Hard Lessons From Palestine

01/27/2006

Paul Munnis

We are taught about the phases of death agony that people go through which include shock, disbelief, anger, and finally acceptance. We are watching Palestine go through those phases now as the reality sinks in of what it means to freely elect a terrorist organization to take charge of the future of a state that is itself in birth.

Hamas was just elected to rule Palestine and has asserted that it will not live in peace with its Jewish neighbors. Hamas espouses a belief system that is some 56 years old and goes back to the founding of the Jewish State of Israel. Essentially it has not evolved since then even though it has gone through a succession of leaders. It’s still the same hard-line: “Death to the Jews” political party.

In response, the Fatah Party sprang up about 30 years ago under Yassar Arafat as an alternative and its theme was to find a way for peaceful co-existence with the Jewish State. A sort of ‘responsible neighbors seeking peace’ approach then resulted. It was however tempered and forced to adopt a harder line by the existence of the Hamas hard-liners. Israel’s leader Sharon, understood the subtleties of this and he acted accordingly trying to find a third way.

After Arafat died, Abbas took over Palestinian government and he worked to attempt to reach a peaceful co-existence with Israel.

President Clinton, and other American presidents before him, committed to a role of mediation between the two factions thus encouraging peace. It came within 3% of success before Clinton’s term expired. It process was then formalized into a “Road Map For Peace” in part by by the Bush Administration in concert with a “quartet” of international entities: the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations. The principles of the plan were first outlined by U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech on June 24, 2002, in which he called for an independent Palestinian state living side by side with the Israeli state in peace. In exchange for statehood, the road map requires the Palestinian Authority to make democratic reforms and abandon the use of terrorism. Israel, for its part, must support and accept the emergence of a reformed Palestinian government and end settlement activity of the Gaza Strip and West Bank as the Palestinian terrorist threat is removed.

This effort, requiring compromise, has clearly failed in spite of efforts to try.

Arafat died from a stroke and Mr. Abbas assummed the responsibility for Palestine.

Abbas and Sharon seemed to be getting on okay and making progress when two major things happened. Ariel Sharon had a stroke that left him hospitalized and incapacitated while Palestine had an election and rejected the peaceful route of Fatah chosing to kill the Road Map terms. This was done yesterday by electing Hamas to office by a wide margin and with a mandate to kill Jews.

Now the Fatah cabinet plus Mr. Abbas has resigned and Hamas is left to form a new government for Palestine.

Predictably, Israel and the U.S. will not recognize the new government. There is much shock, disbelief and anger right now but once the acceptance stage arrives the question will become: “Now What?” Of course nations will align with one or the other and form alliances and there will be a risk of world confrontation as a result.

There are many short-term possibilities too.

Hamas might decide it needs to pursue peace with Israel and that would be a huge change for a positive outlook for future peace. The result would resume the Road Map. It is out of character though and is the antithesis of why they were elected and what the Palestinians really say they want. Palestinians clearly chose a path yesterday of “Death to Jews.” That is not acceptable.

Abbas might stay on and act as a mediator between Israel and Palestine but that is considered unlikely because there would be little authority to act. He would be a puppet on a string. A mere courier between two warring factions.

Israel might decide it needs to attack Palestine, conquer the Palestinians, enslave them, and force peace on that part of the world. That too is not too likely since the pragmatics and experience of mankind argue against peace arising from enslavement. The Jewish people have a deep understanding of that.

The people of Israel may become frightened and turn into a mob attacking and killing Palestinians so as to end the problem in a kind of pogrom that Jews normally condemn since they have been victims of this behavior themselves. Once such things start they are hard to stop.

Hand wringing might lead to dialogue which might lead to discussion, which could lead to negotiation, which could lead to accommodation. That is hoped for but has a lot of “if’s” associated with it.

Israel might choose to wall itself off from Palestine, go onto a war footing of defense, and isolate itself from the Palestinians. That would mean cutting off the Palestinian’s water, sewage, electric, and utilities as well as denying them access to holy places inside Israeli controlled territory. That will lead to gunfire and also could have an effect of isolating Israel from the rest of the world. It is in effect a form of freight response.

The UN might take up the issue and declare an attempt to create an Israeli homeland to be a failure and then dissolve the Israeli charter.

A new initiative to separate the factions and to calm everyone down could also result in UN enforced mediation.

The UN could abort support for formation of the Palestinian state and establish a place where Palestinians are welcome but are not allowed to govern themselves since they are proving incapable of it.

The UN could also deny the right of Palestine to form a State and thus simply leave them stateless while supporting Israel.

There could be other options too and we will all be watching closely in the days to come. Events soon to happen will change the very face of the mid-east and thus impact the American presence there in a major way and we all know it.

As we stare at a map of the continent of Africa for the umpteenth time we wonder why there is so much misery and lack of civilized behavior on this continent. Then we reflect upon our American experience and we see it is deteriorating too.

This is not just about a clash between two mid-east people’s it is about a challenge to the human spirit and a determination to civilize ourselves as a species.

The only recipe that we have seen for success is the American Way, a method by which two Parties have roughly equal strength and are determined through statesmanship to discipline themselves and to negotiate a third way that all agree to abide by. It is marked by a commitment to compromise for the good of the society being ruled. It is incompatible with wedge issues being used to divide people. Most wedge issues are based on religion and thus a need exists for separation of Church and State.

As we can see here in our own American experience, it takes more than a ballot box to make this happen. It takes willingness to acknowledge the need for bi-partisanship and statesmanship and those attributes must supersede partisanship and personal opinion. Hard-liners who shout that “Compromise is Capitulation and say that it causes people to be losers,” are enemies of nationhood and they are enemies of our civilization. We must shut them up and move on. In many ways these people are crying fire in a crowded building and are inciting riot and mayhem.

Historically we have been able to isolate warring people but that is now impossible with the levels that we have of inter-dependence. The west for example needs the oil from the mid-east to run our society. We can’t afford to isolate the mid-east because to do so is to disable our own society in the process.