Saturday, March 14, 2009
I've been meaning to link to this important piece by Michael Bar-Zohar. Almost no one gets the dangerous implications. It's Hama rules in the Middle East: A tragedy of misconceptions
A survey published on February 5 by the prestigious Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian polling institute, indicates that 46.7 percent of the Palestinians believe that Hamas defeated Israel in the recent fighting in Gaza; 50.8% (compared to 39.3% last April) believe that the rocket attacks should continue, and only 20.8% believe that they are harmful to Palestinian interests. Finally, 55% are convinced that terrorist acts should continue.
These figures illustrate a major aspect of the confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians and, on a wider scope, of the West and the Arab world: a tragedy of misconceptions, a confrontation of two societies that do not understand each other and naively believe that people on the other side have the same way of thinking and reasoning as them. As long as both sides persist in this erroneous perception of each other, there is going to be no peace in the Middle East.
In 1997 the Four Mothers organization was founded. Its goal was the full pullout of the IDF from south Lebanon. Every year, Four Mothers said, we are losing 25 to 30 soldiers in the battle with Hizbullah. Isn't it a pity to sacrifice these young lives? Let's pull out of Lebanon, and the Lebanese will leave us in peace. The Four Mothers won and in 2000 prime minister Ehud Barak evacuated every single inch of Lebanese territory.
But the result was the opposite. Nobody in the Arab world believed that Israel had pulled out of Lebanon because of its concern for 25 casualties a year. The retreat was perceived in the Arab world as a victory by Hizbullah over the IDF, and the logical conclusion of Hizbullah and other extremist organizations was that they should continue fighting till Israel's final defeat. The late Faisal Husseini, a respected Palestinian leader, once told me openly: "Michael, if you don't agree to our demands [about Jerusalem], we'll talk to you in Lebanese." Even the sophisticated Husseini thought that the Hizbullah formula was the one that brought results...
But now the world has pledged billions for Gaza. It's all about having a better life, right? What could possibly go wrong?
Unless people deal with these core problems - the way people really feel - and the gaps between how well-meaning Westerners perceive the Arab point of view toward Israel and how the Arabs actually see Israel - and the disconnect between what happens and how it is perceived - all this money will simply perpetuate the problem.
If it were really going to help the people of Gaza with businesses, books, schools, farms - that would be one thing. It would be a desirable thing.
I think there is much truth to the idea that "the wretched of the earth" often express misery through violence and that reducing poverty, ignorance, hopelessness and disease can indeed create a better world.
To that end I worried from the getgo about the blockade of Gaza. I thought it might make things worse and I think I was right.
I wouldn't have handled this problem the same way to be honest, had I been in power in Israel - but I'm not - obviously - so -
But - it's hard to separate the fact of Shi'a poverty in Lebanon for example and the political grip Hezbollah and Amal have acquired - Hezbollah provides housing, charity, real help for the poor who are despised, voiceless in Lebanon and this has given them political as well as military power. Their obnoxious ideology toward Israel and Jews, indeed secular modernity - is something else again but the fact remains that many Shi'a simply have so many practical problems that Hezbollah can solve - we saw this too in Nazi Germany did we not? Hitler's perceived ability to fix economic problems brought even uneasy Germans into the fold.
Given the underlying ethos regarding Israel though - if the hatred and support for violence against Israel remain that deep - and worse the fact that the fox is in charge of the henhouse - especially in Gaza - where is the money going to go? Can it help solve the problem of hate that predates the creation of the state and which has religious and cultural grounds as well?
Question: are politicians in the West really so blind? Or are they simply too idealistic?
This is what I don't get.
I have this nagging fear that they aren't blind at all - they have access to the same studies - and that fueling conflict in some way is seen as a good thing.
Certainly Great Powers have played "divide and conquer" in the past -
Tell me I'm wrong.
Sophia,
- Hezbollah provides housing, charity, real help for the poor who are despised, voiceless in Lebanon and this has given them political as well as military power.
Like Hamas in Gaza which then proceeds to hold them to ransom because to get to the point where the people need their services they destroyed the private, independent means - When the Oslo accords were signed Israel moved industries to the border crossings, where they had constructed industrial zones to provide work for the Palestinians thus obviating lengthy travel and time wasting commutes, which became the focus of of attacks by Hamas, principally, as it was losing its controlling status. Just as the greenhouses were smashed - a $100 million/annum export business providing employment with dignity.
Hezbollah likewise in supplying those "humanitarian" services hijacked a portion of the population to its needs. See Totten and others.
Cynic, I completely understand your point.
Of course Hezbollah has also threatened to destabilize the entire country of Lebanon and many journalists and politicians have been blown up there.
This is the side of such organizations that folks seem unwilling to see let alone confront. The Brits now want to "engage" with them (again); Europeans don't consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization and indeed, people are becoming reluctant to discuss Hamas in such terms either - rather they are seen as representative of "the people" regardless of their philosophy.
So, the occasional Fatah member off the roof or the thousands of rocket attacks on Israel or the threats to kills all the Jews or the situation in Beirut - mox nix, nu?