Mike Whitney
When Hamas gunmen stormed the Fatah security compounds in Gaza
last week, they found huge supplies of American-made weaponry including
7,400 M-16 assault rifles, dozens of mounted machine guns, rocket launchers,
seven armored military jeeps, 800,000 rounds of bullets and 18 US-made
armored personnel carriers. They also discovered something far more
valuable— CIA files which purportedly contain “information about the
collaboration between Fatah and the Israeli and American security
organizations; CIA methods on how to prevent attacks, chase and follow after
cells of Hamas and the Committees; plans about Fatah assassinations of
members of Hamas and other organizations; and American studies on the
security situation in Gaza.” (Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily.com)
If the documents prove to be authentic, they will confirm what many critics
of Fatah believed from the beginning: that US-Israeli intelligence agencies
have been collaborating with high-ranking members of the PA to help crush
the Palestinian national liberation movement. The information could be
disastrous for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his newly
appointed “emergency government.” It could destroy their credibility before
they even take office.
The extent of Fatah’s cooperation with the CIA is still unknown, but an
article in The New York Sun, “Hamas Takes over Gaza Security Services”
(6-15-07), suggests that the two groups may have been working together
closely. Former Middle East CIA operations officer Robert Baer, who was
interviewed in the article, said that the discovery of the documents was “a
major blow to Fatah” and will show “a record of training, spying on Hamas”.
Baer added ironically, “Fatah equals CIA is not a good selling point.”
Baer is right. The uncovering of the documents is “big trouble” for Abbas
who is already facing a loss of public confidence from his closeness to Israel
and for his appointment of Salam Fayyad, the ex-World bank official
who the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz calls “everyone’s favorite Palestinian.”
Perhaps more significant is the fact that members of Hamas who spoke with
WorldNetDaily claimed that “the files contain, among other information,
details of CIA networks in the Middle East” and that Hamas plans to “use
these documents and make portions public to prove the collaboration
between America and traitor Arab countries.” Imagine what a headache it
will be for the Bush administration if Hamas exposes the broader network of
US spies and Arab quislings operating throughout region.
Bush Support for “Regime Change” in the PA
It’s no secret that the Bush administration has been funneling money to
Palestinian militias that are preparing to overthrow Hamas. On Monday,
Condoleezza Rice announced that the US would resume “full assistance to
the Palestinian government” and end the year-long boycott to the people in
the West Bank. The new aid — which could amount to as much as $86 million
— will be used to shore up the PA security apparatus and pay the salaries
of officials in the “emergency government.” The uncovering of the
CIA documents in Gaza will cast a cloud over the administration’s largesse
and make Abbas look like a Palestinian Karzai who gets financial treats from
Washington to follow their diktats.
On Thursday, Condoleezza Rice was given the task of outlining the
administration’s new policy vis-à-vis the Abbas’ “emergency government.”
The Bush team had already decided the night before that they would throw
their full support behind Abbas and his “unelected” clatter of pro-western
stooges. Rice could hardly contain her glee the next day when she ascended
the podium and began wagging her finger reproachfully at Hamas:
“Hamas has made its choice,” Condi growled. “It has sought to attempt to
extinguish democratic debate with violence and to impose its extremist’s
agenda on the Palestinian people in Gaza, now responsible Palestinians are
making their choice and it is the duty of the international community
to support those Palestinians who wish to build a better life and a future of
peace.”
This typically Orwellian statement was intended to justify the deposing of
the legally elected government of Palestine. No matter, Rice’s
pronouncements are always reiterated verbatim in the media without
challenge regardless of how incongruous they may be.
The Bush administration had plenty of time to observe developments on
the ground and make an informed decision about what to do next. There was
no need to hurry. Instead, they decided to blunder ahead and launch their
“West Bank First” policy, which commits US support to Abbas without any
consideration of the public mood. The frantic pace of the decision-making,
makes it look like Bush and Olmert are elevating Abbas to promote their own
political agendas. Naturally, the Palestinians can be expected to resent
this conspicuous outside meddling.
Former President Jimmy Carter was the first to blast Bush’s new plan. He
said that “the United States, Israel and the European Union must end their
policy of favoring Fatah over Hamas, or they will doom the Palestinian
people to deepening conflict between the rival movements. . . . Carter said
that Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have
entitled it to lead the Palestinian government and that the Bush
administration’s refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was
‘criminal.’”
Carter’s comments appeared in just one newspaper — the Jerusalem Post.
The ex-president has been increasingly marginalized since he dared to imply
that Israel is an apartheid state. But Carter’s analysis is dead-on — Bush is
just aggravating an already tense situation. He’d be better off trying to
bring the two sides together and reconciling their differences rather than
igniting a potentially explosive confrontation. Besides, Abbas’ close ties
to Washington and Tel Aviv doesn’t bode well for his government’s long-term
prospects. The US and Israel are widely reviled in the occupied territories
and, as author Khalid Amayreh says, “Palestinians won’t accept a Vichy
Government.”
Three days ago Abbas disbanded the Hamas-dominated parliament and
sacked Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Abbas had no legal justification for
this action. In fact, the “Basic Law” that applies to this case stipulates
that “The President cannot suspend the legislative Council during a state of
emergency” and there is “no provision whatsoever for an emergency
government.” The president does not even have the authority to “call for new
elections” — let alone, replace the elected representatives of the people.
Abbas’ only support comes from political leaders in Tel Aviv and Washington
and their reluctant accomplices in the EU.
The key issue here is whether democratic elections have any real meaning or
if they can simply be rescinded by executive decree?
This question should be as relevant to Americans as it is to Palestinians.
After all, both people now face a similar predicament: the flagrant abuse of
executive authority to enhance the powers of the president. In both cases,
the president must be forced to conform to the law. Democracy cannot be
decided by fiat.
Free elections are not a crime — that is, unless one lives in the Occupied
Territories. Then voting for the candidate of one’s choice provides the
justification for cutting off food, water, medicine, and financial resources —
as well a stepping up a campaign of illegal detentions, destruction of
personal property and targeted assassinations.
This is what the “Bush Doctrine” looks like in the Gaza Strip today. The
occupants of the “most densely populated place on earth” participated in the
balloting at insistence of the Bush administration and they’ve been rewarded
for their cooperation with a savage boycott and daily brutality.
If Bush didn’t want democracy, then why did he force it on the Palestinians?
Political powerbrokers in the US and Israel immediately rejected the election
results and initiated a plan to scuttle Hamas through economic strangulation,
persistent harassment and covert warfare. For the last year, the newly
“elected”* government has shown remarkable restraint under constant
assault. Hamas has kept its word and refrained from suicide bombings in
Israel even though hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed or
injured during that same time. In fact, there has not been one Hamas-backed
suicide bombing since the party took office. (This fact is invariably ignored by the
media, which is far-more sympathetic to the Israeli position.) We should
remember that suicide bombing has been used for years as the excuse
for putting off “final settlement” negotiations. Now that the bombing has
stopped, Israel has invented an entirely new excuse to avoid dialogue, that is,
that Hamas “refuses to recognize the state of Israel.”
Actually, it is Israel that refuses to accept Palestinian statehood — a fact that
is further underlined by its relentless efforts to topple the Hamas government.
Hamas has done nothing illegal since they were elected. The Qassam rockets
which are fired into Israel are the unavoidable corollary of the 40-year
long occupation. How is Hamas supposed to stop these sporadic attacks? If
Israel seriously believed that Hamas was responsible for the rockets, they
wouldn’t hesitate to arrest or kill every leader in the current parliament.
The fact is, Israel knows that Hamas is not instigating these attacks. It’s just
another red herring.
Regardless of what one may think about Hamas, Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh has shown that he is a man who can be trusted to keep his word. In
an interview in the Washington Post with Lally Weymouth, Haniyeh was
asked if Hamas sought the “obliteration of the Jewish people?” (another myth
propagated in the western press)
Haniyeh answered, “We do not have any feelings of animosity toward Jews.
We do not wish to throw them into the sea. All we seek is to be given our land
back, not to harm anybody.”
This, of course, is not the response that neocon extremists in the US-Israeli
political establishment want to hear. It undermines the rationale for the
ongoing military occupation and expansion of illegal settlements. They would
rather promote the image of Palestinians as vicious radicals bent on Israel’s
complete annihilation. But how accurate is that image?
In a particularly affecting editorial in the Washington Post, Prime Minister
Haniyeh stated his case in simple terms:
As I inspect the ruins of our infrastructure — all turned to rubble once
more by F-16s and American-made missiles — my thoughts again turn
to the minds of Americans. What do they think of this?
They think of the pluck and “toughness” of Israel, “standing up” to
“terrorists.” Yet a nuclear Israel possesses the 13th-largest military force
on the planet, one that is used to rule an area about the size of New
Jersey and whose adversaries there have no conventional armed forces.
Who is the underdog, supposedly America’s traditional favorite, in
this case?
I hope that Americans will give careful thought to root causes and
historical realities, (of) why a supposedly “legitimate” state such as
Israel has had to conduct decades of war against a subject refugee
population without ever achieving its goals.
Israel’s nearly complete control over the lives of Palestinians is never
in doubt, as confirmed by the humanitarian and economic suffering
of the Palestinians since the January elections. Israel’s ongoing policies
of expansion, military control and assassination mock any notion of
sovereignty or bilateralism. Its “separation barrier,” running across our
land, is hardly a good-faith gesture toward future coexistence.
But there is a remedy, and while it is not easy it is consistent with our
long-held beliefs. Palestinian priorities include recognition of the core
dispute over the land of historical Palestine and the rights of all its
people; resolution of the refugee issue from 1948; reclaiming all lands
occupied in 1967; and stopping Israeli attacks, assassinations and
military expansion. Contrary to popular depictions of the crisis in the
American media, the dispute is not only about Gaza and the West Bank;
it is a wider national conflict that can be resolved only by addressing
the full dimensions of Palestinian national rights in an integrated
manner.
This means statehood for the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in Arab
East Jerusalem, and resolving the 1948 Palestinian refugee issue fairly,
on the basis of international legitimacy and established law. Meaningful
negotiations with a non-expansionist, law-abiding Israel can proceed
only after this tremendous labor has begun.
Haniyeh’s appeal to the American people helps us understand that what
Hamas really wants is for Israel to conform to “unanimously approved” UN
resolutions “predicated on historical truth, equity and justice.”
Does that sound unreasonable? Wasn’t the same demanded of Saddam
Hussein?
Haniyeh is not a madman nor is he an “Islamofascist”.In fact, it may be that
Haniyeh’s dreams are not that different from the average Israeli citizen.
Consider the polls that were conducted just days after the election of
Mahmoud Abbas. One survey showed that nearly 80% of Israelis supported
immediate peace talks with the new Palestinian president. The Israeli
leadership, of course, stubbornly refused even though Yasir Arafat had died
a month earlier. The Israeli political establishment is resolutely against
peace talks or negotiations. Unlike the majority of Israeli citizens — Israel’s
ruling elite reject the principle of “land for peace!”
Perhaps, Arafat wasn’t the “obstacle to peace” after all. Perhaps it was just
a PR swindle to avoid real dialogue?
Israeli leaders have no intention of negotiating with the Palestinians,
regardless of what the Israeli public wants or who’s sitting in Ramallah. The
Zionist “grand plan” will not be compromised by conferences or bartering.
The military occupation and settlement activity will continue until
US support dries up and Israel is forced to the bargaining table. Until then
the onslaught will continue.
Another Siege of Gaza?
Ha’aretz reports that Israel is planning to launch a military operation in
Gaza aimed at crushing Hamas. (“Barak planning military operation in Gaza
within weeks,” 6/17/07) The invasion will involve 20,000 troops, armored
vehicles, tanks, and air support.
But what is the justification? Is it because the US-Israeli plan to overthrow
Hamas with Palestinian militias failed? Or is it because the duly-elected
government has reclaimed the power it was given at the ballot box?
According to an Israeli official, the invasion will be in response to the firing
of Qassam rockets into Israel or another suicide bombing.
In other words, Israel is devising a pretext for “regime change” even before
they are attacked. Until then, the border crossings will remain closed,
the blockade will be tightened, and the economic asphyxiation will continue.
In the face of US-Israeli plotting, consider the comments of Prime Minister
Haniyeh, who articulates as well as anyone, the aspirations of the
Palestinian people:
We do not want to live on international welfare and American handouts.
We want what Americans enjoy — democratic rights, economic
sovereignty and justice. We thought our pride in conducting the fairest
elections in the Arab world might resonate with the United States
and its citizens. Instead, our new government was met from the very
beginning by acts of explicit, declared sabotage by the White House.
Now this aggression continues against 3.9 million civilians living in the
world’s largest prison camps.
We present this clear message: If Israel is prepared to negotiate seriously
and fairly, and resolve the core 1948 issues, rather than the secondary
ones from 1967, a fair and permanent peace is possible. Based on a
hudna (comprehensive cessation of hostilities for an agreed time), the
Holy Land still has an opportunity to be a peaceful and stable economic
powerhouse for all the Semitic people of the region. If Americans only
knew the truth, possibility might become reality.
Hamas history of violence is problematic, but it should not be an
insurmountable obstacle to peace. The IRA had a similar history and, yet,
those issues were ultimately resolved through the Good Friday peace accords.
Now, the warring factions have joined together in a power-sharing agreement
and there’s reason to believe that the armed struggle phase of the conflict
is over. A similar remedy is possible between Israel and Palestine.
Hamas entry into the political system should be seen for what it is — a step
in the right direction. It is an indication that they are tired of the armed
struggle and want to pursue a political solution. Israel and the US should be
receptive to this. They should reward Hamas’ efforts to stop the suicide
bombing and agree to backchannel negotiations. That will determine whether
common ground can be reached on any of the main issues. If the violence
resumes, Israel can always return to its present strategy but, it’s certainly
worth a try.
At the very least, Bush and Olmert should respect the will of the Palestinian
people and allow Hamas to perform its duties without further hectoring,
sanctions, violence or sabotage. The US and Israel have no right to intervene
in the affairs of a sovereign government. If Hamas perpetrates violence
against Israel, then Israel has every right to respond. But until then, they
should show restraint and try to play a constructive role in strengthening the
emergent Palestinian democracy.
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