Demagogy about Hamas, Gaza
and the Israeli Anti-terror Operation

by Sami Alrabaa

Once again and as usual, we Arabs, at least some of us, are in a big mess. The Islamist extremist Hamas group which came to power through democracy in 2006, hijacked Gaza, established its rocket factories in residential areas, in bunkers under mosques, schools, and hospitals. For the past three years Hamas jihadists and their affiliates have launched their Kassam rockets at residential areas in Israel. Also during the cease fire brokered by Egypt in 2008, Hamas never stopped launching its rockets. On top of all that, Hamas, like the PLO before the Oslo accords, rejects the existence of Israel, a UN member state. Its ultimate aim is “liberating” all of Palestine and wiping out Israel from the world map.

Hamas “struggle” is backed by Islamists across the globe, Arab state-controlled media, and by one-eyed Western anti-war campaigners. Even Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary General of the UN condemned the Israeli military operations as “disproportionate”.

All these bodies have voraciously consumed the Hamas propaganda and allege that the Israeli blockade has caused abject misery in Gaza, people there are starving. Some compare Gaza to a huge prison, to a “concentration camp”. But who is to blame for all this calamity?

Israeli politicians have repeatedly stated that once Hamas stops launching its missiles, the blockade would be lifted. The Israeli cabinet even approved of aid convoys into Gaza despite Hamas rockets. Yet, the Hamas leadership has ignored this attitude and carried on launching its rocket on Israeli residential areas.

We Arabs are very good at twisting facts and exaggerating when it suits us. Mustafa Barghouthi, A Fatah activist, told CNN (28.12.2008) “It was Israel which broke the cease fire with Hamas.” Buthaina Sha’ban, a Syrian cabinet Minister, calls in the London-based Saudi daily Al Shraq Al Awsat (29.12.2008) the Israeli attack on Hamas “the most atrocious Holocaust in the history of mankind.”

We Arabs also prefer to be mystical rather than realistic. Waleed Al Tabtaba’i, an Islamist member of the Kuwaiti parliament, hopes in Al Watan (29.12.2008) that Allah would come to rescue the Gazans as he did with his prophet Muhammad in all his raids against the infidels.

Yusuf Al Qaradhawi, a radical Islamist cleric, told Al Jazeera TV, “We Muslims, we are a bunch of donkeys if we do not stand up and fight the Israelis and their supporters wherever they are.”

Hamas and its affiliates are feeding on wishful thinking. They believe that an escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would bring them closer to their aim: Arabs and Muslims would take to the street and pressurize their governments to take action against Israel. Islamists in Iran and Indonesia have registered themselves as Jihadists against the Jews, the “apes of monkeys”, who they claim, Allah calls them.

We Arabs have learned nothing from two major disastrous wars against Israel. Some of us still believe that the Israelis understand only the language of defiance and violence. Violence is the only “argument” we possess. Rationalism has never been part of our discourse and action.

As for Islamists, they rejoice in maiming and killing in Gaza, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. None of those sympathizers with Hamas has ever condemned the atrocities inflicted on innocent people killed arbitrarily in these countries by suicide bombers in the name Islam.

In Arabic we say, Ja’ja’a bila taheen” (It is all noise without flour). We Arabs, we are the most boisterous and less effective in seeking the pragmatically workable.

According to a clandestine survey by Bielefeld University conducted in Syria and Egypt (2006), over 60% of the population in these countries want peace with Israel. They are “sick and tired” as many put it, of the belligerent discourse of the Islamists and propaganda of their governments’ media. But of course they dare not say that openly.

Khaled, who does not want his last name to be named, told me, “Our leaders and their affiliates suffer from some kind of personality disorder. They keep us busy with Israel to distract from their failure to establish democracy and remove poverty. They also support radical organizations like Hamas and Hizballah as tools to keep that distraction alive.”

Fatima said, “Israel left south Lebanon and Gaza. Yet, for Hizballah and Hamas this is not enough. What do these people want? They are making the life of their people and ours miserable. We feel hijacked by these murderers. We want peace.”

Hamas and its affiliates are among the bloodiest in the history of mankind. They do not value human life. They deliberately provoked the Israeli offensive and were aware that that would cause death to hundreds of civilians living in areas where Hamas had stored its rockets. Hamas leadership has been banking on images of death and destruction as a means to rally support in Arab, Muslim, and Western streets.

According to a recent opinion poll, conducted by Emnid Institute in Germany, more than 80% of the German population blame Hamas for the high toll of deaths among civilians in Gaza. One interviewee put it this way, “Hamas is acting like armed criminals who have barricaded themselves among innocent civilians and arbitrarily fire at people around them. As the criminals adamantly refused to stop shooting, the police had no other choice but to storm the area to catch the criminals, or kill them. Unfortunately, several innocent people were killed. You can not blame the death of innocent people on the police. It is the criminals to blame for all this.”

In view of the fact that Kuwait and Lebanon enjoy a relatively big margin of freedom of speech, columnists like Ahemd Al Sarraf, Ali Al Baghli, Hasssan El Essa, Fouad Al Hashem, and Khaleel Haidar blast Hamas and the Islamists for the calamity in Gaza.

Arabs have never experienced any kind of political stability. Since independence over the past half of the 20th century, they have been ruled by despots, either military or hereditary. Demonstrations are basically forbidden. Demonstrations for political reforms are ruthlessly squashed. But if people demonstrate against a foreign power, against Israel or the USA, for instance, then the demonstration is most welcome.

The Syrian regime even allowed carefully selected people to demonstrate against the Egyptian embassy for not opening the border with Gaza. And the Egyptians allowed another demonstration against the Israeli strikes against Hamas. On the other hand, here is a link which clearly shows how the authoritarian regime of Husni Mubarak deals with demonstrators for political reforms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_tBr7MSoxQ&NR=1 

The Arab regimes have always used the “Palestinian cause”, the “Wound of all Arabs”, or the “Nakba” (calamity) as some Arabs prefer to call it, as a pretext to postpone all political and economic reforms.

The occupation of Iraq and the rise of Islamism have provided Arab regimes with another opportunity to distract from socio-political reforms.

Besides, Arab regimes like the Egyptian, the Syrian, and the Saudi have appeased Islamists by antagonizing the same enemy, namely, Israel and the USA, at least over their media. The Islamist radicals stopped their arbitrary maiming and killing in these countries.

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has created an unprecedented divide between two blocs; the pro- and anti-Hamas. The one bloc is led by Egypt whose senior officials blame Hamas for provoking the Israeli campaign and refused to open its borders with Gaza. And the other bloc is led by Iran and its affiliates in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is torn between undermining the Iranian Shiite influence and supporting a Wahhabi extremist organization like Hamas.

Even if Israel did not exist, the arch enemies, the Wahhabis versus Shiites, would wage bloody wars against each other for dominating the Middle East.

Dictators have never left a good legacy. On the contrary, they left destruction, misery, and numerous innocent deaths. Think of Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, the list is long. Arab dictators are in this sense in good company.

Israel must carry on its offensive until the Hamas leaders surrender. There is no peace without sacrifice. All Israelis and decent Arabs would be grateful to the Israeli army if it rids us from those thugs. We want to live in peace.

Having said all that, the road down to democracy and freedom of speech in the Arab world will still have to wait for decades to come. In the meantime, the name of the game remains demagogy, irrationalism, political schizophrenia, defiance and violence.