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TechnoratiHamas’ Political Impasse: Between Principal and Necessity
Much can be said to explain, or even justify Hamas' recent political concessions, where its top leaders in Gaza and Damascus agreed in principle with a political settlement on the basis of the two-state solution.
On June 25, Damascus-based leader of the Islamic group's political bureau, Khaled Meshaal reiterated Hamas' rejection of recognizing Israel as a Jewish State, rightfully dubbing such a designation as "racist, no different from Nazis and other calls denounced by the international community." However, he did endorse the idea of a two-state solution, which envisages the creation of an independent Palestinian state on roughly 22 percent of the land of historic Palestine.
The announcement was hardly earth shattering, for other Hamas leaders have alluded, or straightforwardly agreed to the same notion in the past. But what was in fact altered is the language used by Hamas' leaders to endorse the illusive and increasingly unfeasible possibility of two states. Meshaal's language was largely secular, while past Hamas references to the same principle were engulfed in religious idiom. For example, in past years Hamas agreed to a Palestinian state in all of the occupied territories, conditioned on the removal of Jewish settlements, under the provision of a long-term ‘hunda', or truce. The term ‘hudna' is loaded with implicit religious inferences, and was used to present Hamas' political views as both pragmatic, but also based on time-honored Islamic political tradition.
Ahmed Yousef, chief advisor to the deposed Hamas government in Gaza alluded to the concept of ‘hudna' in various writings and media interviews. But his calls sounded more like an attempt to find common space between the Islamic movement's firm religious beliefs and US-led international pressure aimed at forcing Hamas into the same political camp which discredited rival Fatah. But Ahmed Yousef's variation in rhetoric cannot be understood as synonymous with Meshaal's recent political revelations.
The boycott of the elected Hamas government in 2006, and the orchestrated violence that led to a Hamas takeover, and subsequent isolation and siege of the Gaza Strip, were all meant to force Hamas to ‘moderate' its position. Immense collective suffering was endured throughout the Gaza Strip in order for Israel and its backers, including the Palestinian leadership based in the West Bank to force Hamas out of its ideological trenches to join the ‘pragmatic' camp, which saw little harm in fruitless political compromises.
Hamas' steadfastness was enough to further demonstrate its revolutionary credence and patriotic credentials to most Palestinians and their supporters around the Middle East and the world. Hamas impressed many, not because of its theological references, but political resilience and refusal to be intimidated. In some way, Hamas achieved the same revolutionary status and recognition as that of Fatah in the 1960's.
It was not until the Israeli war against largely defenseless Gaza starting December 2008, that Hamas seemed politically self-assured, and for good reason. After all, it was a democratically elected movement representing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Their rivals' failure to accommodate the new political reality, and incessant Israeli attempts at destroying the movement and imprisoning scores of its elected parliamentarians were not enough to de-legitimize it. Then Israel unleashed one of its grizzliest campaigns against Palestinians, aimed largely at civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza. The Israeli war was meant to achieve more than the killing of 1,350 (including 437 children) and the wounding of 5,450 others. It was aimed at disturbing the Palestinian psyche that began seeing a world of possibilities beyond the confining and shallow promises of peace infused by the Oslo peace process, which only served to ingrain occupation and entrench illegal settlements.
International solidarity was building up slowly prior to the Israeli attack. As Israeli bombs began raining atop Gaza's mostly civilian infrastructure, international solidarity exploded throughout the world. Israel's brutal folly served to legitimize the very group it was meant to crush. The voices that tirelessly demanded Hamas to live up to fixed conditions, handed down by the so-called Middle East peace quartet, were overshadowed by voices demanding the US and various Western powers to recognize and engage Hamas. A lead voice amongst them is former US President Jimmy Carter, one of the first influential Western personalities to engage Hamas, and to break the news that Hamas "would accept a two-state peace agreement with Israel as long as it was approved by a Palestinian referendum or a newly elected government." (Guardian, April 22, 2008)
Carter's insistence on involving Hamas in any future peace arrangement took him from Damascus, to Cairo to the West Bank, then, to Gaza. His recent visit to the Strip on June 16 was more than that of solidarity, but it was aimed at convincing Hamas to agree to the vision of two states and the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. The alternative conditions are meant to present a more dignified exit than the belligerent and one-sided demands of the quartet. It's unclear whether Hamas would fully embrace his call. But what is clear is that Hamas is sending various signals, such as its willingness to engage in dialogue with the Obama administration, and, again, acceptance of the two-state solution, which according to any reasonable estimation of the Israeli ‘facts on the ground' created in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank, is now a far-fetched possibility.
Needless to say, Hamas as a political movement, with an elected government with some jurisdiction over nearly one-third of the Palestinian people has the right, and even more, the obligation to politically maneuver, reposition and even re-brand itself. Breaking the siege on Gaza requires steadfastness, true, but political ingenuity as well. That said, Hamas must be wary of the political, and historic price that will be paid if it fails to learn from the experience of the discredited and corrupted Fatah. Palestinian rights are enshrined in international law, and corroborated by the endless sacrifices of the Palestinian people, in Gaza and elsewhere. Therefore, the price of engagement, dialogue and political validation must not happen at the expense of the Palestinian people wherever they are, as stipulated in numerous UN resolutions including 194, pertaining to the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
11 Comments so far
Show AllThe Zionist apologists have been wheeled out in full to condemned this excellent article, with potted history, about colonialist powers carving up and giving away what is not theirs' to give. Whereas in fact a criminal racist failed state that has grown out of terrorism and corruption and expanded by war, aggression, and deceit, is illegally occupying lands it has no claim to and continues to attempt to expand its territory by military means committing war crimes and crimes against humanity and human rights.
Hamas is no more terrorist, in its origins that the IDF that it tries to resist, and no more or less theological in its base than a state that demands to be recognised as a “Jewish” state. The problem the Zionists and their backers, the US, have is that they cannot control Hamas, because unfortunately through a transparently democratic process Hamas LIGITIMATELY represents the Palestinian people. That Palestine was a protectorate and not a state, and the history of Trans-Jordan and the Iraqi border, and other canards put out by these detractors are meant to change the focus from the stated need in all international accords to recognise the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights, including the right of return.
To understand the sheer lack of respect for humanity that the Zionist state exemplifies everybody should hear the truth from prisoner No. 88794 on her second day in Israeli jail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZPRKJzgkHA
It is such a shame that we have such spineless windbags atop corrupt administrations prostrated before greed and blind to justice in the US and Europe.
If listening to this does not motivate you to DO SOMETHING, you are part of the problem. What to do? At a minimum, BOYCOTT the ZIONISTS, in every way: economically, culturally, and academically.
We must remember that Hamas is not merely the enemy of Israel. It is an islamist party that seeks to institute special taxes on Christian Arabs. In Jordan Arabs are officially identified by religion. The West Bank area of the Jordan valley was part of Jordan that the Kingdom lost during an aggresive war against Israel. The same holds true for Gaza. Saudi Arabia fully supports every terrorist act that kills Jews.
I have a hard time with so-called progressives deciding that we must blame Israel and uphold anti-freedom groups like Hamas.
I am on no drugs. I have been on the ground and weighed the situation.
Thank you Gideon.
Another troll from the land of racist zionists...The 'special' tax imposed on Christians is no more than the tax imposed on Muslims. Another buffoon!!
There is a solution. Its called the three-state solution. Gaza goes back to Egypt, and Israel and Jordan draw a new common border. The so-called refugees are absorbed into the nations of their arab brethren.
Now that really takes into consideration the interests of the Palestinian people, why don't you get two states, lets say Myanmar and China to indorse that, China can veto any claims in the UNSC, get an un-elected Palestinian you call representative to rubber stamp what you now call an "agreement", and then impose it on the Palestinian people, on their homes and their land with draconian military force.... and you would have about as much legitimacy in law and common sense as the present arrangements reflect.
Per Ramsey: "On June 25, Damascus-based leader of the Islamic group's political bureau, Khaled Meshaal reiterated Hamas' rejection of recognizing Israel as a Jewish State, rightfully dubbing such a designation as "racist, no different from Nazis and other calls denounced by the international community."
Arabs have been unanimous in rejecting the idea of Israel being a "Jewish state." Their reasons are that, by definition, a Jewish state would be discriminatory against Arabs and Muslims.
Time to check out the official hypocrisy of only a few of Israel's critics, and note the deafening silence towards this supposed Arab and Islamic racism:
Syria's constitution:
Article 1 [Arab Nation, Socialist Republic]
(1) The Syrian Arab Republic is a democratic, popular, socialist, and sovereign state. No part of its territory can be ceded. Syria is a member of the Union of the Arab Republics.
(2) The Syrian Arab region is a part of the Arab homeland.
(3) The people in the Syrian Arab region are a part of the Arab nation. They work and struggle to achieve the Arab nation's comprehensive unity.
Article 3 [Islam]
(1) The religion of the President of the Republic has to be Islam.
(2) Islamic jurisprudence is a main source of legislation.
Jordan's constitution:
Article 1
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an independent sovereign Arab State. It is indivisible and inalienable and no part of it may be ceded. The people of Jordan form a part of the Arab Nation, and its system of government is parliamentary with a hereditary monarchy.
Article 2
Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official language.
Egypt's constitution:
Art.1*: The Arab Republic of Egypt is a Socialist Democratic State based on the alliance of the working forces of the people. The Egyptian people are part of the Arab Nation and work for the realization of its comprehensive unity.
Art.2*: Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia).
"Palestine"'s constitution:
ARTICLE 1
Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation. Arab Unity is an objective which the Palestinian People shall work to achieve.
ARTICLE 4
1. Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.
2. The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.
HAMAS Charter: http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm
So why, exactly, is a Jewish state (whose record of equal rights far surpasses those of any of the Arab nations) morally worse than the large number of Arab and Islamic states?
Because it’s a JEWISH state!!
Show me whee Israel recognizes the state of Palestine officially....You seem to be ignoring this request. The religion is NOT an issue. Land theft, murder, maiming is the issue!!
You can worship your own royal arse all you want. But do it in your own land!!!
The author tells only the one sided propagandised version of history which for him began in 1948!
Unfortunately (for him) there are people who know the truth!
In 1919 the international Paris Peace Conference was convened by the victorious Allies to settle international questions following the end of WWI. Delegations attended from around the world including an official Arab and a Zionist delegation. The Arab delegation was led by Emir Feisal I, who agreed that the entire Palestine territory of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 would become the Jewish national home and expressed that position in separate letters to Zionist leaders Chaim Weizmann and Felix Frankfurter.
In return for Arab support the Zionists promised economic and technical assistance to the local Arabs and the Allied powers agreed to grant eventual sovereignty to many of the Arab peoples in the region that were previously under control of the former Turkish Ottoman Empire.
This conference amicably settled the issues among the parties with voluntary, legally binding, international agreements.
In 1922 the League of Nations assigned Britain as the Mandatory to faithfully carry out these agreements. In 1921 it was British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill who unilaterally divided Mandatory Palestine into an Arab (Trans Jordan) and a Jewish sector, with the Arabs receiving 76% of the original territory, comprising 35,000 square miles, located east of the Jordan River. That left the Jewish sector with only 10,000 square miles out of their original 45,000 square miles, which was still less than 1% of the combined Arab areas of 5 million square miles.
That remaining Jewish sector is today contested with the 'Palestinians' claiming the 'West Bank' and Gaza to create, in effect, a second Palestinian state. (Jordan is mostly Palestinian.) It was the British, in 1919, who began to undermine their own Mandate and to instigate the Arabs against Jews.
For too long, many people have labored under a collective mindset resembling a bad dream, where big lies become entrenched wisdom and truth is constantly strangled. Unless we change direction there will be dire consequences extending well beyond the peoples of the region. Those who still have minds and morals intact now have an obligation to think clearly and with sanity and support this approach to finally resolving the Arab—Israeli conflict.
Recall also the Koran....
Sura 5.20 says, “Remember Moses said to his people: “O my People! call in remembrance the favor of Allah unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples.”
Sura 5.21 says, “O my people ! enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to you own ruin.”
So what you are saying is that the whole world is blind and stupid, and the zionists are telling the truth? What drugs have you been on? And please do not quote scriptures out of context.
So fivish, what's your point?
What's to be done with the Palestinians of the WB? If not a two-state solution, the only other possibilities are one state or apartheid - one not acceptable to Jews, the other not acceptable to the international community.
They should join their fellow Palestinians in Jordan. Which by the way, was carved-out of the original Ottoman Palestine (40% of the land) by the Brits as a pay-off to the Heuisein Hashemite family when they were run out of Saudi Arabia by the Ibin Saud family.
You see, IN REALITY, there were three nations intended to be created from the Ottoman Palestine. Jordan, Isreal, and "Palestine". Unfortuntely, the Arabs refused the acceptance of a Palestinian Arab state and invaded Israel instead. Oh well.
Damn! If you people had any sense of history instead of the Lefty-Loonie sources, you might have a grasp on reality.