Hamas may provide new solutions

Categories: Wormie Says

Since the Hamas government was sworn into office in February this year, the US and EU has stopped any delivery of aid meant to help the Palestinian people. This is because they were worried that the money may be used by Hamas to fund terror attacks against Israel. Israel on its part has refused to hand over the money collected as taxes on behalf of the Palestinians. This have left many Palestinian government workers without pay. No money will be handed out until and unless Hamas renounces violence and accept the state of Israel.

This policy may back fire on the West and Israel. By withholding the money, ordinary Palestinians will suffer. With more and more hunger and hardship, these people will become more and more desperate. With desperation, they will be easily convinced that the West is against the Muslim world. Now the hardliners can even show proof of such hatred. When the mind and the body is weak, it is easier to persuade any normal rational Muslim into doing things they normally frown upon. In short, moderates will become extremists.

A more important question regards the status of an elected government. For years, the US had been urging the Palestinian authority to conduct elections. They had felt that an election will give the people a chance to influence the course of governing. With the passing of Yasser Arafat, whom the Israeli and the US government blamed as the obstacle for peace in Middle East, his successor, Mr Abbas, agreed to an election which was conducted in December 2005. However to US and Israel's horror, Hamas which was classified as a terrorist group by the US won with the moderate Fatah voted out of office.

So now there is a democratically elected government but by a party not sanctioned by the US. This is a slap on US face. Since this is a democratically elected government why not let them govern and see how things may change. For a few decades when the moderate Fatah party was governing, there had been no headway in the quest for peace. Maybe Hamas can see things from a different angle. Being in government now, their role is different than when they were just a terror group. Now they are answerable to their people to carry out a mandate given by them. Whether they like it or not, they have to create a peaceful coexistance for its people because they know that any terror attack remotely linked to Hamas will mean war to Israel; a war that will certainly mean much destructions to the Palestinians lives. Indeed, after their election victory in December, there had been no suicide attacks linked to Hamas. This is despite their intended destruction of Israel as written in the party constitution.

The Arab League is currently working on a scheme where the Palestinian government workers can be paid directly, by-passing the Hamas government and the local banks. Local Palestinian banks refuses to pay workers because "Arab banks fear that if they were to assist Hamas, the Americans might take steps to freeze them out of the international financial system". Hopefully, this scheme will alleviate much of the hardship experience by all sectors of the Palestinian society.

The Middle East conflict had gone on for many years. This conflict could probably had been averted if the United Nations taken heed of the British warning that carving out Israel in the Arabian peninsula would create a bigger problem than it solved. Let the democratically elected Hamas government try to resolve the conflict from a new perspective. Negotiate with them with an open mind. The use of force, threat and trade sanctions has been proven to fail many times. To avoid Hamas of illegally diverting government funds for terrorism, channel the aids to aid agencies or even the United Nations for its distributions. This way, the Palestinian won't be driven into desperation and will not resort to desperate actions. For, anyone pushed into a corner will react unpredictably.