Engaging Hamas

Daniel Levy, son of Lord Michael Levy, has previously served as an adviser in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and as an official Israeli negotiator with the Palestinians. He is tipped to work for Tony Blair in his new role. He writes in this week's Jewish Chronicle:

My apparent “crime” is to support engagement with Hamas as part of a strategy for enhancing a ceasefire, security in the region, and ultimately, to advance a peace process that can actually deliver the goods. In being “dangerous” — presumably to Israel and perhaps also Anglo-Jewry — I find myself in not bad company.

Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, ex-Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, previous West Bank Divisions Commander and Civil Administration head General Ilan Paz, Gaza Brigades Commander Colonel Shaul Arieli and ex-deputy National Security adviser Yisraela Oron are just a few of the “dangerous” types who support this approach. In private, in Hebrew, many current senior Israeli officials share the same view and Israel has, of course, directly and indirectly negotiated ceasefires and prisoner exchanges with Hamas in the past.

To clarify; neither myself, nor I imagine other advocates of engagement, are Hamas enthusiasts or sympathisers. Let’s call it the realist school of Zionism and contrast it with say, apocalyptic Zionism — characterised by scare-mongering, paranoia, and “gewalt-style” hysteria.

Zionist realism accepted the 1948-9 ceasefire lines, preferred Begin’s peace with Egypt over settlements in the Sinai, and today recognises the need for agreed secure borders for Israel that end the occupation of about four million Palestinians. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recognises this in his current negotiations.

For apocalyptic Zionists, this is all chopped liver. Israel’s destiny for them is to live by the sword in perpetuity; generation after generation of warrior super-Jews fending off the invading hordes of Mohammedans. Great as a Hollywood epic, but less so as a lifestyle choice or an Israeli future with any hope on the horizon. For apocalyptic Zionists, settlements, occupation, economic blockade and humiliation are irrelevant. None of it matters. They will always hate us anyway. Genocide is always just around the corner. And there is never a real partner.

Feeding on fear and exploiting stereotypes, this view often finds more popularity in the diaspora than in Israel itself.

...

Israel can get beyond occupation, beyond its current predicament and on to a more stable, secure, and hopeful footing. First, we must recognise that al-Qaeda and the al-Qaeda copycat crew cannot be reasoned with. Their approach is to burn down the house and part of defeating them will be to isolate them. This requires smartening-up, not dumbing-down one’s understanding of political Islamists — they are not all the same. A monolith of Islamo-fascists are not lurking at every turn.

There are political grievances out there that can and should be addressed, and that feed al-Qaedaism. It is worth trying to reach an accommodation with mainstream Islamists, including Hamas and the Muslim Brothers, who are in their own struggle with al-Qaeda and reject the latter’s nihilism.

Israel should continue to talk with the secular pragmatic nationalists of Fatah on a range of issues — borders, security, Jerusalem, etc. But for an arrangement to deliver stability, security, and have broad legitimacy, Hamas should be brought inside the proverbial tent.

Comments

[Osama]

Hmmm says it all really. On hearing of an independent report saying that Fatah and Hamas have to come together:

Mark Regev, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "Everyone understands we're moving finally in the right direction. The resumption of national unity on the Palestinian side would immediately stop the process from moving."

[joe90]

(My apologies for posting so much today to RuT blog)

There is a Scot already involved in an initiative of engaging in dialogue and trying to promote understanding between us, and our West Asian sisters and brothers - Michael Ancram!

Hamas briefing
CF Reports On security in Gaza, Palestinian democracy, the National Unity Government, and the kidnapping of Alan Johnston

Transcript of a discussion which took place at the Albergo Hotel, Beirut, on June 19, 2007.

Way to go, Bonnie Scotland!

[joe90]

A Palestinian Miracle at the UN?
Ramzy Baroud
The Palestine Chronicle
11 Aug 2007

A few months ago, one would have thought such an event to be simply impossible: A Palestinian delegation, lobbying tirelessly at the UN to block a UN call for helping half of the Palestinian population living in complete isolation.

It was Negroponte who brazenly declared in 2002 that the US would veto any resolution regarding Israel that fails to condemn Palestinians.

...the Zionist lobby at the US Congress is now actively lobbying on behalf of Abbas...

$80 million seems too cheap a price for selling out one's own people.

[joe90]

I noticed soemone over at MediaLens.org messege board referring to this 'Jerusalem Post' article -
'Britian should talk to Hamas'
12 Aug 2007

The JP article is referering to this HMG report, I think (in PDF format) -
Global Security: The
Middle East
Foreign Affairs Committee
Eighth Report of Session 2006–07
printed 25 July 2007

I have only quickly scanned through the reports conclusions, but it's eye-watering stuff!

Just for instance,
here is 'conclusion and recommendation 33' out of 36 -

British Diplomacy and the Region
33. We conclude that the use by Ministers of phrases such as ‘war on terror’ and ‘arc of extremism’ is unhelpful and that such oversimplifications may lead to dangerous policy implications. We agree with the Minister for the Middle East that these phrases cause unnecessary resentment. We recommend that the Government should not use this or similar language in future. (Paragraph 216)

all the best everyone!

[charlie woods]

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Gabriel

[joe90]

The British government is currently engaged in punishing Occupied Palestinians for voting for people it doesn't like - and is also currently attempting to turn Occupied Palestine's democracy into an American dictarship.

Here is a spokesman for the freely elected Occupied Palestinian government in todays Gruniad -

Hamas is ready to talk
Mousa Abu Marzook
Deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau.
The Garundian
16 Aug 16 2007

We welcome the call for dialogue, and reject insincere demands for an undemocratic boycott...

...As the Britain's Commons foreign affairs committee concluded on Monday, this strategy is counterproductive and doomed to fail, for the simple reason that the support of the Palestinian people is unmistakably lacking. Abbas's party does not democratically represent the Palestinians, yet what is in effect now a dictatorship in the West Bank is being welcomed by Israel and its western allies.

Here is an update on one of the war crimes the British government is responsible for taking part in, using Glasgow Airport to ferry cluster bombs to Israel from the Yanks in order to drop them on the heads of innocent defenceless Lebanese -

The Second Lebanon War, A Year Later
Nearly All the War Crimes Were Israel's
By Jonathan Cook
CounterPunch
16 Aug 2007

See
The American Task Force on Lebanon
and its cluster bomb report.

all the best!