From 1992-1994 I was the secret conduit between Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and the White House. At the time the IRA was still on the rampage and many in the White House believed President Clinton was on a fool's mission trying to forge a peace process in Northern Ireland.
I was one of a lonely band of four prominent Irish Americans back then, secretly trying to convince the White House that an opening existed to end Europe's longest running armed conflict.
Then I suggested that the president give Gerry Adams a visa to come to America to a conference we had already organized . From my discussions with Adams I believed it would be the single act that would be the turning point in his efforts to bring the IRA down a political path.
I felt a visa would be a window to the world for Adams and his followers, a way of showing that an incredibly powerful figure like Bill Clinton was not prepared to demonize them and that there was a way out of the 'terrorist' ghetto they had been painted into if they went a political path.
The FBI, the State Department, the CIA, and British government all opposed vehemently. The House Speaker Tom Foley was apoplectic at the idea and told the president so. Secretary of State Warren Christopher warned of dire consequences for the Atlantic alliance.
Clinton ignored them and went with his finely tuned political instinct and Senator Edward Kennedy's advice and granted it.
Six months later the impossible happened and the IRA called a complete ceasefire. It was the turning point in the conflict, one Adams told me it would never have happened without the opening from America.
The lesson I learned was simple. A 'terrorist' group is rarely of one mind, or one inclination. Like most organizations there are some completely committed to violence only, and others who given a chance might very well grasp an olive branch.
A senior IRA man once put it very cogently to me. "We use to burn that bridge (dialogue) when we'd come to it," he said describing the old days, "now we try to cross it."
The trick in Ireland was to support the nascent political movement we had become aware of within the IRA and Sinn Fein and give them the access to America to show that their path was the one that led to progress.
Our group of Irish Americans were forced to step outside the usual role where we were divided between those who parroted the Irish government line or the IRA line. Instead we chose a different path as persuaders rather than cheerleaders. The impact was obvious.
I often wonder whether the Jewish American community every truly grasps its own power in respect of the Middle East. Most march in lockstep with the Israeli government and cheer their policies from the sidelines. Yet is appears many young Jewish Americans are no longer connecting to the same old shibboleths.
Perhaps they need to step outside the box and no longer be the predictable players like Irish Americans once were. What if some were to become persuaders also? Who could they persuade?
Perhaps the notion of Hamas, an elected government, at peace talks sounds so far fetched as to be beyond the pale. It shouldn't be. Be assured that within that 'terrorist community' in Gaza, too, there are political leaders too, hoping for an olive branch that will enable them to bring their people on a political path.
Such an outreach from the United States would be a dramatic step, but not any more risky than what Bill Clinton did with the IRA back in 1994. It would also remove the certainty propelled by hardliners in Hamas that America is the Great Satan in the conflict.
Jewish leaders in America could quietly signal their approval of such a step. A conflict weighed down with old certainties could suddenly be aware of new possibilities. It worked in Ireland it could work in the Middle East.
Follow Niall O'Dowd on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NiallODowd
Americans and Israelis have been using the illusion of process to sucker the Palestinians since Oslo and nothing has changed in the current circumstances. It's a terrible thing that the United States is blackmailing the Palestinians by threatening to cut their funding if they don't play along, but sometimes there's no choice but to say no. Well, they should say no."
Ilene Cohen...Mondoweiss.net
http://mondoweiss.net/author/ilene-cohen
these are Religious Jews how are more dangerous than any IRA.
Israel is playing America to build a religious country worse than any thing seen before.
We had logged off when we received an email telling us about your post.
There are many who would love to see real Peace between the 2. This is so exhausting. To say the least. Especially now when there are so many other severe problems that need the World's time, attention and energy.
But there are also many who dont want it. Dont believe in it. After all or so the telling goes - One sides' Muslim. The other Jewish. Not compatible. For Peace.
What is it about Men and Power and Wealth and Money and Influence that even too much is never enough?
Perhaps it is time that the men of Aipac come aboard and make a sincere attempt to let the Palestinians have Life, real lives, the same as they and their families enjoy....
Perhaps what is also needed is this showing of Equality by a US President and, an end to the old school thinking of all of us not being the chosen ones....
Best wishes and hope your speaking out publicly of this first hand private experience, will be heard by those who need to hear & act now, and with conscience.
Yea, our conscience is killing us....
Cheers~
What helped Arafat's and PLO alter that stance?----- series of defeats by Syria, Israel and Jordan and loss of funding from petro-Gulf due to support of Hussein in Desert Storm.
Probably Hamas will follow the PLO's chronology toward moderation-
a few more military setbacks, loss of military aid from Iran and loss of of billions from the petro-dollar states and voila-- Hamas can be brought to negotiating table with something resembling a rational stance.
But until then.... it is highly doubtful.
Right now Hamas stance resembles that of PLO during the Munchen Olympics debacle.
Who, praytell, would these be? Because everyone says that there are Palestinian partners in peace just waiting for an outstretched hand, but nobody ever names a name. Why is that?
Neo-Cons in the US scream to expand the war to Iran. Adam Smith instructs from the grave; take whatever you want, the price is right, the nation-state will pay for it. It is this Evil, the Perpetual War Policy, that must be confronted.
Conrast the millions of dollars thus deprived these groups with the literally, trillions gobbled up in the Near-East on military expenditure; monies which end up feeding the greed of military-industrial behemoths.
The Middle/Near East conficts are hostages to this reality, and the Troubles in Ireland, though of 800 years duration, seem like a grubby kid when compared to the biblical disagreements on which the Israeli/Arab feud are based.
Living in Ireland, it`s great to have the peace, which indeed came dripping slow, and every credit to Niall on his gigantic contribution, but it`ll take more than a trickle to douse the furious fires in the East.
Hamas would curtail a lot of violence and has already signaled a willingness to recognize Israel if they would just return to the internationally recognized borders and leave the occupied territories.
But that would stop the never ending shell game of occupation and settlement that conceals the true designs of the colonizers.
Open channels to Hamas? What does anyone have to lose unless one is really interested in conquest and not peace.
Where? When? Link to citation please, because the official Hamas policy is no recognition of Israel (of any kind) and no peace with Israel, ever.
You do realise that the US invited Hamas to participate in the peace negotiations and Hamas refused, right? And then to emphasize that refusal, they've gone on a civilian killing spree.
"Hamas rejects US call for peace talks"
""Hamas rejects the American call for the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Palestinian people will not feel bound by the results of this misleading invitation," Abu Zuhri told AFP."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139471.html