Iraqi Parliamentarian to His People: "It's Not Between Palestinians and Israelis, it's Between Terrorists and Moderates"

Just spoke over the phone with Iraqi Parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, head of the Iraqi Nation Party in Baghdad, who advocates normalized relations between the new Iraq and Israel and promotes human rights in the Middle East. He says that, not surprisingly, the airwaves in Iraq are saturated with anti-Israel propaganda as Israel strikes back at Hamas for 3+ years of rocket attacks on Israel's southern towns. But interestingly, a significant number of Iraqis are not reflexively anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, he says.

As Israel strikes back at Hamas, this champion of Iraqi-Israeli cooperation has been explaining to his fellow Iraqis, "the conflict is not between Palestinians and Israelis, it's between terrorists and moderates."

Alusi has made several trips to Israel to promote cooperation between Iraq and the Jewish state on counter-terrorism. In February, 2005, as revenge for Alusi's decision to break the longstanding taboo in the Arab world against visiting Israel, terrorists murdered his two sons, Ayman, 30, and Jamal, 22, who were helping their father build the Iraqi Nation Party, a political party dedicated to protecting human rights and promoting free markets and cooperation among democracies. But Alusi, an ideological pioneer in the middle east, refused to back down. He got his party, which his fallen sons had helped him establish, onto the ballot and in December, 2005 was elected to the Iraqi Parliament.

Tonight Alusi says that many Iraqis, while they are not necessarily sympathetic to Israel, are not pro-Palestinian either. Many, he says, feel they have been abused by Palestinians. For starters, some of the foreign-born suicide bombers who have tormented the Iraqi people in recent years have been Palestinian, and many ordinary Iraqis know it, and resent it. Also, Iraqis remember that many Palestinians were loyal to Saddam Hussein, who hideously abused Iraqis and whom most of them loathe the memory of (Saddam, remember, sent $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers for targeting Israeli civilians).

Furthermore, Alusi says that when he leaves Baghdad's Green Zone, as recently as the day before yesterday, "thousands of [Iraqi] people would like to shake hands. They know I was in Israel, and they are very positive."

Moreover, he maintains that the "realists" in Iraq-those people who are not fanatically religious or anti-democracy (and he maintains these "realists" are in the majority) "want to be normal" and are open to the idea of accepting Israel as "a modern country and a ... part of the middle east," especially if doing so would mean cooperating with Israel to protect Iraq against terrorist forces bankrolled by Iran. "Iraqis are willing to be free, to be normal," he says. "Pragmatic people are moving in the direction of normality."

While Alusi notes he is grieved by war and hopes Israel's operations minimize casualties to Palestinian civilians, he believes Israel must devastate Hamas.

"We understand why this fight started, and if someone starts something, he has to finish," he says. He also referred to connections between some of the extremist religious political parties in Iraq and Hamas, all of whom he says receive funding from Iran, and all of whom are the enemies of free people who oppose terrorism and fanaticism.

"Who do you think the Islamist parties are in Iraq?" he says. "If Hamas wins, they will also be stronger."

Comments

[lisakaz2]

But who are the terrists and who are the moderates? I'm guessing they exist on both sides and in each camp those espousing violence -- called terrist of not -- are winning and everyone is paying.

[lydia]

Bush's illegal Iraq invasion removed the Saddam and the Sunnis from power and predictably saw the Shiites fill the vacuum. Mithal al-Alusi is the Bush's regime attempt at trying to put the genie back into the bottle and usurp the legitimacy of the electorate with 'their choice' fostered on the Iraqis. al-Alusi, has as much credibility as Abdul Sattar the Sunni Sheik, who was prepared to accept the US bribes and stand up as proof that the Sunnis were happy with the invasion and against Al Queda. The results were as predictable as the numerous attempt on al Alusi's life as shown.

[Heather Robinson - Huffpost Blogger]

This is Heather Robinson, author of the above post, writing. Thanks for all the comments. First, I am an independent journalist with no government affiliation whatsoever. Lydia, you are mistaken to refer to Alusi as "the Bush regime's attempt" at anything, as he and other liberals in the Iraqi Parliament have received no support from the Bush administration, and in fact were elected by courageous independent-thinking Iraqis despite massive propaganda campaigns against them, as well as campaigns of intimidation, on the part of Islamist candidates. In fact, while many of those Islamist parties received U.S. funding via non-governmental organizations in the run-up to the December, 2005, Iraqi Parliamentary elections, because his was a small, grassroots political party, Mithal al-Alusi received none.

Alusi is a rare human being with the capacity to think independently, beyond ideology.
Perhaps because of that, and because he is a living example of courage, he infuriates some. Especially people of doctrinaire views -- whether they hail from the middle east or the U.S. - who do not wish any cognitive dissonance to cause them to question their pre-existing notions.

In the series of interviews I have conducted with him since 2004, I have found him to be an unflinchingly honest source who calls things exactly as he sees them and is motivated by his great love of country and desire to build a peaceful and prosperous Iraq.

He is a man of peace, and a true Arab freedom fighter.

[lydia]

It is definately between Muslims and Israelis calling it anything less is disingenuous and an attempt to divide and conquer, the Israelis are famous for this. Abdul Sattar the Sunni Sheik was also a 'freedom fighter". He gave his life for Bush's war. He was prepared to stand up to Al Queada. I haven't interviewed Alusi but any Muslim who is prepared to openly curry favor with the Zionists who ghettoize, brutalize and murder his people and place 1.5mil Palestinians under siege only because the Israel covet their land, has nothing to crow about.

Despite all the clucking about Israel leaving Gaza, they admit openly that the Palestinians are being punished because they elected Hamas. Alusi priority surely ought to be to empathize with his own down trodden starving compatriots. if he can not, he has obviously sold out his own people and should not be praised.

It is not rocket science, Israel as a signatory to the UN agreed to the terms and conditions of membership yet repeatedly circumvents its ruling with the complicity of the US. Israel's reputation of cold blooded murder against UN peace keeper or diplomats is well documented. Trying to strike agreement with the likes of Sattar and Alusi is to obfuscate the facts on the ground i.e. Israel continues to flaunt UN rule of law.

[nukemind]

Yeah, problem with this guy is that he's a hypocrite when it comes to Kurdish human rights or sovereignty. He is right that H A M A S are fanatics, no argument from me, but siding with the I S R A E L I offensive? Gimme a break. Self-serving hypocrite.

[mattheweste]

Man I bet this guy is dead two minutes after the US leaves town.
Talk about a Vichy Iraqi.

[LAThinker]

So anyone who wants peace with Israel is Vichi? Great logic. Would you want Ieaq to join Hamas in sending some rockets?

[DonaldJ]

I don't really know how to say this politely, but I'll try. This guy says several things in this column which demonstrate he's not a believer in human rights, but merely an unusual (though not unique) Arab who choses to defend Israeli war crimes instead of Arab war crimes. You can only call that progress if you buy into the notion that Israel is the innocent victim of Palestinian terrorism. You have to ignore the brutality of the blockade that has been imposed on Gaza. You have to ignore the civil war that the US incited between Fatah and Hamas (not realizing that Hamas would win). You have to ignore that Israel has killed far more Palestinian civilians than Palestinians have killed Israelis. You have to ignore that Israel keeps chipping away at Palestinian land, making the prospect of a two state solution ever harder to achieve.

Now it'd be great if this man criticized Palestinian suicide bombing and Israeli oppression and war crimes, but he doesn't. It's totally one-sided. He collaborates with the Israeli government in "anti-terror" activities--why is this good? The Israelis were torturing prisoners long before Abu Ghraib. (To be fair, so were Americans). He says that not all Iraqis like Palestinians--is that supposed to be any better than "not all Iraqis like Israelis"?

You ought to be a little less willing to embrace him just because he flatters the worst sort of Western prejudices.

[cheforacle]

The US has done some stupid things but they did not ignite a war between Hamas and Fatah. many things happen in this world irrespective of US involvement and that was one of them. I know it may not fit in with your narrow conspiracy-theory view of the world but it was not US policy for Hamas and Fatah to fight a civil war though it certainly was US policy to encourage elections in the territories and that was a huge mistake.

[DonaldJ]

You might try googling a little before you start slinging around tired old insults like "conspiracy theorist".

You might have found this--

Link

You could also have found this mentioned in the Israeli press, and other places, but hey, why go out of your comfort zone?

[DonaldJ]

I'm not sure if the Vanity Fair link is going to appear, so I'll just type the web address

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804

It's the April 2008 issue if you want to find it yourself.

[DonaldJ]

Wikipedia also has a section which includes discussion of the US role in getting Fatah to overthrow Hamas. One of the links is broken, but the Asia Times link works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_civil_skirmishes#cite_note-5

[DonaldJ]

One final link, since you undoubtedly like to see data. Note in particular the link to de Soto's report--

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/001561.html

[lysistrata]

If Palestinians were involved in Iraq there must be evidence or not? Without believable evidence it is nothing but propaganda.

We don't have any reporting by journalists in Gaza. and we do know Hamas was elected fair and square. Hamas is a resistance movement, they are not terrorists.

There is lots of evidence of the Holocaust the Palestinian people suffer. If Americans would be treated by an occupier the same way they too would be fighting anyway possible.

[Deftguy]

Its these kinds of post that are part of the problem. The Palestinians are not being very smart trying to fight Israel with sticks, while they are being killed with bombs. Violence in this case is not the answer, using your brains for a change is. It does not matter how many times the palestinians win the PR war, they are still remain in the position they are in. Put down the rockets, and come to the table. That will put tremendous pressure on Israel to give concessions that will improve the lives of ordinary palestinians lives. However there is a faction within the palestinian people that do not want to see this happen, and are actually badgering and egging Israel to do just his kind of thing.

A divided house ensures lack of progress for peace.

[mattheweste]

The Jews were pretty stupid fighting the Nazis with sticks too.

Why are people so dumb? Why didn't they just agree to peace with the Nazis?

[T Pol]

Hamas is not "a resistance movement." They have been aiming their rockets at civilian targets in Israel.

I understand the plight of Palestinians. Israel has been opening up to a two-state solution. If Hamas wanted to represent the Palestinian people, they would come to the table to make that happen. But Hamas has shown, it prefers to feed the hate to annihilate Israel.

If Americans were shelled by Hamas the way Israel has been, they would be clamoring for their country to crush the terrorists, just as even members of the left have called for justice with Osama Bin Laden.

[cheforacle]

There have been Palestinians captured in Iraq who were there as jihadists although they represent in much smaller numbers than jihadists from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria presumably because jihadists from the territories lack the ability to cross borders like the others can. I get my info from a US military briefing which actually shows 15 coming from the US and 12 form the Palestinian territories. This relates only to captured insurgents for a four-month period in 2005. The notion that Palestinians do not engage in jihad against other Arabs is naive and not supported by the evidence.

[marylinpitz]

What a remarkable human being, this Mr. Alusi is. What can anyone say about an Iraqi who is the living example of courage. It is very encouraging to read that there are people of reason and good will who are actually committed to a democratic ideal, and willing to fight the good fight. You have said it, Ms. R. Thanks for bringing balance to the business of reporting from the mid-east. We see so little of this in the media.

[pros54]

What people do not get is that it is a question of human rights and this writer does not get it. If a peoples rights are denied they will fight with whatever they have no matter the consequences. Killing children and destroying neighborhoods is not gonna get it for I sreal. We are seeing a rerun of the recent Lebanon invasion.

[harleywinks]

What you do not get is that Hamas opts for endless war and the suffering of their own people rather than accept Israel's right to exist. At the end of the day, you cannot negotiate with a partner that settles for nothing less than your destruction.

[keeplookin]

This man is a hero, to me, and he sounds EXACTLY like what kind of person is needed to foster peace in a very troubled area. Good grief, I don't know if I could have carried on as a peacelover after my sons would have been killed, but this man does.

I venture that the business of life is LIVING, and destruction is no part of that.

True to form, the real people of the Middle East quietly go about building better lives as best they can, and the media focuses on the blusterers, who are too busy waving guns and missles around (on both sides, mind you) to actually build something.

They create their own "job security" because to do some boring, calm job would just be too much for their poor, addled little minds...

[postimo]

Regardless of my pro-Israel position and desire to see Hamas exterminated, when I read these kinds of articles/blogs, I can't help but be reminded of the US propaganda blizt during the early stages of the Iraq war (remember Jennifer Lynch?).
So unfortunately, I'm doubtful of its authenticity. While I'm mortified that a man would suffer the death of his 2 sons for political reasons, I find it particularly difficult to believe that Iraqis (other than perhaps the Kurds) would be remotely sympathetic towards Israel. I think it more likely that people wanna shake his hand so they can cut it off.....

[mouselion]

First of all, it is *Jessica* Lynch.
Secondly, people in life -- in history -- have had to be strong in the face of their loved ones being killed, overcoming great difficulties to further what they envision as the right way.
Are you suggesting the author of this piece is a government propaganda plant to indoctrinate Huff Post readers with right-wing ideology?

The fact is, Iraq was once had the most educated population of the Middle East, many of that era are still alive. It is not preposterous that divergent viewpoints exist among the Iraqis -- this is a story of one political activist who has forged his own political party in the face of grave adversity. This might be something that some spoiled Americans have forgotten once happened here, something which affords us our ability to speak our minds so freely on blogs such as this (despite the complaints otherwise of some who use vulgarity to get their points across).

[mouselion]

Pardon my grammatical errors...