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Moving forward with Hamas?

Sharon's unilateralism strengthens Hamas; Israeli public falls in line

A recent poll conducted by the Truman Institute revealed that about half of all Israelis would support dialogue with Hamas if it would bring about a peace treaty. More and more Israelis believe we can rely on the "Islamic Resistance Movement," and that it would be possible to reach a final status agreement with Hamas under better conditions.

 

People seem to have forgotten that Hamas' basic ideology rejects any existence of a Jewish (or Christian) country in the bosom of Islam. Only believers in Allah have political rights in this area, and jihad must be waged against Israel "until Islam does away with it like it did away with (Israel's) predecessors."

 

It took three decades – from the organization's founding in 1964 until 1993 – for the PLO to recognize Israel. Arafat and co. did not make this move out of a deep love for Israel, but rather out of recognition that the best chance the Palestinians had for a state of their own was dependent on recognizing Israel inside the 1967 borders.

 

Palestinian concessions

 

Negotiations with Israel brought PLO leaders to make divisive concessions in addition to letting go of 78 percent of Palestine. Thus, even while denouncing settlements as illegal, they accepted the principle that Israel would annex some of them as part of a territorial transfer.

 

And even while continuing to insist on the rights of refugees to return to homes lost in 1948, they were prepared to tie this right to an implementation apparatus that would present different alternatives to the refugees while in practice limiting the number of returnees to Israel to symbolic numbers alone.

 

And more: The Palestinians were open to dividing eastern Jerusalem while granting Israel sovereignty on the city's Jewish neighborhoods, including the Old City and Western Wall. They gave up the right to an army, heavy weaponry and the right to forge military alliances.

 

They agreed to permit Israeli use of their air and electro-magnetic space, and to allow for two or three early warning systems in their country and for an international presence at border crossings.

 

Integrating Hamas

 

But the Israeli public was unimpressed by these offers, and today chooses to be impressed by the pragmatism Hamas has shown by observing a temporary ceasefire that stems entirely from domestic cost-benefit political calculations.

 

The results of PA elections will surely influence the future of Hamas, as well as the future of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Those who support a final status agreement, who hope for a Fatah victory, believe that by integrating Hamas into the PLO will force the organization to fall in line with previous organizational decisions, taken as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, including: U.N. Security Council resolution 242, recognition of Israel and the revocation of clauses calling for its destruction in the Palestinian covenant.

 

On the other hand, a Hamas victory would make it possible for Mahmoud Abbas to resign once-and-for-all and would lay the groundwork for Hamas to take over the PLO. This would open the door to reinstate the clause calling for Israel's destruction.

 

At the same time, support in Israel for talks with Hamas only strengthens Palestinian elements that believe there is no need to recognize Israel or to sign any final status agreements to get it out of the territories.

 

Zig zag Sharon

 

Ariel Sharon, who so far has reneged on every single policy platform he was elected on, can be trusted only to try as hard as he can to ensure there is "no partner" on the Palestinian side. He promises "peace," but has yet to find the political program for that with the except for the hollow Road Map.

 

He promised "security" but the bloody confrontations were stopped only by Abbas Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He said, "The fate of (Gaza settlement) Netzarim is the fate of Tel Aviv," but created the disengagement plan to derail support for the Geneva Initiative that suggested there really is a Palestinian partner.

 

He said "the border is an illusion," and moved quickly to build it under public pressure west of the Green line.

 

Now, as change is happening in the Palestinian regime, the prime minister can say – this time correctly – there is no partner. He'll say that Hamas – even given the fact that it is strengthened by Sharon's policy of unilateralism – is the choice of the Palestinian people, and that they would pay – even though polls show some 55 percent would support leaving settlement blocks in place – for electing Hamas.

 

Sharon's flag of unilateralism will wave high, but the same cannot be said for the future of Israel-Palestinian relations. They will be pushed to the old pages of uncompromising violence, until a new leadership arises that believes in compromise.

 

The only thing left is to hope is that that does not happen too late for the Zionist dream of a Jewish, democratic country.

 

Brig. Gen. (res.) Shaul Arieli was one of the initiators of the Geneva Initiative

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.29.05, 18:50
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