BBC radio just interviewed Nachman Shai, a Kadima candidate for Knesset (and former IDF spokesman) about George Mitchell's visit. Shai was sweetness and light. We look forward to speaking to all our…. he searched for the word… "neighbors." Very good, Mr. Shai, sidestepping "enemies." Then the moderator asked What about Hamas? "Absolutely not" was Shai's response. Hamas is committed in its charter to Israel's destruction.
This is a phrase that Americans need to be educated about. How meaningful is it?
The answer is, Not very meaningful at all.
To begin with, there is an obvious contingency to all such declarations. There have been countless signals from Hamas leadership that it would recognize Israel on the '67 border–that is, recognize a state that takes up 80 percent of historical Palestine so long as Israel disgorges the settlements. Witness the history of the PLO, whose legitimacy the Israelis long denied. That didn't stop the PLO from talking to Israel. "I do not understand this quibbling over the 'right to exist'," Jim Byers wrote here. "You exist
or you don’t. Menachem Begin didn’t recognize that there is a
Palestinian people until Camp David. NEGOTIATE!"
Secondly, and more important, granting any power to Hamas's declaration is an insult to common sense. On one side is the fourth or fifth largest military in the world, with nuclear weapons. On the other side are Qassam rockets. How powerful is Hamas? 13 Israelis died in the last month. 1400
Palestinians. We have just witnessed a "war" in which Gaza's government infrastructure was simply destroyed. How many
government buildings in Jerusalem were destroyed?
Is Hamas's declaration anything more than symbolic? No. And inasmuch as it's only symbolic, why should Americans take it seriously? Well, we must take it seriously as an expression of resistance to unjust Israeli policies of dispossession that must be addressed, as we addressed the violent Sunni minority's sense of being ill-done-by in Iraq. Must we take it seriously as a real threat to Israeli society? Of course not. Long ago, James North gave me the key to understanding this issue. He had just returned from Israel. An amazing place in many ways. Huge buildings in Tel Aviv. Modern highways. A high standard of living. Fancy cars. Great newspapers. Nice restaurants. When you cross the border into Gaza, he explained, the drop in wealth is worse than the break between the U.S. and Mexico.
And when they say, Israel has no right to exist, North said, it's like an ant walking by a skyscraper and shaking his little fist in the air and spitting out, I'm going to tear that skyscraper down!
It's time to stop listening to brutalized, brutalizing Israelis on this question, and to follow our own fair lights. (Phil Weiss)
