20.6.07

What remains of Palestinian resistance should be preserved by new means

I am in a small village in Turkey near Ephesus. Tired of traveling the roads and the sea for more than two weeks, we are relaxing. In the library of the small hotel a nostalgic and beautiful Greek music is playing. Everything is nostalgic here including the setting of the village which is really like my native village in Lebanon, the food, and even the small community, Turkish from Thessaloniki who came here after the original Greek community of the village was displaced in the 1920s.

I opened my news links this morning. The situation in Palestine really depressed me. What became of Fatah and the Palestinian resistance is sad and what will come out from the Hamas takeover will be even more dramatic. Israel will declare Gaza al Qaida territory; Palestinians who will resist will be eliminated in the name of the 'war on terror' and the rest will have to collaborate with the occupier.
I don't mind the elimination of Fatah because they have become irrelevant to the struggle of the Palestinian people since the Oslo process. But I have been dreaming for an outcome for the Palestinians in these difficult times and I think there is only one logical solution left that can counter the implacable logic of the 'war on terror' which is killing resistance movements and especially the Palestinian ones. This solution is to renounce violence and to resist by other means. Non violence does not mean the end of resistance if adequate actions are taken. One of them for Hamas, now that they are rid of collaborationnist Fatah elements and spies for Israel, will be to declare it renounces violence. On the other hand Hamas should declare they will never recognize Israel as it is now eating Palestinian territories from everywhere and making the two state solution practically impossible. Hamas should do the contrary of it has been doing until now; fight by legitimate means the recognition of the state of Israel in its present borders and renounce completely violence. The region has had enough violence. Hamas has the power now over a small Palestinian territory and they should show the world what Palestinian resistance is about; it should be about community and nation building and civil and legal resistance. I am quite convinced that it is the only logical solution to save what remains of Palestinian resistance...

UPDATE, June 24th: Hamas war chief reveals his plan for Gaza in an interview with the Observer.

Alastair Crooke: isolating Hamas was our (Europeans) second biggest mistake in the ME, the Iraq war was the number one mistake.

The last Fatah fighters in Gaza dream of fleeing to Israel



2 comments:

Unknown said...

You speak my mind, thank you for posting this, I love your blog a lot.
While I share your despise at PLO's policy starting from Oslo until now, I lately have my skepticism towards Hamas as well. I was a huge supporter for Hamas especially during the Arab and the international isolating campaign against it, but now Hamas is losing track by allowing the Syrian regime to interfere in its resistance ideology.

What's happening in Gaza and in Lebanon, in my opinion, it a struggle, in Lebanon as always, between the two camps, Syria, Iran, Hezbolla and Hamas on the one hand, 14. March, U.S., Israel, PLO, Jordan, KSA and Egypt on the other.

What I am saying is that what Hamas should do along with what you stated, is to flee the Syrian and the Iranian influence on their internal policy, and remain an "ally" instead of a "follower". I think Hezbolla managed to do that with Syria.

Sophia said...

Golanyia,
Thanks. I would be more optimistic than you on Hamas. They are not in the same position as Hezbollah. They are not at 'home' neither in Syria nor in Palestinian territories. I am waiting to see their attitude now that they took control. One can only judge them now that they are totally in control of the Gaza strip. Remains also the question of how to nourish the Palestinian population and to provide them with basic life's essentials. This is another constraint.

 
Since March 29th 2006