What Hamas Has Wrought

"We do not recognize your right to exist. We reserve the right to attack you at any point. And we will surely not honor any previous agreements regarding peace and reconciliation."

These are Hamas' positions vis-à-vis Israel, which they state publicly and repeatedly. This very same organization fires rockets at Israeli civilians from among the people of the Gaza Strip, and then the whole world condemns the Israeli government for acting to defend its citizens. Western liberals condemn Israel for reacting "disproportionately," in supposed contravention of certain laws and norms, while remaining mute on the fact that Hamas is using all of Gaza - men, women, and children - as a human shield for cynical political gain.

As a Jew and as a liberal, I am appalled at what took place last month in Gaza and the tragic loss of innocent life. But, despite the recent war, the fundamentals of this crisis have not changed. First, Hamas is still not a partner in any meaningful way, certainly not for peace. The ongoing negotiations in Cairo aimed at creating a better and more stable situation for the people of Gaza is predictably being held up by Hamas' maximalist demands and machinations. All the while, rockets are still being smuggled into Gaza; their only function, as should be clear to everyone, is to instill terror and increase bloodshed.

Second, Hamas cannot demand to be engaged as a legitimate actor by the West, and in the same breath reject any responsibility towards its own people, towards its neighbors, towards signed agreements, and towards basic notions of peace and morality.

Armchair ethicist in the West would do well to imagine a Middle East that, for the past 15 years, did not have a Hamas. What would such a world look like? It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine a strong Oslo Peace Process, since the countless suicide bombers of buses and shopping malls and coffee shops would never have been dispatched in the first place for the sole purpose of undermining any progress towards peace. It wouldn't be hard, either, to imagine a Gaza Strip after Israel's 2005 pullout being built-up, not as the world's first inhabited launching pad for rockets, but as the first step in real Palestinian self-determination and self-sufficiency. And it wouldn't be difficult to imagine the tragic but unavoidable recent events in Gaza never having taken place, since thousands of Hamas rockets would not have found their way into Israeli living rooms and school yards.

That's the crucial point about Hamas that is always overlooked: at every point in their interaction with Israel and peace-seeking Palestinians, they have chosen the path of armed aggression.

On the other side, the crucial point about Israel that is often overlooked is that, for all its faults (and I have never been shy about pointing those out), a two-state solution to this conflict has been the official policy of every government since 1993. Due to Hamas' rockets, however, don't be surprised if a hard right-wing government comes to power in Tuesday's elections. That is what Hamas has wrought.

It is worth noting that the last time Israelis went to the polls, in 2006, they elected Ehud Olmert and the centrist Kadima party on an explicit platform of additional territorial pullbacks, this time from the West Bank. That kind of thinking is finished now, gone up in a trail of Hamas rocket fire and the suspicions of the Israeli electorate. Israel will not commit suicide, nor should it.

It is time for observers in the West to understand that the biggest impediment to a better future for both Palestinians and Israelis is not the actions Israel might take to defend itself, but rather Hamas' obstinate rejectionism and violence. Solve this, and then you can begin to solve the overall conflict.

Comments

[skialethia]

What Isr ael has wrought and continues to sow, despite pretending they want peace and a two-state solution:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1064503.html

As you can see, peace is the last thing on Isra elis mind! What they really want is the get rid of the Pa lestinians by whatever means possible: pushing them out (ethn ic cleaning) or...worse!

[skialethia]

What Israel has wrought and continues to sow, despite pretending they want peace and a two-state solution:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1064503.html

As you can see, peace is the last thing on Isra elis mind! What they really want is the get rid of the Pa lestinians by whatever means possible: pushing them out (ethn ic cleaning) or...worse!

[randyjet]

Hamas was only elected to the local positions, NOT all Palestinian positions. They staged a coup against the PA, and took over all their functions in Gaza, in the process murdering most Fatah supporters and officials. It is like the GOP winning state offices in Texas, and then taking over the Border Patrol, customs, taking over the Federal buildings and kicking out all Democrats. Hamas is effectively the government of a secessionist province which is why Egypt has ALSO closed its border with Gaza.

When the government of Gaza, declares WAR on Israel, they should not be surprised at what happens when they take military action against Israel. The UN bombed, starved, and killed millions of people in WWII in defeating Germany and Japan. That was part of legal warfare too, I might add. It is rank hypocrisy to put an anti-aircraft gun on top of a hospital, and then cry foul when the hospital is bombed. They would be fully justified in ringing Gaza, bombing it, and starving them into surrender.

[AntiSocialite]

This article is a very weak argument posited by someone who has an obvious Israeli bias. I'm not familiar with Mr. Bronfman but I expect he is Jewish, and certainly not someone who currently lives in Israel. What he fails to even address is the gradual shifting that occurs when a revolutionary movement starts to gain legitimacy within the international community and more importantly within their locality. I believe the Israelis dealt with this exact same thing early in their history when the terrorist group Irgun gradually morphed into Herut, eventually leading to the Likud Party. Similarly the IRA has Sinn Fein, which is simply their political wing. Hamas also has political and humanitarian wings that are genuinely doing good works but there are some who would dismiss this as a PR campaign; nevermind that these folks are out there helping their neighbors and family members that are suffereing the very REAL threat of starvation or death due to inappropriate medical care. I guess I'm just fed up with the clear double standard that the US government and her citizens are employing in this conflict. Just remember terrorist is a subjective word with no universally agreed upon definition, and that at one point every one of our founding fathers would have been rounded up by the British government, killed and labeled TERRORISTS... all before tea.

Peace

[MagisterLudi]

re."What he fails to even address is the gradual shifting that occurs when a revolutionary movement starts to gain legitimacy"
This is hilarious. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by most of the world community.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others Arab states. supported Israeli invasion. Even many Palestinains see them as a disaster.
Legitimacy? !

[AntiSocialite]

I would think that the people voting them in as the majority party in a democratic election alone should be legitimate enough. Look, you either believe in the right for a people to freely elect their leaders or not. It would seem Israel and the US (and you as well MagisterLudi) believe that principle as long as those freely elected leaders agree with your views. However, if those democratically elected leaders don't agree, Israel and the US may just decide to cut off all aid and blockade the CIVILIAN population, then use the unavoidable retaliation for this as a flimsy excuse for invading, killing and generally wreaking havoc on that same CIVILIAN population. With these factors working against them as soon as they got into power no wonder the Palestinians see Hamas as a disaster.

I must also point out that your assertion that Hamas is considered a terrorist group as, what I can only assume is, a reason you think the Israeli government is justified in their war crimes, only makes you look like you didn't read my post about the gradual shifting of "terrorist groups" into legitimate political parties or that you didn't understand it. Either way isn't the best reflection upon yourself, if you would like to make a relevant comment, I'm all ears, until then...

Peace

[chaos4700]

Do you really think you're winning the PR campaign here by constantly making crude attacks on other commentators here? Because you aren't, I'm sorry to say.

[orangepetal]

People can bloviate to their hearts content, but this is the crux of the matter. The right has now won, and it will just make peace harder. Hamas will bring even more hardship and yet everyone is so brainwashed they believe it is good.

[chaos4700]

Oh, Hamas will bring hardship? Not like Israel? Not like bombing schools and hospitals and warehouses full of relief supplies? Not like shelling water treatment plants and apartment buildings? Not like using white phosphorous as an incendiary weapon?

Livni tried to out-butcher Netanyahu, and it failed. It goes to show what bipartisanship is worth.

[LeftRight]

Perhaps you fail to understand that the reason Hamas got elected was because they were making life BETTER for Palestinians. They were providing food, building shelter, providing hospitals, schools, etc... for the people. Why would they vote against all of that??? Hamas does NOT make life harder for Palestinians, ISRAEL makes life harder for Palestinians, and until they recognize that, terrorist organizations like Hamas will continue to exist!

[Libarchist]

Western liberals condemn Israel for reacting "dispropor­tionately,­"

----------­----------­----------­----------­---

It is not the liberals; they are mostly activist Democrats that have hijacked the liberal logo.

[chaos4700]

You call yourself a liberal and yet you openly call for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. I don't think anyone's going to give your definition of "liberal" any credence.

[MagisterLudi]

I don't think anyone's going to give YOUR definition of "liberal" any credence, chaoss.

Some samples of Chaos liberal perspective:

"Nobody's arguing that Hamas attacks are legal. "

"Hamas is off the hook for its rocket attacks, doesn't it? I mean, those things have a kill rate of less than one to one. And if civilian casualties do not equal legal violations, then what makes those attacks illegal?"

The implication that Hamas is "hoping to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible" is quite absurd.

" Ahmedinejad being a Holocaust denier is 'fabricated nonsense' "

"Rockets are fired in the general direction of Israel. It's hardly fair to say they are "targeting civilians" .

"Come back when Hamas rocket attack actually manages to kill or injure people on a one for one basis, "

How can one argue with such ehhh, liberal perspective?

[tedpikul]

The crucial point that everyone is overlooking is that Hamas is exactly the opponent that Israel wants. The last thing Israel needs is a sympathetic moderate Palestinian voice. It's very likely that Israel, and perhaps the US, have been sponsoring or otherwise facilitating Hamas' existence, with or without Hamas' knowledge. Crazy? Well, Israel and the US gave Fatah hundreds of billions of dollars over the course of a few decades (source: Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic). Why? In order to do what?

[chaos4700]

In point of fact...
http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2001-12-14/2001-12-14-255050 (English translation can be found here: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ZER403A.html)
So you don't need to speculate any longer.

And you are absolutely right. Case in point -- the unity Fatah-Hamas government that formed in March of 2007. After insisting that one of the preconditions for peace negotiations to continue was a stable, democratic Palestinian government, Bush (at Israel's urging) turned around and betrayed his promise, cutting off the Palestinians from foreign aid and urging the EU to do the same. Then, they tried to turn Abbas into a puppet dictator, rather like what Mubarak has become, by arming him and funneling the financial aid through him exclusively. Abbas dissolved the unity government, and a short civil war ensues. Israel bashes down whichever faction is stronger and elevates the faction which is weaker, at any given time -- and slams both when they finally manage to cooperate.

[johnsonc20]

Hamas has been much more nuanced in its approach since deciding to participate in politics. The response from Israel and US has been the same - Hamas is a terrorist organization, therefore we ignore the democratic decision of the Palestinian people and we continue to kill Hamas leaders despite their ceasefire. We encourage a civil war between Hamas and Fatah and then condemn Hamas when they are victorious against our Fatah friends in Gaza. We support Israel and Egypt's blockade of Gaza, even though the ceasefire from last year required ending it. US and Israeli policy has been completely hypocritical with regard to the Palestinians in general and Hamas in particular. If it is important for Hams to recognize the state of Israel and renounce violence, why is not equally important for the Israeli government to recognize the state of Palestine and renounce violence? This will not end without a just agreement. An agreement cannot be beaten and stomped out of the Palestinians. 60 years should tell us that.

[lightningbolt]

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization because they target innocent civilians. Israel, on the other hand, targets military targets in self defense and accidentally kills civilians. the ceasefires were never really ceasefires because hamas has been constantly launching rockets at israel throughout the so-called ceasefires. no one encouraged civil war in gaza and hamas lost its democratic legitimacy once it took over gaza by force. the blockades by egypt and israel are designed to prevent hamas from getting rockets. had those blockades not been there, hamas would have had more and bigger rockets to launch at israel, and the israeli response would have been even more devastating.

[chaos4700]

That would be a lie. During the ceasefire, Hamas stopped firing rockets. It also actively pursued other groups in Gaza who continued to fire rockets -- the net result being, the rate of rocket fire dropped to an average of less than three a month, up until Israel violated the cease fire on November 4th.

The statistics about the rocket attacks are pretty well documented -- Israel trips over itself to publish that and aggrandize it, after all. Your attempts at revising history are transparent and fruitless.

[tedpikul]

Yeah, lots of lies there. As noted, Israel violated the cease-fire in November.

It doesn't halp your cause when you patronize (i.e. lie to) people you're trying to persuade.

[Daxster]

Amnesty International says Hamas has been systematically killing and maiming its political opponents. Curious to see how liberals are going to spin this one to defend Hamas.

[tedpikul]

It's still wrong to kill civilians. What's wrong with you?

[messy]

...especially if those civilians are actually soldiers out of uniform.

[GrainOSand]

The problem is that liberal conservative prism through which you view commentary. I am no Hamas sympathizer, nor am I an Israel apologist. The two factions are equal to me in terms of a right to exist, and the concept that all humans should be able to live in peace and be able to prosper by their own efforts in an optimal environment. I am liberal with my love and conservative with my tolerance for the BS of justifying hate, murder, theft, and all of the other things people do to one another as justification for whatever.

There is no Arab truth or Jewish truth. There is no Israeli death or Palestinian death. There is the truth of the death that has taken place in that region of the world for far too long. There is the truth that any idiot can point a gun and kill someone. There is the truth that a true master of life finds a way beyond a base response to the frailty of their brethren or the enlightened do not necessarily become the beast to defeat the beast.

My indoctrination was to favor Israel no matter what. I did that until I started looking at some facts of the conflict. Then I started demanding that both sides stand up for what is best in us with no assumption that either side was more superior than the other. These people (Israelis/­Palestinia­ns) are my people and I want my people to stop dying unnecessarily.

[dutchman]

One cannot defend such actions. But it is wrong to single one side out for condemnation. The Likud party and other far right factions in Israel have subjected innocents to unconscionable suffering, as well. I have great respect for my Israeli and Arab friends alike, but I am disgusted by the governments that rule both sides. Peace will not happen unless both sides wish it to. Palestinians have to accept Israel, but Israel most too recognize that their desire to dominate and crush the Palestinians are just as wrong headed.

[InjunTrouble]

Who said Hamas were angels? They are an undisciplined non-professional bunch of armed villagers.

But that still does not justify the killing of 400 children by Israel with its trained, professional army.

[GrainOSand]

“...their only function...is to instill terror and increase bloodshed.”

Why? What do they profit if annihilation is the result?

“but rather Hamas' obstinate rejectionism and violence.”

Why do they reject? What does violence profit them? Are the lot of the people mad, towards self-destruction? What does a moderate Palestinian voice say and why is that voice not calling the shots? Why did the people choose to put Hamas in a position of power?

I say annihilate Hamas. Any critic or judge needs to be quiet because Israel is going to do what it is going to do. Prognosticated results of brutal violence by either side of the conflict...may vary. Light that powder keg and let us just see how sky high we can blow this joint. There is no other way, so it seems.

We know much about war and things but when it comes to loving one another and a peaceful world, that remains the impossible dream.

“Armchair ethicists” is a veiled put down of any dissent. It assumes that the arms of any armchair are not bloodstained, bullet riddled, or tearstained. No one group or person has the market cornered on suffering. Suffering needs no rebranding and no co-opting. People are suffering all around the world. The reasonable want an end to suffering at all costs -- period. That’s the naive, innocent, childlike tendency, that they cling to. Israel is beautiful and worthy, but where is worthy beautiful Palestine?

[Huffyfan]

The rockets would stop if Israel stop attacking them and killing its people with its Missile and F16 that the US media fails to mention , end the occuaption , and end the crippling siege . allow them to import food , fish in the water without targeting them daily with its gunships , allow them to export their produce and make a living . stop occupation and the rockets wont be used . the rockets are always used as a reatatiation to Israeli attacks .

[shanghaislim]

WOW???

[Shawn Baker]

Well Said

[CanisLatrans]

You are aware that Israel pulled out of Gaza completely back in 2005, right? And it got them... what, exactly?

Hamas isn't so much concerned for the welfare of their fellow Gazans, so much as they just want to be the local strongmen and rule Gaza as their own little fief.

[CapitalistRebel]

Israel only "pulled out" it's troops. It did not live up to it's end of the bargain in regards to keeping the border crossings open- resulting in the suffocation of the Gazan economy. Furthermore, Israel continues to control all air and sea space around Gaza and, most importantly, controls the collection of taxes in Gaza which it then distributes to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (so long as they do what they are told).

[roald]

Why would you think the rocket attacks would cease when Hamas has never said that Israel has a right to exist?

[dutchman]

That's the problem with peace. Someone has to be the first to do the right thing. Waiting for the other to do so just prolongs the agony,

[Huffyfan]

How can Hamas with basic guns destroy A NUCLEAR State , the 4th Army in the world . DO people still buy this language ? How can a weak person fight a stronger more powerful person ? think about it , unless you believe anything the zionist media tells you .

[roald]

I don't even know where to start with this comment. All terrorists, everywhere, believe they will succeed. A weak person with will, determination, and sacrifice can easily fight a stronger person. That is how the US became independent from England. Hamas will not give up hope and has given no indication that they will not continue. How long would the US tolerate airplanes taking down skyscrapers before it acted?

A nuclear state has meaning only if the possessors are willing to use its nuclear devices.

[CanisLatrans]

Exactly the way the USA rolled up Vietnam and smoked them like a cheap cigar, huh?

And the Soviets in Afghanistan. And Israel earlier in Lebanon. And... yeah.

[Huffyfan]

Those were words from the 80s , Hamas has changed its language if you refer to many speeches of Khaled Mishaal , who was ready go be in a long term truce with Israel (while working their differences , broders, water supplies, refugiees ) he was ready to recognize israel if it withdrew to the 1967 borders , and end its OCCUPATION . im not making this up , it is on google . do your research .

[shanghaislim]

"......HE was ready to recognize Israel"



What about the fighters and the other politicians and the Hamas hardliners???????

Without them it is worthless!

[moflard]

You could as well say that about the Settlers and the Ultra-Right politicians who reject Palestinian rights.

Without them it is worthless!

[jmundstuk]

Bronfman hits the fundamental point: Hamas wants to destroy the State of Israel. He is asking for liberals/leftists who to reflect on the actual situation. Many voices here simply agree with Hamas that Israel should not exist; some are anti-semites cloaked in sympathy for the downtrodden. I'm sorry, but this is a very complex situation and there is right and wrong on both sides.

[LeftRight]

Wrong. Most of us are simply realizing that a series of terrorist attacks in response to state-run tragedies in response to a series of terrorist attacks in response to state-run tragedies in response to a series of terrorist attacks....... Is a failure.

[roald]

You are both correct. What can be done to break the cycle while maintaining the existence of the State of Israel?

[doriath22]

The "human shield" argument is a straw man which has far outlived any objective meaning. The resistance fighters are where they are purely as a consequence of the situation as it exists, and the claim that they are "hiding" behind the civilian population is nothing more than a rhetorical device, used by those who have the luxury of overwhelming material force on their side. Similarly, arguments about other resistance tactics. The only meaningful fact is that Arabs do the overwhelming majority of the dying, almost all of it at the hand of the Israeli "Defense" Forces. However irritating the residents of Sderot and other towns find the sporadic attacks by homemade (almost all of the rockets fired from Gaza are constructed within the Gaza camp; anyone of average intelligence could build one of these in an ordinary suburban garage)rockets, it is nothing compared to the day in day out humiliation visited upon all Palestinians by their Israeli overlords, to say nothing of attacks by heavy artillery, helicopter gunships, checkpoints, walls(sorry "defensive barriers"), and the overall apparatus of the Israeli apartheid regime.

[shanghaislim]

The only MEANINGFUL fact..............
(Gee, glad you can sift through all the complex issues and pick 1)

(Hamas rockets irrating?)

"So irritating that my child was killed or had his leg blown off" How irritating!


I think you are exactly who Jmundstuck (who's post is directly above) is talking about?

[roald]

Should we have given the Talilban weapons for a "fair" fight when we invaded Afghanistan?

Calling the civilians - men, women, children - human shields or not is immaterial. The rockets are being launched from population centers. The actions taken to remove the launchers will take place among civilians. Perhaps Israel could cede another area where civilians are not allowed to move to see whether Hamas moves its launchers.

[chaos4700]

Well, considering Sderot is built upon the ashes of Najd? Maybe Israel moving /its/ settlement isn't entirely unreasonable.