Opinion | Editorials
Winograd speaks, band plays on
Optimists in the Palestinian camp claim that because of the Winograd Report, Olmert wants a speedy peace deal with the Palestinians. That is nonsense.
- By Sami Moubayed, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:54 January 22, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration by Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
The battle started last week when Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired nearly 200 rockets on Israel.
Prime Minister Salam Fayad called on the international community to protect Gaza, saying: "One must have the intellectual courage and the necessary sense of responsibility to realise that firing rockets has only brought misfortune and catastrophe for our people!"
It almost baffles the mind that Hamas falls into this trap, over-and-over again.
You don't fire rockets at the enemy during times like these - especially if you are living in an isolated, overcrowded, under-developed, and poor district such as Gaza.
The Gazans are barely surviving without Israeli missiles falling over their heads. It's nice to fire rockets - but only when they will affect the enemy, and lead to a tangible result at the end of the day, for the Palestinians.
Instead of cleaning up the mess left behind in Gaza, where 71 people have been killed by Israel and another 150 have been wounded, Hamas re-engaged in a senseless war of words with Fatah, accusing it of planning to assassinate the former prime minister Esmail Haniya and blow up the Al Aqsa Satellite TV.
Meanwhile, behind all of this noise, more than 10,000 Palestinians are lagging in Israeli jails. Israeli checkpoints - and colonies - are expanding, and Gaza remains under heavy attack.
The situation is not much different in the West Bank. Apparently, although much of the world's attention is focused on Hamas-controlled Gaza, hardships are nothing less in Fatah-controlled West Bank.
The international media managed to divide these two districts into the "good guys" and "bad guys" neighbourhoods.
The ones living in the West Bank are "good" because they went to Annapolis. That is not true and there are nearly 4,000 West Bankers currently in Israeli jails, as opposed to only 2,222 from Gaza.
History will never forget Hamas of the 1990s, which carried out a popular war against Israel and earned the minds and hearts of millions in the Arab and Islamic World.
The images coming out of Gaza today, however, will remain imprinted in the minds of Arabs for long - longer perhaps, than those of Hamas's performance during the Intifada. When one's land is occupied, it is natural for him to fight for freedom.
It only logical for Hamas to do so since the 1980s, regardless if the world agreed with its tactics or not. The abnormal - and unforgettable or forgivable - is to engage in civil war while under occupation.
Former Israeli Knesset member Azmi Bishara described the situation saying that Fatah and Hamas were like two prisoners fighting to control the prison cell in which they are locked up - forgetting that at the end of the day, both of them are nothing but prisoners.
The US President George W. Bush, who toured the Middle East recently, was never interested in Arab-Israeli peace, and the Palestinians know that.
Nor is the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for that matter - since he is unable to talk peace with the Palestinians before correcting the damage done to his image by the Israeli performance in the Lebanon War of 2006.
You simply cannot sign a peace treaty with a humiliating defeat to your very recent record. You need to have war medals to sell peace to the Israelis or the Arabs. That is why peacemakers such as Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, also happened to be war-heroes.
Jamal Abdul Nasser for example, could not have been able to sign peace in 1967 but Hassan Nasrallah would have, in 2006. Likewise, Olmert cannot sign peace today, in 2008.
Mishandling
Very worrying to Olmert is the fact that by the end of this month, the final Winograd Commission Report will be out in Israel.
The initial preliminary report, issued in April 2007, was very harsh on Olmert and his entire government for mishandling the Lebanon War of 2006.
Even Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, was impressed by the Winograd Report. There are fears that the final Winograd Report would present more serious information, directly incriminating Olmert.
Optimists in the Palestinian camp claim that because of Winograd, Olmert wants a speedy peace deal with the Palestinians. That is nonsense. The case is actually the exact opposite. We don't know what the Winograd Report will say but it might go as far as to call on him to step down.
The Israeli leader cannot advance any peace talks with Winograd waving over his head. He first have to right the wrongs of the Lebanon War, and thereby, refute the claims of Winograd.
This can be done either through a second round with Hezbollah, which currently seems unlikely and logistically difficult, or through a direct war of annihilation against Hamas.
On January 19, Nasrallah sent a strong message to Olmert, saying that if his government so much as toyed with the idea of re-attacking Lebanon, he would respond in a manner that would rock and revamp the entire Middle East.
Olmert cannot deliver peace with the Palestinians - or war with the Lebanese, with Hasan Nasrallah at his doorstep. With that option off the table, the only solution for Olmert would be to go to war against Hamas in Gaza.
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
More from Editorials
More from Opinions
Opinion Editor's choice
-
Threat of German amnesia
By Joschka Fischer, Special to Gulf News
Rarely has the country been as isolated as it is now. Hardly anyone understands its dogmatic austerity policy, which goes against all experience
-
Moral implication of America's security mindset
By Gordon Robison, Special to Gulf News
After a decade in which torture became official government policy, America’s moral standing when it comes to looking at other governments’ human rights failings is much-diminished
-
Europe's salvation lies in euro's demise
By Bruce Anderson
A return to national currencies is the only hope, but it won’t be easy or cost-free
Your turn
