Understand Hamas - An Excellent Read!
Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters is an
appropriate book to review on the first day of the current Ceasefire! Helena Cobban and Rami Khouri’s questioning
of five knowledgeable scholars of Gaza, “Islamic Politics” and more in 156
pages of text directly confronts many misnomers that (even) I had. The perspectives are different from Tareq
Baconi and Rashid Khalidi, and others who “know a lot”.
Remember the Israeli ambassador’s anger at the statement
by UN Secretary General Guterres that Hamas’s violence did not come out of
nowhere. And so that completely
undermined the Israeli narrative that this was just evil people doing evil
things, rather than there’s a context to this violence. …
Among those practicing peace negotiations, it’s well
established that the term “terrorism” hinders the possibility of
negotiations. For example, the Philippines
government refused to label the Moro Islamic Liberation Front terrorist, even
though there was a huge pressure from the U.S. to do so, because they
recognized that the military solution was impossible and that it needed to
negotiate. (p.69)
It should be noted that the language of mainstream U.S.
Media and Government leadership continually dismisses Hamas and elevates
Israeli leadership and spokespeople related to this perspective of “terrorism”. October 7, 2023’s attack is viewed in isolation,
confirming the irrationality and evil of Hamas in the mainstream narrative.
But whether or not Hamas negotiates or is willing to
compromise is very much influenced by the political opportunity and threat structure
that prevails at the time.
So in the late 2000’s, for example Hamas leaders engaged
with Swiss negotiators and toned down their rhetoric, took some of the
anti-Semitic references from their website, and dropped a decision to impose
the hijab, the headscarf, in court, all through these negotiations. … If you fast forward, the rise of hardliners within Hamas over the last five
years is in part because of the failure of these negotiations and the refusal
of successive Israeli governments and Western governments to respond to Hamas’s
political overtures and engage it. (p.73)
Dr. Azzam Tamini stated:
Now, if you ask me personally, I think it is highly
unlikely that we will ever reach the situation in which there are two states,
one called Palestine and one called Israel.
And that is not because of the Palestinians. It’s because of the Zionists, because of the
way the Zionist project itself is developing.
Now, you have people in charge in Israel who believe they
have a license from God to burn Gaza, not once, not twice, but three times,
four times if necessary. And they
believe they’re doing something fantastic, something good. They don’t believe Palestinians have a right to
exist anywhere, although at least a segment of the Palestinians have agreed to
recognize Isarel’s right to exist.
There has been no real reciprocation.
(p.143)
When they went to Nelson Mandela in his Robben Island
cell and said to him, come on Nelson, we need to put an end to this mayhem, to
this violence etc. He said, very easy,
no more Apartheid and we can live in peace.
And we in Palestine say the same thing: no more Zionism and
we can live in peace. We’re not going
to send any Jew anywhere in the world, they can remain. We don’t have a problem with them as Jews,
but we have a problem with them as people who believe that they have God-given
rights to discriminate against us. That’s
the problem. (p.146)
I’ll tell you how we can know whether it is serious or
not. If the Zionists come tomorrow to
us and say just like the white minority in South Africa said to the Black
majority: Palestinians, we are sorry for what we did to you. It was wrong. We invaded your land, we occupied your land,
we dispossessed you. But now we want to
start a new page, a new chapter. We want
to live together. Would you agree? I’d say, of course, we agree. Let’s sit down and talk.
But they need to recognize the principle. So long as the Zionists don’t recognize that
the Palestinians have been their victims, you can not negotiate anything. What is there to negotiate? (p.154)
Clearly the Ceasefire that began today, in no way faintly
resembles or faintly relates to what Dr. Tamini has said is necessary. The Ceasefire relates to the failure of the Israeli
military to destroy Hamas. Perhaps, it
recognizes this impossibility?
Those interviewed in this book clearly show the Resistance
Movement that exists and will continue to move forward, until a Just Peace is
achieved. It is quite clear, that this
“peace” will only last as long as it benefits the Israeli leadership and does
not hurt the Palestinian People so much, that they will violently resist the
continued occupation.
I’m not optimistic, though the current (possible) respite is
definitely important – and positive!
I highly recommend reading this book! It is readable, not long, and helped me, as
it helps others, understand Hamas and the Palestinian cause much better. It humanizes Hamas. It, in no way, makes it seem “heroic”. Clearly, those unalterably Zionist – won’t
have their minds changed, but for most others, it can, and hopefully will help.
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