America Brought Hamas to Power: Why the Betrayal?

We can all too well remember the pressure that America applied when its soon to be ex-president called on (and not so innocently) the Arab countries in general to clear the way for their peoples to approach the voting booths, and practice their right to choose their representatives in the parliaments that bring forth the governments that run their countries. We remember their persistence with the Palestinian Authority in particular, in saying that they should hold blameless elections. They thought, as Israel led them to believe, that those elections would be a way to isolate those factions such as Hamas which are involved in conflict, and hence whose lives are cheap.

But the election results disappointed America. Despite their claimed integrity in elections that brought Bush himself to power, they were aghast at the majority attained by the party or movement whose very name frightens Israel. It swept the Palestinian parliament, then succeeded in forming a government and was beginning to organize the way to lawful armed resistance, when America became convinced that was not the democracy it intended. So, it suggested to Israel that it arrest the people’s representatives in parliament, among them the speaker, the dignified sheikh, and putting them on trial for winning the confidence of the people.

This has paralyzed the democratic life which the Arab countries are always asked to put into practice. After the results in Palestine, no one has dared call it democracy again, fearful that people in Arab countries would open their eyes and see its benefits.

I present this introduction as a background for my commentary on what is happening in the Gaza strip and the crimes that words fail to describe. If what is happening were directed at a military element or those who Israel claims are directing policy, then the world would find some justification. But when the raids include destroying homes, places of worship and learning, dismembering the bodies of children, women and civilians, then that is a savage crime forbidden by all of the heavenly religions. The world is silent on these crimes, despite the will of the people being expressed through demonstrations everywhere.

In the following lines I want to relate some of the feelings from the Arab street. I feel it sufficient to consider and contemplate what has happened and is happening day and night in Gaza.

1- What happened in Gaza is an echo of what happened in Lebanon in 2006, both in the manner of war and the concentration on weakening Hamas’ military and political power. There are similarities in the indiscriminate bombing from the air, the inability to abstain from striking civilians and concentrate only on designated targets, and also in the slow and weak Arab and international reaction which leave the impression that there is hidden consent to grant Israel the opportunity to execute a list of targets of its own making before any effective intervention to stop the war.

It appears that everyone is gloating over Hamas and calling for their being driven from power; this is not a time for Schadenfreude, but a time to save Arab dignity, if there is any left. Their conscience still hasn’t asked the bitter question: Who turned on whom? Even though the answer is clear, no one dares to say it aloud.

2- Some of the Arab countries aren’t enthusiastic about Hamas, either, because of what they say are ties to Iran or Hezbollah; the fear is that the position these countries take will create a vacuum filled by reinforcing those ties after Hamas finds itself alone in the confrontation. A few have even withheld moral and political support! Hasn’t everyone heard Hassan Nasrallah, who found in that vacuum a motive to increase personal glory and fame?!

There is an oft-repeated question, to the effect: If America loudly proclaimed their support for the war against Gaza, and most, if not all the instruments of war are from America, then isn’t that sufficient for the Arab countries to take a stand against this destruction, in accordance with the charter of the League of Arab Nations, and the covenant of joint defense, which stipulates that any aggression against an Arab country is considered an aggression against all the Arab countries?

3- The cause is not merely a Palestinian cause, but an international, Islamic and Arabic cause. It is international, because what is happening is tantamount to aggression on the principles of peace and a violation of the charter of the United Nations and resolutions about the cause itself, and a conspicuous challenge to all human rights, and to those agreements and organizations based on human rights. It is Islamic because it is a violation of the sanctity of holy lands whose crown is Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque, and against the charter of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and principles of neutrality. It is Arabic because it intermingles blood, language, race and religion and is a prime reason for the humiliation and subjugation of the Arab peoples.

Even with all this, everyone is silent. Gaza’s most generous neighbors have donated blood and sent medications for which the crossing points were shut, so that people have died because of a lack of medical instruments, medications, and hospitals without power!

Wouldn’t it be appropriate for those Arab countries over whose capitals flap the Zionist entity’s flags, to withdraw their ambassadors and ask the entity’s ambassadors to leave, even temporarily, as a sign of no faith? That would be in respect of their peoples’ feelings and in response to their calls.

4- What calls attention is the role Turkey is attempting to carry out through its Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who got on his airplane and is traveling among the Arab countries, wherever there is open ground in order to score points on the balance of Arab-Turkish relations. He knows beforehand the extent of his mission’s failure, as he shuttles among the Arab capitals in search of the glory that he might exploit in order to achieve other glories at the expense of the cause. What is he looking for that other leaders haven’t been able to find? What mediation can he possibly carry out between the execution and his victim? Only it comes in the context of procrastinating and wasting time so that Israel can achieve its aim! Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for Turkey, if it wanted to do something good for the Arabs, as penance for its “glorious deeds” during six centuries of occupation, to loudly call for the United Nations to pass a resolution to remove this injustice? That would be sufficient.

5- Those who rationalize and justify their silence by saying that Hamas is to blame for firing rockets, then they should ask themselves if the right of self-defense to protect oneself, honor and dignity is lawful for those whose house has been occupied, women were violated, and children killed? What would be their position if it happened to them?

As for those rockets, whose local design and construction are considered one of the merits of the occupation, if it had any merits, they are the only means the Palestinians have found to make the Israelis cram into their shelters and spend the night in anxiety over the shelling, and gives sufficient pride to the Palestinians to deprive every Israeli of sleep, even if they don’t land on them.

Finally, victory will be to those on the side of truth, even if Israel destroyed all of Gaza, and killed hundreds let alone thousands, because Palestinians will increase at a ratio that alarms the Israelis who will no longer find peaceful time to multiply.

Let us take as an admonition God’s word: “And indeed Our Word has already gone forth for Our bondsmen who were sent. That, undoubtedly, only they would be helped. And surely, only Our army would be victorious. Therefore, turn away from them for some time, and watch them, for they will soon see. So are they being impatient for Our punishment? So when it does descend in their courtyards – so what an evil morning it will be for those who were warned!” (Saffat:171-177) And God is behind the endeavor.