| April
18 , 2006
Conditions on the Ground Have
Never Been So Tense
Is Hamas Being Forced
to Collapse?
By SAM BAHOUR
As
many predicted, including myself, the newly elected Palestinian
government led by Hamas has already started to show an impressive
level of pragmatism, however, Israel and the U.S. seem to not be
interested. As a matter of fact the U.S., in specific, is leading
a global campaign to isolate the Palestinian government in such
a haphazard way, that they are also causing a troubling level of
despair among the average Palestinian citizen as well.
The
Observer (UK) recently reported on Mr. Yihiyeh Musa, a Hamas member
of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who said Hamas had moved
into a “new era” which did not require suicide attacks.
He was quoted as saying, “The suicide bombings happened in
an exceptional period and they have now stopped,” he said.
“They came to an end as a change of belief.” (April
9, 2006).
One
would think this is good news, especially after the death and destruction
such bombing caused. This, one would imagine, should be even better
news for Israel and the U.S. given they both have continuously linked
such bombings to the reason that the never-ending peace process
was unable to actually reach its destination, peace.
But
cautious optimism was not the case. Instead, the U.S. wasted no
time in dehumanizing the newly elected Palestinian parliamentarians
and cabinet ministers. The war of words has been nearly non-stop
since Hamas’ victory with all levels of government in D.C.
making the case that Hamas can’t change and there is no reason
to let them try. Next was a cessation of funding to the Palestinian
government and a request for all other countries of the world to
follow suit. Then Israel severed all Israeli bank ties with the
Palestinian banking system, government related and non-government
related.
Only
last week came a U.S. Department of Treasury decree making it illegal
for Americans to do business with the Palestinian government. We
wait to see tomorrow’s nooses.
All
of this as Palestinians watch in dismay, trying to maintain a dignified
life under an humiliating military occupation. The international
community demanded Palestinians hold free and fair elections at
all levels of government, so the Palestinians did just that, and
superbly given their reality. But after voting a reflection of their
bitter reality of being caged in open air prisons in their own homeland,
the U.S. is now punishing them for not voting as the U.S. wanted.
Most
Palestinians today are asking simple rhetorical questions, if the
past government was, and it was, corrupt -- financially, politically
and administratively -- and we voted them out of power, why can’t
the U.S. see this as a positive development?
What
does the U.S. want, to bring back a proven corrupt government that
made a mockery of international aid, including U.S. funds? Also,
if Israel has blocked every attempt for Palestinians to solve their
issues at the negotiating table, can’t the U.S. understand
that the voting Hamas in office was a simple non-violent way to
tell the world, end this occupation or take some of your own medicine?
Conditions
on the ground have never been so tense. The Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, which has always been a political conflict, is being converted,
thanks to the U.S. and Israel, into a humanitarian crisis. The fear
is that hungry persons react in unpredictable ways.
The
greater fear is that if the U.S. and Israel are successful in collapsing
the Hamas government and Hamas in turn decides to abandoned democratic
means to express itself, we will be back where we started from,
suicide bombings killing innocents and setting the agenda from outside
any known political framework. Does this serve U.S. and Israeli
interests? We are all wondering!
Sam
Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman living in
the Israeli- occupied Palestinian city of El-Bireh, the sister city
of Ramallah. He is co- author of HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine
and Palestinians (1994) and may be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.
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