This commentary was published in Arab News on 7/12/2010
A cable from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to his US counterpart Barack Obama leaked by WikiLeaks shows that Sarkozy believes the Quartet’s hard line stance on Hamas is harming the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) more than they do Hamas and he, therefore, wants an initiative “to repackage the Quartet principles.”
Sarkozy is right. Can the international community stand by in all good conscience to allow the people of Gaza to remain in miserable limbo without any foreseeable end?
Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is the main cause of so much suffering and deprivation but the Palestinian National Authority, Hamas and the Quartet don’t have clean hands either.
Firstly, the split between Hamas and Fatah was partly a result of US government policy as indicated by a leaked memo from then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice published by Al Jazeera, which encouraged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the Cabinet and work toward removing the elected party Hamas from power. The Bush administration labeled Hamas “a terrorist organization” even though its military activities have always been directed against the occupier, and then set about arming Fatah’s military wing to drive out Hamas by force.
Secondly, although the Quartet (US, EU, Russia and the UN) praised the Palestinians on their free, fair and monitored elections in 2006 and called for “all parties to respect the results of the election” because the outcome wasn’t to their liking, they made life impossible for the Hamas-led government.
The Quartet and Israel deprived it of funds, aid, banking facilities and traveling rights for officials to hurt the Palestinian people in the hope they would soon send Hamas packing. This stance failed as once hemmed-in, the Palestinians rallied around Hamas to an even greater extent. Much has been written about the financial links between Hamas and Iran but, in fact, the Quartet’s actions only served to push Hamas in Tehran’s direction.
Then, according to a US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, the Israeli government consulted with Fatah and Egypt in the run-up to Operation Cast Lead, that robbed the lives of 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children, as to whether they would be prepared to assume control of Gaza once the assault was over. The answer from the Palestinian National Authority and Egypt was “no”.
Fatah must also accept a proportion of blame for the current stalemate. Its leader Mahmoud Abbas should have put Palestinian unity before any relationship with Washington and ignored calls to take on Hamas. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama turned out to be ineffectual in bringing any peace process to fruition. They’ve made promises, raised hopes and delivered precisely nothing. If anything, the Palestinians are worse off now than they ever were, partly because they are divided and weakened, which from the get-go may have been part of the American/Israeli grand design. Likewise, the leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh could have handled the situation differently. His intransigency and fiery rhetoric has done little toward winning friends and influencing people. Did he really need to characterize the wildfires raging near Haifa that has killed 40 as God’s expression of anger toward the Israelis? Even if he thought that, he could have kept it to himself.
However, while Haniyeh’s comment made headlines, a similar conclusion vocalized by the spiritual leader of Israel’s Shas party Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who said the disaster was a punishment from God for the afflicted area’s desecration of the Sabbath, was virtually ignored.
Last Wednesday came a massive breakthrough on the part of Hamas that also ended up below the radar. Haniyeh surprised journalists attending a news conference by saying that Hamas would honor a peace treaty with Israel on condition that such treaty was approved by the Palestinian people in a referendum.
Hamas would “accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the resolution of the issue of refugees,” he said. These are broadly the same conditions contained in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative unveiled at an Arab League summit in Beirut. That should be news-breaking as previously the Hamas leadership has only offered to respect a century-long hudna (truce). At the very least, the announcement shows that Hamas may now be willing to compromise. It’s a pity that this has been given little attention by the media and doesn’t seem to have elicited any positive reaction from Obama or the Quartet.
The US and other members of the Quartet have in recent time been urging Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to variously lift or greatly ease the siege on Gaza but such calls have not been heeded. Following Israel’s attack on a Turkish convoy attempting to break the blockade, Israel does permit Gaza to import some goods that were previously banned but this is far from enough.
If the Obama administration, the other Quartet members are sincere about alleviating the torment for the Palestinians and the peace process based on a two-state solution (not a three state), they must first endeavor to bring Hamas and Fatah together. The Palestinian National Authority should then be dissolved and new elections held with new candidates. Not only has the presidential tenure of Abbas long expired which means he has no authority to speak on behalf of his people, despite his close relationship with the White House, he has put absolutely nothing of worth on the table.
Any recipe for peace requires goodwill and effort from all parties concerned. Israelis must soften their attitudes, the US should guarantee Israel’s security and be willing to use sticks rather than carrots, Hamas should be more flexible and Abbas should resign to make way for a unifier.
There is “no credible alternative to Palestinian reconciliation,” wrote Sarkozy in his cable to Obama. If that’s the case, then what are they waiting for, more pain? Hamas has shown it’s here to stay. It’s time it and the people of Gaza were finally brought in from the cold.
Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is the main cause of so much suffering and deprivation but the Palestinian National Authority, Hamas and the Quartet don’t have clean hands either.
Firstly, the split between Hamas and Fatah was partly a result of US government policy as indicated by a leaked memo from then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice published by Al Jazeera, which encouraged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the Cabinet and work toward removing the elected party Hamas from power. The Bush administration labeled Hamas “a terrorist organization” even though its military activities have always been directed against the occupier, and then set about arming Fatah’s military wing to drive out Hamas by force.
Secondly, although the Quartet (US, EU, Russia and the UN) praised the Palestinians on their free, fair and monitored elections in 2006 and called for “all parties to respect the results of the election” because the outcome wasn’t to their liking, they made life impossible for the Hamas-led government.
The Quartet and Israel deprived it of funds, aid, banking facilities and traveling rights for officials to hurt the Palestinian people in the hope they would soon send Hamas packing. This stance failed as once hemmed-in, the Palestinians rallied around Hamas to an even greater extent. Much has been written about the financial links between Hamas and Iran but, in fact, the Quartet’s actions only served to push Hamas in Tehran’s direction.
Then, according to a US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, the Israeli government consulted with Fatah and Egypt in the run-up to Operation Cast Lead, that robbed the lives of 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children, as to whether they would be prepared to assume control of Gaza once the assault was over. The answer from the Palestinian National Authority and Egypt was “no”.
Fatah must also accept a proportion of blame for the current stalemate. Its leader Mahmoud Abbas should have put Palestinian unity before any relationship with Washington and ignored calls to take on Hamas. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama turned out to be ineffectual in bringing any peace process to fruition. They’ve made promises, raised hopes and delivered precisely nothing. If anything, the Palestinians are worse off now than they ever were, partly because they are divided and weakened, which from the get-go may have been part of the American/Israeli grand design. Likewise, the leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh could have handled the situation differently. His intransigency and fiery rhetoric has done little toward winning friends and influencing people. Did he really need to characterize the wildfires raging near Haifa that has killed 40 as God’s expression of anger toward the Israelis? Even if he thought that, he could have kept it to himself.
However, while Haniyeh’s comment made headlines, a similar conclusion vocalized by the spiritual leader of Israel’s Shas party Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who said the disaster was a punishment from God for the afflicted area’s desecration of the Sabbath, was virtually ignored.
Last Wednesday came a massive breakthrough on the part of Hamas that also ended up below the radar. Haniyeh surprised journalists attending a news conference by saying that Hamas would honor a peace treaty with Israel on condition that such treaty was approved by the Palestinian people in a referendum.
Hamas would “accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the resolution of the issue of refugees,” he said. These are broadly the same conditions contained in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative unveiled at an Arab League summit in Beirut. That should be news-breaking as previously the Hamas leadership has only offered to respect a century-long hudna (truce). At the very least, the announcement shows that Hamas may now be willing to compromise. It’s a pity that this has been given little attention by the media and doesn’t seem to have elicited any positive reaction from Obama or the Quartet.
The US and other members of the Quartet have in recent time been urging Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to variously lift or greatly ease the siege on Gaza but such calls have not been heeded. Following Israel’s attack on a Turkish convoy attempting to break the blockade, Israel does permit Gaza to import some goods that were previously banned but this is far from enough.
If the Obama administration, the other Quartet members are sincere about alleviating the torment for the Palestinians and the peace process based on a two-state solution (not a three state), they must first endeavor to bring Hamas and Fatah together. The Palestinian National Authority should then be dissolved and new elections held with new candidates. Not only has the presidential tenure of Abbas long expired which means he has no authority to speak on behalf of his people, despite his close relationship with the White House, he has put absolutely nothing of worth on the table.
Any recipe for peace requires goodwill and effort from all parties concerned. Israelis must soften their attitudes, the US should guarantee Israel’s security and be willing to use sticks rather than carrots, Hamas should be more flexible and Abbas should resign to make way for a unifier.
There is “no credible alternative to Palestinian reconciliation,” wrote Sarkozy in his cable to Obama. If that’s the case, then what are they waiting for, more pain? Hamas has shown it’s here to stay. It’s time it and the people of Gaza were finally brought in from the cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment