Letters to the Editor
susan sunflower
Published Letters: 1081 Editor's Choice: 26
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So, what do the palestianians want and who speaks for them?
[Read the article: Letter from Gaza]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not trying to "invalidate" their recent election. There were monitors and it was judged acceptable in practice; however, all elections and all polls in "combat zones" are questionable. What do palestinians really want? By which I mean the average citizens, rather than often heard opinions of the designated spokesmen, the big men on campus, militia representatives, ward bosses, or the expatriot community. Do "regular folk" Palestinians even dare demand genuine representation or would that jeopardize the dole, the emergency aid and their safety?
I find it discouraging that Hamas and Fatah are both "unable" to convince Islamic Jihad from using the soccer field for firing rockets into Israel. Did they even try? Were they "easily discouraged"? Or are they, in turn, afraid of retaliation from Islamic Jihad and their cronies, much as Arafat's better intentions at working for peace were "pragmatically" hobbled by fear of domestic reaction.
Yesterday, Kamiya's article suggested this Saudi initiative was the last-best chance for peace. I shrugged, wondering how long the Fatah/Hamas Saudi-brokered "ceasefire" would last. (Gosh, it's been almost a month now.)
The various palestinian militias are not terribly different from Iraqi kinship tribes or sunni/shiia self-identification or the protection offered by Afghan warlords or even the law-and-order security the Taliban offered which, apparently, is beginning to look preferable to Karzai's ineffectual central governance.
All the king's horses and all the king's men have a lousy success record when it comes to "uniting" competing factions into a "state" -- See Kosovo as well. It makes the two-state solution moot and I really don't see this as a good time to restart the peace process, except insofar as peace is always the answer.
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hamas and fatah are back at it ...
[Read the article: Letter from Gaza]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]from Reuters:
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah militants clashed in the Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding two fighters and a young boy, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raised hopes of a deal to free an abducted Israeli soldier.
Tensions are high in Gaza despite the formation of a unity government on March 17 between the ruling Islamist Hamas movement and Abbas's secular Fatah faction.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, speaking by phone to a rally of some 2,000 supporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, vowed not to bow to Western pressure.
``Hamas will not give up a single meter of our land. We must and we will continue with the path of resistance and we will not compromise,'' Meshaal, who lives in Syria, said, according to witnesses who attended the rally.
McClatchy News (whose politics I know nothing about) also has an interesting report on the ascendency of a family or clan gang in Gaza who used to be allied with Hamas but are increasingly a force to be reckoned with in their own right. This is a very large mafia like family enterprise ... which is not afraid to confront Hamas.
I've wondered for a couple years now just how different Gaza "public opinion" differs from that of the "West Bank" ...
This statement by Meshaal is an impressive break with the deliberately "vague" posture Hamas has taken wrt resumption of "peace" negotiations ...
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My growing opinion is that the whole resumption of "peace" negotiations is part of a Saudi public relations ... they are trying to assert their place as a "major player" which is fine but it appears largely "sympbolic" and "style over substance" since most of the younger generations have little interest in what the House of Saud has to say.
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anthonyb -- thanks for the information ... it does seem as if some sort of day of reckoning is approaching
[Read the article: Letter from Gaza]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]for the palestinians and those who wish to rule them, or speak for them or shepherd them. (Reminds me a bit of the East and West Pakistan of my childhood who simply could not get along ... ) A strong unified Palestinian population would be a godsend, but I think division (or prolonged unrest) is probably more likely.
I do wonder about the effects of generational change as well --Arafat died an old man of old man diseases, having not delivered on his promises (for many reasons), then publically internationally exposed as a greedy embezzler (I have no idea if this is accepted and/or if Death by Natural Causes has become accepted)
There must be several generations who were forced to cool their heels and "backseat drive" while he was alive and so completely in charge. Those who cared are now free to try to grab the flag, however, they are unseasoned. Again my impression is that Team Arafat was a closed club of longterm cronies.
In the article, a point not mentioned is that while both fatah and hamas knew well enough that it was the islamic jihad who was using the soccer field to shoot their rockets and asked them to move their launch site -- neither apparently asked them to stop launching rockets, i.e. to abide by the ceasefire.
In my experience most people, if they have gainful employment and reasonable security, don't care much for politics and governing ... The more affluent care about sales and property taxes and zoning variences, tariffs, infrastructure, etc. as these affect the value of their capital/property. As in Iraq, who knows what things would be like if unemployment was below 20% and healthcare, schools, and utilities were reliably available and efficient.
FWIW, I looked around a bit and found no mention of Jordan in current news dispatches ... I recall things had gotten less stable/more restive following those bombings, after decades of relative stability (the result of that same iron hand), largely attributed to resulting from excessive cooperation with US. I think they are lying-low, don't wanna get involved.
anyway, thanks again.
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david - I would really appreciate it if you would in fact ignore all my posts ... and I will do my best to ignore yours.
[Read the article: Letter from Gaza]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was referring to Gaza and the West Bank possibly becoming politically separate entities from EACH OTHER. They appear to already have quite different politics and economies ... possibly cultures as well.
In short, I was not talking about Palestinians and Israelis. The subject was Palestinian unity or rather the lack thereof.
Nuff said.