Over at the Washington Note, Steve Clemons has an interesting post (and video) about an interview he did yesterday with a member of Palestinian Fatah who supports a pro-unity government. It is a very interesting dialogue and worth checking out. The post is here and there is a video link once you get there.
UPDATE: I came across an interesting article about changing the US approach to mid-east peace out of necessity. This will admittedly be difficult as people have strong opinions about this issue and many have become mired in a rigid view of the parties involved and they tend to see any perceived shift in policy as threatening. That said, it is a good sign that the dialogue is opening up and there seems to be more tolerance for differing opinions and strategies for moving forward.
NYT columnist Roger Cohen wrote a commentary which has generated quite a bit of buzz in the blogosphere.
Talking Points Memo summarizes what is notable about the Cohen piece:
But Cohen is in the Times and he reports on an amazing shift among some of the biggest foreign policy thinkers (and doers) in the United States on the subject of Hamas. He writes about a letter organized by the US/Middle East project in which Brent Scowcroft, Thomas Pickering, Chuck Hagel, Paul Volcker, Lee Hamilton, James Wolfensohn, Carla Hills, Nancy Kassebaum, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Ted Sorensen urge that we recognize reality and start dealing, in some form, with Hamas. Henry Siegman from the US/Mideast Project and long time Jewish community leader quarterbacked the effort.
As Andrew Sullivan writes today, the “realist” school is gaining strength. How long can Israel survive through war with Palestinians, threatening war with Iran and, today’s latest, bombing Sudan (during the January war to intercept weapons supposedly headed to Gaza).
As Cohen puts it, it is time to “stop being hung up on prior Hamas recognition of Israel and watch what it does rather than what it says. If Hamas is part of, and remains part of, a Palestinian unity government that makes a peace deal with Israel, that’s workable…”
What I am interested in is whether other mainstream media outlets are going to be as open to this new dialogue over the coming weeks. Props to the NYT for veering a bit off their usual hawkish take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict- hopefully others will follow suit.
Stumble It!
6 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Mar 26, 2009 at 7:57 am
Uh….Wouldn’t this be kind of like al Qaeda having a “unity” leadership with Abu Nidal?
Both Hamas and Al Fatah have called for and end to Israel and death to all Jews. Both claim all territory of Israel, even though the Palestinians have NEVER previously controlled all that territory. Let’s recall that Al Fatah was led by Yassir Arafat, and his chosen successor was the current leader of Fatah. And we know Fatah’s penchant for telling you what you want to hear while pursuing entirely different goals.
I do understand that Fatah has a rather “longer” view of when Israel will be destroyed than does Hamas. Hamas would like them destroyed within 5 years. Fatah has a 50 year time horizon. So, I expect a unity government may try to “split the difference” and settle on 20-25 years before they declare war. In the meantime, Fatah probably wouldn’t mind just a few suicide bombers every week or so to wipe out innocent Israeli school children or shoppers.
Fatah has REPEATEDLY refused to condemn Hamas and has CONSISTENTLY refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist. How do you think that “uniting” with an open and declared terrorist group will “moderate” that position?
Actually, Hamas needs to be destroyed, Utterly. Like the snake that it is. And anyone who supports Hamas should be jailed or killed. Then Fatah MIGHT see fit to realign their thinking and expectations for the future, and actually take steps to pursue peace with Israel and begin to restore the social, community, and economic life to its shattered world.
This may seem “harsh”, but then these are unprecedented times, and require unprecedented action. Bury Hamas. Spit on its grave, and then come to Israel and say, “We are ready to deal”. Then we might have peace. Short of that, this is just a slow-rolling, mutual blood letting that is kept in check until one party (Israelis or Palestinians) or the other deems it politically expedient to engage in some “retaliation”.
2 tehehehe // Mar 26, 2009 at 8:42 am
Good to see with all the difficulties that we face in these unprecedented times, that Congress, especially the Senate, is managing to stay focused and prioritizes its time to address things important to the success fo the US both domestically and overseas!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hV4mOJQgUsQthrydU_Vty4iVgC5gD9759GG00
3 stacyb // Mar 26, 2009 at 10:33 am
With respect to your first comment, did you go over to the Washington Note to see what was said, what was asked so that you can answer your own question?
4 tehehehe // Mar 27, 2009 at 8:44 am
Yes. I did. There is NO addressing the question about how two Palestinain groups that both use and advocate violence against Israel would somehow be better as a “unity government”.
I did see (by clicking on sub-links) where the Egyption Intelligence chief was encouraging Palestinians to “accept Israels right to exist”. I noted that the Fatah politician thinks that a “unity government” might be possible and a “positive step”.But, as the article makes clear, neither Fatah nor Hamas has indicated a willingness to do so (recognize Israel) in the past, and has not made any such committment looking towards the future.
Let’s remeber that Hamas has killed US citizens. Let’s remember that Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (the “armed wing” of Fatah) have killed US citizens. And all of these groups have targeted innocent civilians in Israel. A “unity” government between these two looks more like the “5 families” of New York coming together to establish a “vivendi”, rather than anything that promotes peace.
Heck, these guys have killed more Palestinian civilians thazt Israel has done over the past 10 years or so. Them agreeing not to kill each other and form a “united front” may save lives, but it is saving lives of Palestinians civilians and fighters, not lives of innocent Israeli civilians.
I know. We can “have hope”. We can look optomistically to the future and say, “this is a necessary first step to achieving a lasting peace”. That would be nice, but it is a little naive given the history of these organizations, don’t you think?
As you may recall, I said that I wish Obama (and Hillary) well in working towards a solution in this. I don’t hold them responsible in any fashion if no progress is made. It certainly won’t be their fault, and it won’t be because they didn’t try. They are trying. And maybe, just maybe, Obama can accomplish what no previous President of the US has been able to do in the past.
That would be wonderful. I just don’t expect it will happen. And if Obama can actually pull it off, I will congradulate him wholeheartedly for accomplishing that major achievement. (It won’t, however, mean that I support all his other policies). That would be a MAJOR breakthrough, and it would undercut the stated motivation for much of the terrorism caused by radical ME extremists. Wouldn’t mean that they stop activities, but would severely blunt their popular appeal. That would also be MAJOR.
We await further developments. I am still pessimistic, but I have “hope”.
5 tehehehe // Mar 27, 2009 at 9:15 am
Oliphant weighs in with his view of Israel:
http://gothamist.com/2009/03/26/cartoon_criticising_israel_sparks_c.php
6 Stacy // Mar 28, 2009 at 8:54 am
I am well aware of the history of Hamas, Fatah, etc. and the terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. But the point of the post and the link to the Washington Note, is about opening a dialogue to move forward, even if that means trying to bring in people we might not otherwise have considered.
Yes, Hamas or any other palestinian govt group has to stop attacking Israel- we know this. But every time the issue of trying to move forward with a viable mid-east peace plan comes up, some conservative feels the need to lecture everyone on how bad Hamas is and how many israelis have died but the problem is, we know this. We also know that many palestinian civilians have died. We know that the situation is a mess. We know this won’t be easy. But the fact is, we have to do something because doing nothing and ramping up hard-line rhetoric isn’t working and realistically at the end of the day, it is likely that both Israel and the Palestinians will not be happy with the US efforts at times, but that isn’t totally a bad thing.
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