So as the title suggests yes there has been peace in Palestine. However the title is not meant to imply that there has been an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. What I am referring to is the agreement that was reached between the leaders of Fatah (West Bank) and Hamas (Gaza), which have been separate entities since the civil war in 2007 shortly following the election of Hamas.
There have been varying reactions to this agreement, Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel's PM) has come out to say that Abbas can't expect there to reach an peace agreement with Israel while associated with Hamas, which has been classified as terrorist organization by the US, Israel, and the EU. However, the Guardian article suggests that this new agreement gives the Palestinians greater bargaining power to lobby in front of the UN in September for independent declaration of statehood.
Now those are two opinions and it is way to soon to tell what the future holds. This story was just broken today, I found out about from @MJRosenberg on twitter, and I'll continue to follow it. But my opinion is that while yes Hamas is a terrorist organization that lobs rockets at Israel, there must be some sense of hope that this new alliance can be beneficial to the peace process rather than detrimental as Netanyahu suggests. Another thing to take into consideration is funding and aid, currently the US does provide aid to the West Bank, however since Hamas took control it cut off its supply to Gaza. With this in mind will the US's policy towards Palestinian territories change at all?
Please weigh in and discuss....
This is such a complex concept which has been made more complex by the fracturing of the Palestinian group. Now it is not just Israel vs. Palestine but Israel Vs. Fatah & Hamas. I think this agreement between the two groups is a start in unifying the Palestinian initiative again which will perhaps just put us back where we started when it was a double-faceted issue rather than a triple-faceted one.
ReplyDeleteThe difficulty comes down to this problem of Hamas's past reputation and radical side who have committed numerous terrorist actions. We wanted free elections in Palestine but when Hamas was elected or at least political members of Hamas (there IS a less-radical, political side, something that has been seen with other terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood) the US failed to recognize the election as legitimate.
I would like to think that this can lead to some leaps and bounds in the Peace process, but I worry that more strength in the Palestinian movement will merely put Israel even more on the defensive because they would see a greater strength against them. I hope this doesn't prove to be the case!
Sorry for the long comment, but your post really got me thinking =)
And let me just clarify, that last comment does not presume to express support for Hamas and it's terrorist actions, but merely get people thinking about how some associations with radicalism does not always equal the ones doing the bombings. So do we work with a group who has had some members commit acts of terror while others in that group act politically or do we condemn the whole thing and anyone who associates as a terrorist and have no dialogue at all?
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