[Peace-discuss] Hamas Leader in NYT & WP

[David Green]

20 June 2007

In a quite remarkable development, both The Washington Post
and The New York Times today carry op-eds by Ahmed Yousef, a
senior advisor to Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the
democratically- elected Palestinian Authority cabinet, that
Mahmoud Abbas purports to have removed from office in favor of
an unelected, US- and Israeli-backed "emergency government."

Each article takes a different angle, and each should be read
carefully as indications of Hamas' strategy and intentions. It
is also worth referring back to a commentary Mr. Yousef wrote
late last year in which he wrote "Hamas proposes a long-term
truce during which the Israeli and Palestinian peoples can try
to negotiate a lasting peace," a truce called in Arabic,
'hudna.'

He added, "Such a concept — a period of nonwar but only
partial resolution of a conflict — is foreign to the West and
has been greeted with much suspicion. Many Westerners I speak
to wonder how one can stop the violence without ending the
conflict. I would argue, however, that this concept is not as
foreign as it might seem. After all, the Irish Republican Army
agreed to halt its military struggle to free Northern Ireland
from British rule without recognizing British sovereignty.
Irish Republicans continue to aspire to a united Ireland free
of British rule, but rely upon peaceful methods. Had the
I.R.A. been forced to renounce its vision of reuniting Ireland
before negotiations could occur, peace would never have
prevailed. Why should more be demanded of the Palestinians,
particularly when the spirit of our people will never permit
it?" (Pause for Peace, New York Times, November 1, 2006)

If Israel and the United States had ever been serious about
ending the conflict, they would have paid careful attention to
what Hamas said then, and they would pay attention now.

Ali Abunimah

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Engage With Hamas: We Earned Our Support

By Ahmed Yousef

The Washington Post 20 June 2007

http://www.washingt onpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/ article/2007/ 06/19/AR20070619 01736.html

GAZA CITY, Palestine -- The Palestinian National Authority
apparently joins the list of elected governments targeted or
toppled over the past century by interventionism: nations that
had the courage to take American rhetoric at face value and
elect whomever they would. No doubt some in Washington persist
in the fiction that the United States is following a "road
map" to democracy for Palestinians, just as others believe the
Iraq war has been a sincere exercise in nation-building.
Neoconservative strategists have miscalculated, however, and
Hamas is stronger than ever.

For the first time in months, Gaza is secure. This may be a
momentary peace as Israel prepares an attempt to retake parts
of Gaza. Yet neither blunt force nor U.S. subterfuge will
extinguish Palestinian aspirations for self-governance, free
from outside interference.

Hamas's actions to secure Gaza from the horrific recent
violence of the Palestinian contras have been out of
self-defense. The assassinations of Hamas officials and
supporters, attempts on the life of the elected prime
minister, and kidnappings and bombings by some in President
Mahmoud Abbas's paramilitary groups had to stop. The PA has a
clear legal right, indeed an obligation, to prevent this
violence, by force if necessary, and to protect the
Palestinian people.

It is not Hamas that has "outlawed" the government. (When has
an elected party with a voting majority ever resorted to
banning the government to get its way?) The success of the
Reform and Change Party is neither a chimera nor a momentary
lapse in reason on the part of the electorate. Rather, it is
the result of four decades of hard work in Palestinian
society. It reflects the trust of the people. Those who
collaborate with the occupiers to void the electoral process
will not succeed. Abbas's "state of emergency" and his U.S.
and Israeli arms will not prevail in Gaza or quench the thirst
for political freedom in the West Bank.

Some critics raise the red flag of "al-Qaeda" and say that
Hamas and parliament are a stalking horse for Salafi
jihadists. I defy them to demonstrate one instance in which
Hamas's military structure has struck against any force
outside the theater of the occupation. The struggle has always
been against the Israeli agenda of ethnic cleansing and
conquest. Hamas is a movement of Palestinian liberation and
nationalism -- Islamist, yes, but in the sea of contending
faiths that is the homeland, where is the sin in loving one's
creed?

Likewise, those who demean resistance to the occupation as
little more than a proxy for Iran, Syria or Hezbollah are
ignorant of history. The long-suffering Palestinians have
gratefully accepted assistance from neighbors both near and
far, Arab and Western, Muslim or otherwise. Slighting the
generosity of those who sympathize with the Palestinians is
hypocritical given America's billions of annual aid dollars
for Israel, money that has only purchased tragedy.

Palestinians want, on their terms, the same thing Western
societies want: self-determination, modernity, access to
markets and their own economic power, and freedom for civil
society to evolve. Those who warn of "failed states" and
"Hamastan" as a breeding ground for terrorism forget where
blame for failure belongs -- at the feet of the American
administration, which has chosen to isolate, rather than deal
with, the elected government.

The Bush administration never intended to honor the outcome of
fair and transparent elections in the occupied territories.
The embargo, designed to punish the electorate for its choice,
was the first step toward crushing new democratic
institutions. The second has been to find collaborators for
the American agenda and to supply them with advisers, funds
and weapons for their campaign of destabilization. The final
step will be to truncate Gaza from any proposed Palestinian
state and make it a de facto prison for all "undesirable"
aspects of Palestinian nationalism. This will culminate in
provocations designed to trigger a military response from
Israel, which will "justify" a war on Gazans. This would be
tragic for all concerned, and the international community,
especially the Arab League, must not allow such an outcome.

What can be salvaged from the wreckage of the multiparty
system? Those who have dissolved the government and joined
with the occupiers are embraced by the Bush and Olmert
administrations, which have released Palestinian tax revenue
and taken other steps to shore up the Abbas government's
legitimacy and proclaim it the future of a Palestine shorn of
troublesome Gaza.

Yet it remains that Hamas has a world in common with Fatah and
other parties, and they all share the same goals -- the end of
occupation; the release of political prisoners; the right of
return for all Palestinians; and freedom to be a nation equal
among nations, secure in its own borders and at peace. For
more than 60 years, Palestinians have resisted walls and
checkpoints intended to divide them. Now they must resist the
poisonous inducements to fight one another and resume a
unified front against the occupation.

We urge the Bush administration not to repeat the mistakes
that have become hallmarks of its actions in the Middle East.
Allow the Palestinian people to chart their own course, free
from the influence of those who seek little more than to
perpetuate the status quo. The alternative is unacceptable.

Ahmed Yousef is a senior political adviser to Ismail Haniyeh,
who is contesting his dismissal as prime minister by Mahmoud
Abbas.

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What Hamas Wants

By AHMED YOUSEF

The New York Times
20 June 2007

http://www.nytimes. com/2007/ 06/20/opinion/ 20yousef. html

Gaza City--THE events in Gaza over the last few days have been
described in the West as a coup. In essence, they have been
the opposite. Eighteen months ago, our Hamas Party won the
Palestinian parliamentary elections and entered office under
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya but never received the handover
of real power from Fatah, the losing party. The Palestinian
president, Mahmoud Abbas, has now tried to replace the winning
Hamas government with one of his own, returning Fatah to power
while many of our elected members of Parliament languish in
Israeli jails. That is the real coup.

>From the day Hamas won the general elections in 2006 it
offered Fatah the chance of joining forces and forming a unity
government. It tried to engage the international community to
explain its platform for peace. It has consistently offered a
10-year cease-fire with the Israelis to try to create an
atmosphere of calm in which we resolve our differences. Hamas
even adhered to a unilateral cease-fire for 18 months in an
effort to normalize the situation on the ground. None of these
points appear to have been recognized in the press coverage of
the last few days.

Nor has it been evident to many people in the West that the
civil unrest in Gaza and the West Bank has been precipitated
by the American and Israeli policy of arming elements of the
Fatah opposition who want to attack Hamas and force us from
office. For 18 months we have tried to find ways to coexist
with Fatah, entering into a unity government, even conceding
key positions in the cabinet to their and international
demands, negotiating up until the last moment to try to
provide security for all of our people on the streets of Gaza.

Sadly, it became apparent that not all officials from Fatah
were negotiating in good faith. There were attempts on Mr.
Haniya's life last week, and eventually we were forced into
trying to take control of a very dangerous situation in order
to provide political stability and establish law and order.

The streets of Gaza are now calm for the first time in a very
long time. We have begun disarming some of the drug dealers
and the armed gangs and we hope to restore a sense of security
and safety to the citizens of Gaza. We want to get children
back to school, get basic services functioning again, and
provide long-term economic gains for our people.

Our stated aim when we won the election was to effect reform,
end corruption and bring economic prosperity to our people.
Our sole focus is Palestinian rights and good governance. We
now hope to create a climate of peace and tranquillity within
our community that will pave the way for an end to internal
strife and bring about the release of the British journalist
Alan Johnston, whose kidnapping in March by non-Hamas members
is a stain on the reputation of the Palestinian people.

We reject attempts to divide Palestine into two parts and to
pass Hamas off as an extreme and dangerous force. We continue
to believe that there is still a chance to establish a
long-term truce. But this will not happen unless the
international community fully engages with Hamas.

Any further attempts to marginalize us, starve our people into
submission or attack us militarily will prove that the United
States and Israeli governments are not genuinely interested in
seeing an end to the violence. Dispassionate observers over
the next few weeks will be able to make up their own minds as
to each side's true intentions.

Ahmed Yousef is the political adviser to Ismail Haniya, who
became the Palestinian prime minister last year.

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