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How Israel
Taught Hamas All It Knows
By Mamoon Alabbasi
08/03/08 "ICH" -- -- Once more, as Israel continues its
ruthless attacks on the Palestinian population (against both
civilians and resistance fighters), mainstream media outlets
direct the blame on the victims. This time the villain is none
other than the democratically elected Palestinian resistance
movement Hamas.
Of course, no one is suggesting that Hamas is a movement
comprised of angels that have been inspired by the words of
Mother Teresa and had picked up their self-defence strategy from
Ghandi. Frankly, I am not aware of any political movement that
is. What is put forward, however, and has been missed by
ignorant or hypocrite Israel apologists, is the fact that Hamas
is least to blame in the plague that had haunted the region for
over sixty years – i.e. 40 years before the resistance movement
ever came into being.
So what do some have against Hamas? Or, more accurately, why is
Hamas singled out?
Violence:
‘Why doesn’t Hamas join the peace talks and end its armed
resistance as a method of liberating the Palestinian territories
occupied by Israel?’
Hamas has learned from Israel that, despite it being a good
idea, it will not happen. Tel Aviv and its apologists have
always maintained that the land Israel took from the
Palestinians through war has become somehow legitimately theirs.
Any agreement reached between the two sides will not bring back
all of the occupied Palestinian territories. What’s more, it
certainly won’t bring back all of the Palestinian refugees and
their descendants who forced to flee for their lives after the
creation of Israel. Of course if the negotiations were between
two equals then any compromise reached would be reasonable. But
when Israel puts international law aside and tells the
Palestinians to face the facts on the ground, it is sending a
signal to Hamas that ‘might is right’. The very idea that land
could be ‘won’ through war in our modern age, as suggested by
Israel, means that we are living in a jungle. Hamas understood
that from Israel and decided to play ball. OK, so it’s badly
losing, but is that the issue here? Would it be OK if it had
been winning? Like Israel, for example?
Hamas also learned from Israel that those who submissively obey
Tel Aviv do not get what they are promised, if they get anything
at all. OK, so they are being killed in lesser numbers and won’t
be starved to the same degree – like what is happening in the
West Bank – but will they ever be liberated from Israeli
occupation? Well, let’s see, what occupied population was ever
freed from Israel by negotiations only? Naught.
In fact, the only population that managed to liberate itself
from Israel’s brutal occupation was that of south Lebanon, led
by Hezbollah. Now what kind of message is Israel sending Hamas?
What type of example is it setting?
One might add, as Hamas claimed credit of, Israel only pulled
out its troops from Gaza after resistance attacks against the
Israeli military there became too much of a headache for Tel
Aviv. Of course Gaza is still under occupation, but Hamas is
still following the Israeli roadmap to achieve total liberation;
‘fight to be free, or die trying’.
Recognition:
‘Why doesn’t Hamas recognise Israel’s right to exist?’
The issue of recognising Israel comes in other forms too, with
references to the movement’s wish to ‘wipe out Israel off the
map’ and its militants who are ‘sworn to the destruction of
Israel’. What the statement basically means is that Hamas does
not recognise the UN resolution that created the State of
Israel. Regardless of how did that resolution came into effect,
and the historical events that preceded it and the ones that
came later, critics fault Hamas for not moving on and accepting
that things have changed now, for better or for worse. Many
argue, with justification, that the reality on the ground has
changed since sixty years ago and many Israelis know no other
land as home other than Israel.
But what is not often mentioned is that the Israel that the UN
created and the international community wishes Hamas to
recognise is not recognised by Israel itself (Tel Aviv has a
much larger Israel in mind). And the Israel that Israel itself
recognises (the one that includes land grabbed through war) is
not recognised by the international community. So why is Hamas
being singled out for not recognising the UN drawn Israel (the
one with the pre-1967 Green Line borders)? Couldn’t it mean that
Hamas has learnt a thing or two from Israel?
On the same note, Hamas is slammed for wishing to ‘wipe Israel
off the map’. Underline the word ‘wishing’ here because Israel
had already wiped Palestine off the map. Why is Hamas being
criticised for something Israel had done long ago (and still
continues doing)? In fact, even the maps which Israeli children
are currently studying at school have no reference to the
Palestinian territories.
There are two additional points to be noted here. First, Hamas
sees that instead of having Israelis and Palestinians living
under Israel’s rule, it should be Jews and Arabs living under
Palestinian rule in historic Palestine (i.e. a one state
solution that includes – not expels – the Jews). Hamas only
differs from Israel by ‘saying’ they believe in a one state
solution. But in reality both want total control.
The second point is that despite the movement’s original stance,
Hamas leaders have on many occasions implicitly showed their
willingness to recoginse Israel’s 1967 borders – i.e. the
borders recognised by the international community – if Israel
ends its occupation. But Tel Aviv has not met them half way. So
why is Hamas expected to recognise those who do not recognise
them?
Extremism:
‘Isn’t Hamas an Islamist extremist movement?’
It is indeed most Ironic how some critics of Hamas scorn the
movement’s religious Islamic roots and move on (sometimes in the
same breath) to discuss – favourably – the state of Israel’s
existence in biblical terminology. Of course everyone is
entitled to his/her own religious beliefs, but since when are
countries’ borders decided by disputed and often contradictory
religious or mythical texts? Why should Hamas accept the
extremists’ views that God somehow promised the holy land to a
chosen few? If Hamas is forced to adopt extremists’ ideas,
surely it can find views of its own without borrowing distorted
biblical ones? So why favour one religious view over another?
How can some quote the bible in a political argument related to
the Middle East and expect Hamas to leave religion out of its
discourse?
With some Christian-Zionists pushing for an Armageddon war that
would speed up the second coming of Christ, and some Jewish
fanatics (who do not believe that Christ came the first time
round) waiting for their Messiah to take vengeance on everyone
who does not share their sacred blood, doesn’t Hamas look a bit
amateurish on the extremism side?
Terrorism:
‘Isn’t Hamas a terrorist movement?’
Without going into the various definitions of terrorism and
where resistance against occupation is different, it is
important to note that nothing, I mean nothing, excuses the
killing of innocent civilians. ‘The use of force or the threat
to use force or violence against civilians or civilian property
with the intention of intimidating or coercing’ mounts to
terrorism. Has Hamas been implicated of such acts in the past?
Yes. Is it alone? No, of course not. The founding fathers of
Israel are a textbook example of what terrorism is all about.
Hamas must have read somewhere that a nation could be built from
terrorism. But one needn’t go that far back, Israel’s daily
policies are a classical example of sate terrorism.
Solution:
‘How do we stop the Hamas rockets?’
Simple. Israel has to teach Hamas that the stronger side of the
equation (i.e. Israel) can offer a ‘just peace’ without being
beaten in war. As long as there is injustice, Palestinians –
with or without Hamas - will continue to resist. The recently
invented homemade clumsy rockets were never the real issue
behind the conflict. Throughout the sixty years of conflict, 40
of which included direct Israeli occupation, Palestinians have
learned a lot about the dark side of Israel; isn’t it time that
the Jewish State showed some virtuous Jewish values?
Mamoon Alabbasi is an editor for Middle East Online and can be
reached at: mamoon@meo.tv
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