשאיות להנהגתו ברצועה – “מועצת השורא”. על פי הדיווח, מאות מחברי חמאס בחרו את המועצה וכן את הוועד הפועל, שאמור לממש את החלטות מועצת השורא.
בתוך הוועד הפועל מונתה אף קבוצה קטנה יותר שמשמשת ההנהגה הישירה. בין הנבחרים שמות מוכרים כמו ראש הממשלה איסמעיל הנייה, שר החוץ מחמוד א-זהאר ושר הפנים, סעיד סיאם.
בנוסף, דווח כי כמה מהבכירים בזרוע הצבאית של חמאס, עז א-דין אל-קסאם, הצליחו להשתלב לא רק במועצת השורא אלא גם בגוף המבצע של הארגון, הוועד הפועל של חמאס ברצועת עזה.
מקורות פלשתיניים הזכירו את שמו של אחמד אל-ג’עברי, ראש הזרוע הצבאית של הארגון, כמי שהצליח להיבחר לוועד הפועל, יחד עם כמה בכירים נוספים מהזרוע
Meanwhile, Reuters reported yesterday that Hamas had a secret election and elected a new leadership to its a secret council in Gaza – the “Shura Council. ” According to the report, hundreds of Hamas members chose the Council and the Council should exercise the decisions of the Shura Council.
First, I’d like to see the original story in Reuters. Second, you haven’t clarified what this Council does. You CLAIM it’s the top secret governing council of Hamas. But that’s ludicrous because everyone who knows anything about Hamas knows that its Politburo is in Damascus, not Gaza. Khaled Meshal & several top leaders there are the ones who make the big political decisions. I’ve never heard of a SHunra Council playing any major leadership role in such matters.
The University of Haifa is known as extremely right wing in a number of its departments. I’ll take a look at yr link when I can.
Please,
here is the Reuters original
link to uk.reuters.com
Second, It’s Shura, not Shunra.
Third, the Shura is the highest council, they decide on everything, all decisions are religion based and based on Islamic law – and that is way the charter is extremely important, as it’s set the way and the tone.
and last – i had a good laugh reading your claim about Haifa University, can you back that assertion with anything ?
You know about Haifa university las much as i know about Washington State University.