[WCUSP] Good Morning Hamas by Uri Avnery

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

> Uri Avnery
> 01.03.08
>
>             Good Morning, Hamas
>
>
> WE ISRAELIS live in a world of ghosts and monsters. We do not conduct
> a war against living persons and real organizations, but against
> devils and demons which are out to destroy us. It is a war between the
> Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, between absolute good and
> absolute evil. That's how it looks to us, and that's how it looks to
> the other side, too.
>
> Let's try to bring this war down from virtual spheres to the solid
> ground of reality. There can be no reasonable policy, nor even
> rational discussion, if we do not escape from the realm of horrors and
> nightmares.
>
> After the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections, Gush Shalom said
> that we must speak with them. Here are some of the questions that were
> showered on me from all sides:
> --Do you like Hamas?
>
> Not at all. I have very strong secular convictions. I oppose any
> ideology that mixes politics with religion - whether Jewish, Muslim or
> Christian, in Israel, the Arab world or America.
>
> That does not prevent me from speaking with Hamas people, as I have
> spoken with other people with whom I don't agree. It has not prevented
> me from being a guest at their homes, to exchange views with them and
> to try to understand them. Some of them I liked, some I did not.
> --It is said that Hamas was created by Israel. Is that true?
>
> Israel did not "create" Hamas, but it certainly helped it along in its
> initial stages.
>
> During the first 20 years of the occupation, the Israeli leadership
> saw the PLO as its chief enemy. That's why it favored Palestinian
> organizations that, it was thought, could undermine the PLO. One
> example of this was Ariel Sharon's ludicrous attempt to set up Arab
> "village leagues" that would act as agents of the occupation.
>
> The Israeli intelligence community, which in the last 60 years has
> failed almost every time in forecasting events in the Arab world, also
> failed this time. They believed that the emergence of an Islamic
> organization would weaken the secular PLO. While the military
> administration of the occupied territories was throwing into prison
> any Palestinian who engaged in political activity - even for peace -
> it did not touch the religious activists. The mosque was the only
> place where Palestinians could get together and plan political action.
>
> This policy was, of course, based on a complete misunderstanding of
> Islam and Palestinian reality.
>
> Hamas was officially founded immediately after the outbreak of the
> first intifada at the end of 1987. The Israeli Security Service (known
> as Shabak or Shin Bet) handled it with kid gloves. Only a year later
> did it arrest the founder, Sheik Ahmad Yassin.
>
> It is ironic that the Israeli leadership is now supporting the PLO in
> the hope of undermining Hamas. There is no better evidence for the
> stupidity of our "experts" as far as Arab matters are concerned,
> stemming from both arrogance and contempt. Hamas is far more dangerous
> to Israel than the PLO ever was.
> --Did the Hamas election victory show that Islam was on the rise among
> the Palestinian people?
>
> Not necessarily. The Palestinian people did not become more religious
> overnight.
>
> True, there is a slow process of Islamization throughout the region,
> from Turkey to Yemen and from Morocco to Iraq. It is the reaction of
> the young Arab generation to the failure of secular nationalism to
> solve their national and social problems. But this did not cause the
> earthquake in Palestinian society.
> --If so, why did Hamas win?
>
> There were several reasons. The main one was the growing conviction of
> the Palestinians that they would never get anything from the Israelis
> by non-violent means. After the murder of Yassir Arafat, many
> Palestinians believed that if they elected Mahmoud Abbas as the new
> president, he would get from Israel and the US the things they would
> not give Arafat. They found out that the opposite was happening: No
> real negotiations, while the settlements were getting larger every
> day.
>
> They told themselves: if peaceful means don't work, there is no
> alternative to violent means. And if there be war, there are no braver
> warriors than Hamas.
>
> Also: the corruption in the higher Fatah echelons had reached such
> dimensions, that the majority of Palestinians were disgusted. As long
> as Arafat was alive, the corruption was somehow tolerated, because
> everybody knew that Arafat himself was honest, and his towering
> importance for the national struggle overrode the shortcomings of his
> administration. After Arafat, tolerating the corruption became
> impossible. Hamas, on the other hand, was considered clean, and its
> leaders incorrupt. The social and educational Hamas institutions,
> mainly financed by Saudi Arabia, were widely respected.
>
> The splits within Fatah also helped the Hamas candidates.
>
> Hamas, of course, had not taken part in previous elections, but it was
> generally assumed - even by Hamas people themselves - that they
> represented only about 15-25 percent of the electorate.
> --Can one reasonably expect the Palestinians to overthrow Hamas
> themselves?
>
> As long as the occupation goes on, there is no chance of that. An
> Israeli general said this week that if the Israeli army stopped
> operating in the West Bank, Hamas would replace Abbas there too.
>
> The administration of Mahmoud Abbas stands on feet of clay - American
> and Israeli feet. If the Palestinians finally lose what confidence
> they still have in Abbas, his power would crumble.
> --But how can one reach a settlement with an organization that
> declares that it will never recognize Israel and whose charter calls
> for the destruction of the Jewish state?
>
> All this matter of "recognition" is nonsense, a pretext for avoiding a
> dialogue. We do not need "recognition" from anybody. When the United
> States started a dialogue with Vietnam, it did not demand to be
> recognized as an Anglo-Saxon, Christian and capitalist state.
>
> If A signs an agreement with B, it means that A recognizes B. All the
> rest is hogwash.
>
> And in the same matter: The fuss over the Hamas charter is reminiscent
> of the ruckus about the PLO charter, in its time. That was a quite
> unimportant document, which was used by our representatives for years
> as an excuse to refuse to talk with the PLO. Heaven and earth were
> moved to compel the PLO to annul it. Who remembers that today? The
> acts of today and tomorrow are important, the papers of yesterday are
> not.
> --What should we speak with Hamas about?
>
> First of all, about a cease-fire. When a wound is bleeding, the blood
> loss must be stemmed before the wound itself can be treated.
>
> Hamas has many times proposed a cease-fire, Tahidiyeh ("Quiet") in
> Arabic. This would mean a stop to all hostilities: Qassams and Grad
> rockets and mortar shells from Hamas and the other organizations,
> "targeted liquidations", military incursions and starvation from
> Israel.
>
> The negotiations should be conducted by the Egyptians, particularly
> since they would have to open the border between the Gaza Strip and
> Sinai. Gaza must get back its freedom of communication with the world
> by land, sea and air,
>
> If Hamas demands the extension of the cease-fire to the West Bank,
> too, this should also be discussed. That would necessitate a
> Hamas-Fatah-Israel trialogue.
> --Won't Hamas exploit the cease-fire to arm itself?
>
> Certainly. And so will Israel. Perhaps we shall succeed, at long last,
> in finding a defense against short-range rockets.
> --If the cease-fire holds, what will be the next step?
>
> An armistice, or Hudnah in Arabic.
>
> Hamas would have a problem in signing a formal agreement with Israel,
> because Palestine is a Waqf - a religious endowment. (That arose, at
> the time, for political reasons. When Caliph Omar conquered Palestine,
> he was afraid that his generals would divide the country among
> themselves, as they had already done in Syria. So he declared it to be
> the property of Allah. This resembles the attitude of our own
> religious people, who maintain that it is a sin to give away any part
> of the country, because God has expressly promised it to us.)
>
> Hudnah is an alternative to peace. It is a concept deeply embedded in
> the Islamic tradition. The prophet Muhammad himself agreed a Hudnah
> with the rulers of Mecca, with whom he was at war after his flight
> from Mecca to Medina. (By the way, before the Hudnah expired, the
> inhabitants of Mecca adopted Islam and the prophet entered the town
> peacefully.) Since it has a religious sanction, its violation by
> Muslim believers is impossible.
>
> A Hudnah can last for dozens of years and be extended without limit. A
> long Hudnah is in practice peace, if the relations between the two
> parties create a reality of peace.
> --So a formal peace is impossible?
>
> There is a solution for this, too. Hamas has declared in the past that
> it does not object to Abbas conducting peace negotiations, on
> condition that the agreement reached is put to a plebiscite. If the
> Palestinian people confirm it, Hamas declared that it will accept the
> people's decision.
> --Why would Hamas accept it?
>
> Like every Palestinian political force, Hamas aspires to power in the
> Palestinian state that will be set up along the 1967 borders. For that
> it needs to enjoy the confidence of the majority. There is no doubt
> whatsoever that the vast majority of the Palestinian people want a
> state of their own and peace. Hamas knows this well. It will do
> nothing that would push the majority of the people away.
> --And what is the place of Abbas in all this?
>
> He should be pressured to come to an agreement with Hamas, along the
> lines of the earlier agreement concluded in Mecca. We believe that
> Israel has a clear interest in negotiating with a Palestinian
> government that includes the two big movements, so that the agreement
> reached would be accepted by almost all sections of the Palestinian
> people.
> --Is time working for us?
>
> For many years, Gush Shalom was telling the Israeli public: let's make
> peace with the secular leadership of Yasser Arafat, because otherwise
> the national conflict will turn into a religious conflict.
> Unfortunately, this prophecy, too, has come true.
>
> Those who did not want the PLO, got Hamas. If we don't come to terms
> with Hamas, we shall be faced with more extreme Islamic organizations,
> like the Taliban in Afghanistan.
> permlink  http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/
> 1204410372/
>
>
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