U.S. Amnesia In The Middle East

By Joe Gannon

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's
fruitless visit to the Middle East last week
has brought to mind General Ripper from the movie
"Doctor Strangelove". The demented Ripper, you
might recall, starts a nuclear war because he is
convinced the "Ruskies" have poisoned America's
"purity of essence" by fluoridating its water supply.

And while the film remains a sly allegory for our
time, there does seem to be something contaminating
America's essence which causes a kind of political
amnesia when it comes to brokering peace in that
part of the world.

In her frantic shuttle diplomacy to bring about some
kind of settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians
which might dilute History's utter condemnation of
her president, Rice has been sidelined by events on
the ground in Gaza where the Islamist Hamas trades
bombs and casualties with the Israeli Defense Forces.

And that is precisely where amnesia comes in. The
latest roadblock in the road map to peace was setup,
we seem to have forgotten, not with the occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza in the late '60s; nor the first
nor even the second Intifada in the '80s and '90s; but
in 2006 when Hamas handily won about the freest
and fairest elections ever held in that part of the
Arab world.

But the crisis which derailed Bush's hope for
"redemption" - and worse, makes it less likely the
next administration can broker a real peace - began
after the election, we seem to have forgotten, when
Israel, the U.S. and even the European Union began
a campaign to undermine and delegitimize that impeccably
democratic vote. Why? Because Hamas is a "terrorist"
organization - meaning it will not give up guns and
bombs as a way to fight an occupying power? Because
only the US and EU and Israel get to vote for whomever
they want and the rest of the world must merely do as
it is told?

Again, amnesia as much as hypocrisy
seems to be in play.

Don't we remember that in a tiny corner of Europe
there has long been a deadly political battle over rights
and territory which seems to be religious war? In
Northern Ireland - now blessedly if uneasily at
peace for almost 10 years - a "terrorist" group known
as the IRA took up both the ballot as well as the bullet
in 1981 when a "terrorist" named Bobby Sands won a
seat in the British parliament while on hunger strike for
POW status. He died, and in 1983 Gerry Adams, the
leader of the "terrorist" Sinn Fein won that same seat.

The Protestant Unionists refused to negotiate with the
Catholic Terrorists unless the IRA renounced violence
and their desire to drive the British into the sea. The
IRA refused to surrender its founding principles until
irreversible negotiations were underway.

Sound familiar?

But Sinn Fein, with Gerry Adams elected to parliament
but refusing to take a seat there, kept standing in mostly
local elections and winning. As it did, more and more of
its supporters were drawn to a negotiated peace deal,
and away from armed struggle. And when that peace
was finally made it was between the "extremist" camps
of the hard line protestant Democratic Unionist Party
and Sinn Fein, whose leaders were so-called terrorists.
Today these implacable enemies run the government
together, while the once favored moderate parties of
both camps have virtually ceased to exist. (Which may
be why the Palestinian Authority went along with the
subversion of Hamas' victory - the hidebound, corrupt
PA may fear the same future.)

But peace would not have happened had those
democratic elections which brought the IRA to public
office been subverted. Instead the proponents of
armed-struggle-forever would've prevailed.

What amnesia, what loss of political essence, makes the
powers-that-be and the citizenry overlook such a
successful formula for peace in Palestine? Is it that the
Northern Irish are white Christians and the Palestinians
are Arab Muslims?

The Palestinians knew perfectly well what they were doing
when they voted for Hamas. As did the Catholics of West
Belfast when they voted for the IRA. As the latter's vote
was honored, so must the former's be. All democratically
cast ballots are equally sacred, or democracy is just another
word for flim-flam.

What peace in the long, sectarian war in Northern Ireland
reminds us is that you do not insist an armed group with a
legitimate grievance give up its guns and grievances
before real peace is offered. Rather, you draw it further
and further into elected politics so that, as happened in
Northern Ireland, the moderates in the extremist camp
can show results from the democratic process. But you
certainly don't teach it that it is a waste of time to engage
in democratic politics. And the real extremists in Hamas
are trying to make precisely that case - having tried the
ballot and been overthrown, there is a rational argument
to be made that nothing is left but the bullet and the bomb.

The tangled obstacles now thwarting Rice's frantic efforts
can only be removed by restoring those election results
and pledging to let whomsoever the Palestinians choose
as their leaders, lead the way to negotiations between
enemies. Rice and Bush will not do that, the next
Administration must.

Only that will restore the peace process' purity of essence.
Joe Gannon, teacher and writer, lives in Florence MA