Bringing Hamas in from the cold
A vey interesting article... We, in the UK, spoke to the IRA, so why not Hamas ?
The source is interesting also..
In November, Ahmed Yousef, the speechwriter and aide of Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, claimed that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's team had been in contact with the group during the U.S. election campaign. The Obama camp denied it, and Yousef now says the talks are on ice.
But many of the incoming president's former and current foreign policy advisers favor some degree of U.S. engagement with the group. And if the United States were to stop boycotting Hamas, Israel could suddenly find itself internationally isolated on this point. But conservative and brutal as its politics can be, what is so frightening about talking to Hamas?
The group does remain committed to the dream of a united Islamic Palestine, but its political leadership, including Khaled Meshal, has accepted the principle of a two-state solution, based on the 1967 borders, in return for a long-term hudna, or truce. When I spoke to Yousef last May, while researching a book about Palestinian identity, he told me such a situation could be extended "to infinity."
Hamas has always contended that Fatah's concessions to Israel without a quid pro quo weaken the national cause and little more. They point to mushrooming settlements, the separation fence expanding across Palestinian territory and continuing mass arrests and assassinations. If Hamas' "resistance and pragmatism" formula fails, much darker forces are already growing in the shadow of Gaza's ruins, ready to take its place. One source close to Al-Qaida that I interviewed over the summer claimed the group's ideas are increasingly influential in Gaza. He said the extremist group was hopeful that a split could occur within the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, if Hamas were to surrender or even start talks with Israel.
Rocket attacks may be criminal and ineffective - as well as self-defeating in the destructive response they elicit from Israel. But they also meet a very human need to maintain both honor under fire and the spirit of resistance.
More than that, breaking the siege that has crippled normal Gazan life is the central challenge facing Hamas, both because it has decimated the lives of its electoral base, and because it is a litmus test of the group's alternative policy for statehood through resistance as well as talks.
If the tahadiyeh (lull) had succeeded in opening Gaza's borders to aid, trade and free passage for Gazans - especially work-related passage - it would have been political madness for Hamas to break it. As things were, the Gaza closure pushed the organization's popular support down to 16 percent in November, according to one opinion poll, and it must have concluded it no longer had anything to gain by holding fire.
At the best of times, Israel's fear of its resistance is the only leverage Hamas feels it has. As Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum put it, "Because the occupation decided to use every shade of punishment to destroy Hamas - collective punishment, deporting, arresting and killing - we need military resistance to force it to stop."
Even Israel's supposed antidote to this tactic - assassinations - was counteracted by the cultural lionizing of shaheeds and an organizational tapestry of knowledge-sharing. "Hamas leaders believe in passing on experience to others before they are killed," Barhoum explained. "I received a lot ... from Abdul al-Rantisi before his assassination and I have had about seven people who are prepared to be the spokesman for Hamas if I am killed." As a precautionary measure though, he does not use a cell phone or car.
Hamas had forgone suicide bombings "because the world community said it was a crime against humanity," Yousef said in exasperation at one point. "We listened to the world, hoping they would reward us; we didn't even receive praise. If the world's conscience won't hear Palestinian tears, we have other means at our disposal."
When I asked Ahmed Yousef what forms of resistance he could see emerging in Gaza in five or 10 years, his reply was calibrated to send shudders through Israel's political-military complex. "We might have submarines," he said. "We might have drones. We might have both these things. It sounds very sophisticated, [but] we can do it. We have know-how in the field of military technology. The ball is in Israel's court."
Hinting at where Israel's refusal to negotiate may push the group, Yousef suggested that Israel feared Hamas "might be able to mobilize Arabs in Muslim countries against the occupation." No doubt Egypt fears this too. Hamas grew out of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, now the biggest internal opposition to the undemocratic regime led by Hosni Mubarak, which declines to hold free elections.
If Hamas were to abandon its policy of non-intervention in the affairs of neighboring countries, it might spark a quantum shift in the regional equation. An Islamic uprising against Egypt's treatment of the Palestinians would certainly alter the regional balance of power.
On the other hand, if Hamas were brought in from the cold, it might smooth the edges of the peace deal that Obama's administration seeks and begin to heal the deep sense of hurt and alienation that bathes the Gaza Strip. Either way, trying to bomb Hamas into Gaza's scorched earth will not change the rules of the game, but only - temporarily - the strengths of the teams.
Source|: Arthur Neslen, Haartz
Very interesting and informed PoV, PM.
I have not been able to read up much but just a thought this morning while driving (when I heard the news that the US SS withdrew from the visit to China and they are sending her deputy instead) - the timing of Israel's offensive strategy - noticed that:-
1) they took action BEFORE Obama comes into power in 3 (now 2) weeks' time
2) Obama's ethical - "there can only be 1 president at a time"; and
3) Bush's reputation is already beyond tatters (and his Sec of State with him) and the Americans have spoken through their votes so he has nothing to lose and he still fully supports Israel.
NB: C. Rice's withdrawal from the China visit, while justified as "needing her at home to attend to important matters in this time of crisis", is also probable that "we cannot guarantee her safety overseas at this particular point in time." Yes, she's certainly needed for important strategic advice and decisions at home but ...
Question: Do former presidents and their families have secret service protecting them beyond their term in office? Cos Bush and family are going to be targets for a very long time to come. A consequence of having to make really hard decisions.
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Don't want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama
I get the feeling that you are biased against Hamas.
You will agree that both Egypt and Fatah have been very unhelpful over the past year or so.
I am not justifying Hamas' actions, but both sides are to blame. Israel has blockaded Gaza and made life a misery.
Yes, Hamas has launched rockets, but one could say that it is in retaliation to Israel's actions.
I still believe that both sides can be "cajoled" into working for a long term peace, especially if the side players stopped interfering.
One other thought comes to mind. Perhaps this action is condoned by Bush because he feels that Obama may actually be willing to work with Hamas for a long lasting peace.
wol1..They already have taken all their land, people like you want them to take the rest aswell.
Wakeup and be realistic, no one can help these poor palestinians but the western powers, at the moment.
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HE WHO DARES WINS
Negotiations?
You brits are unreal.
Wasn't Chamberlain enough for you? What does it take?
Thankyou Brit. I have been saying this all along in my posts that the best way for lasting peace is negotiations.
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HE WHO DARES WINS
I read after the ceasefire, on the 24 Dec Hamas started firing the rockets first. Is that true???
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Every society is judged by how
it treats it's least fortunates.
PM, is negotiation not possible only because of Hamas or its just not really gonna happen?
if negotiation wouldnt be possible, what else is left to do? wait? until the other party is totally terminated? since coexistence is not a choice...
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call me ONE.
Hamas already subscribes to the two state vision. Many a time, these types of organizations have to make certain noises to keep up their support and also keep the other parties on toe.
I am sure that if the sovereignty of Palestine could be gauranteed , and possibly the removal of some settlements, then progress could be made..
I really hope so.
/Edit: Agree with PM - not just the 2 main parties but the others involved as well, to support the peace process.
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Don't want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama
My point is the last para I added.
And whether there is any truth in the haaretz article. Probably biased but just wondering.
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Don't want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama
I am sure Hamas would be willing to negotiate, as would the Israelis. Bothe sides have to understand the long term benefits.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050962.html
".. When the world's radical Islamists adopted a strictly Palestinian Holy Land as their one common ideological denominator, they also gave a new meaning to their contention that rocket attacks on Israel really have nothing to do with this war.
This is a war for the future of Islam.
Specially, it is a war over the future of radical Islam, which for the past decade, has vigorously and skillfully labored to surpass settlements, Palestinian misrule, and a host of other factors to become the pre-eminent obstruction to peace in the Holy Land.
It is a war fueled by the fact that radical Islam is riven, and murderously so, by profound disagreements over Islam itself - to the point where Sunnis and Shi'ites have taken to bombing each others' mosques, and each other - and that there can be only one point of agreement among radical Muslims from Manila to London to Tehran: hatred of Israel and prayer for its destruction.
The world however, is no longer accepting Hamas' hydra-headed PR role as, at one and the same time, a humanitarian NGO, a sovereign government, and a resistance [read, terrorist] organization.
And many Palestinians, grieved and furious as they are over the civilian deaths in Israeli air raids, are coming to the same conclusion. .."
Question - Is Hamas willing to negotiate? Israel was willing to negotiate but with international monitors as a condition, no? Or have things regressed? Hope someone extends the olive branch soon and meet halfway to negotiate. There must be give and take for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Gaza.
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Don't want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama
Your point is ???
Well put!
Perhaps the answer is too simple to really comprehend..
We spoke to IRA because we wanted to bring peace to the region.
Lot of valid points. Fatah in the past has shown that it is corrupt. Hamas is an elected body. Perhaps the answer is to use the carrot and stick approch. Bring Hamas in from the cold and offer sweeteners in return.