A recent debate I participated in yielded the conclusive statement: “now is not the time for it.” It really got me thinking, whenever there is a crisis in this region, everyone socially is moved into one corner and an emergency circle is drawn. Anyone not in the circle must be punished, broken down, and brought in to the circle or outcast from that circle. This latest crisis in Gaza is another example of it. We are all of a sudden, flag-waving, Hamas-loving, Israeli-hating, song-singing, slogan-chanting, flag-burning patriots. And we wear our black and white kaffiyeh as proof of it.
And none of those physical manifestations matter to me very much. It’s when someone says something that is not in line with the sudden emergency-ideology that I begin to worry. That group of people believes in a list of things and you could agree with 98% of their general line of thinking, but express one little thought outside those realms and you are suddenly typecast as someone who wants to see Palestinian babies die. Or worse: you just don’t care.
I’ve been noticing it in the way people talk, argue and confront of each other. There are no debates, just arguments and confrontations. Whether online or in the real world. It is a strict, with-me or against-me state of mind. I’ve seen the most patriotic Palestinians I know express their distaste for Hamas’s role in this crisis and they are suddenly deemed to be traitors.
Your arguments suddenly become about everything you didn’t say. And if your argument ends up being rational, you’ll get a response of: now is not the time for it.
And what they really mean by that is, now is the time to unify behind a single state-of-mind. It doesn’t matter if you’re wrong or right, just as long as you don’t disagree with the general consensus. It is the war mentality. The one that says, if your country is at war, it is unpatriotic to be critical of anything it does or says. And while Jordan isn’t at war, it’s people might as well be.
It’s troubling because this is partly the aftermath of such a conflict: whenever Israel attacks, it forces everyone on the Arab street to an extreme. It’s either “with us” or “with them” and if you are really “with us” then that means you have to accept a list of beliefs you may not entirely agree with, just to prove you’re not “with them”.
This extreme environment is so overwhelming that nothing can be discussed during times of crises. We are all part of a collective entity with more extremist positions or, rather, more extremist tendencies towards keeping true to those positions. Israel forces us there, but we keep each other there. They are powerful enough to change the way we think with every action they take, but we allow ourselves to change.
We declare our own mental state-of-emergency, and it’ll last a few weeks after the crisis is over, maybe even a few months. It may take a year of relative calm before we return to some sort of “normal”, “middle-ground” thought. Our elastic-selves.
Until then, while we’re all raving mad and shaking our fists in the air, maybe there should be a moratorium on debates or arguments concerning the who whole Palestine issue.
We should also place a moratorium on other words like Hamas, Fatah and unity. Two-state solution, peace treaty, peace and resistance included.
Great post. I think the phrase ‘mental state-of-emergency’ is very important/
Have you heard of an Italian philosopher called Giorgio Agamben? He writes about the ‘State of Exception’ as an important idea for understanding how power structures (like governments) increase their power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Agamben#State_of_Exception_.282005.29
Seems to me like your critique of people shuting down their own free thinking also applies to our global states of emergency e.g. the so-called war on terror, and now the credit crunch’…
dan
Love the title!
I was living in Jordan at the inception of the 2000 Intifada and the atmosphere was very much like the one you describe in your post. Furthermore, amongst some groups of people, if you were of non- (paternal) palestinian background or western-raised there’s that unspoken pressure to have to go the extra mile in expressing rage and shutting up about pretty much everything else out of concern of becoming “typecasted” a certain way as you state.
What you’re describing here can also be said of the blogosphere…is it ok to blog about the Gaza issue in non emotionally filled manner, or to blog about something else yet without being labeled apathetic yet or not….
Of course “it is not the time for it”!!
imagine doctors at the operating table for a patient with a heart procedure, lying there between life and death, and his family waiting outside in agony, and the doctors without any empathy telling them and the patient, that it was his fault, he brought it upon himself; he smoked so much!!! How in-human should that be?!!
I think it is the time for it. The way Hamas and Fatah were allowed to behave or have behaved is part of the problem. I think the best thing that could happen now would be for both leaderships of Hamas and Fatah to get the hell out of there and leave the people alone to determine their future. Thats the only way we can move forward. Both Hamas and Fatah only do things to benefit themselves and that is not what is needed.
Ofcourse Israel is to blame from the get go for creating Hamas and creating more extermism, but having said that, we need to get rid of the bad on both sides.
If now “is not the time for it”, then when is the time appropriate?
Maybe it is not the time for a blame game, but it is the time for critically evaluating the strategies, objectives, intentions, and actions of each and every party involved.
I respectfully disagree with your analogy Lass. Gaza is not a homogeneous entity (i.e. a dying patient). There are competing structures, institutions, and ideologies at play. Of course, the population is suffering. So is Hamas. Although they are intricately connected, they are not the same!
We must understand that although resistance, freedom, and self-defense are at play, the quest for POWER is central for Hamas, Fatah, Israel, Libya, France, etc etc. Everyone is capitalizing on this situation, no matter how dire it is. As horrible as this sounds, this is politics, and that is why now is the time for it!
We are falling into the exact same trap the Americans did after 9/11(which, by the way, we are continuously bashing them for!)
well im not so extreme to say anyone who disagrees with hamas is a traitor (as long as they dont tell me abbas is the right alternative cuz that guy IS a traitor im sorry) .. but i do agree with the “now is not the time” argument .. i just think its in bad taste to be discussing and pointing fingers from our comfort zones while the blood is flowing and the resistance is fighting .. once the operation stops then we can talk our heads off ..
Nas, you have articulated what for me is the tertiary tragedy of this crisis. I can usually operate outside of most of the cultural mores of society, but this one has got me in exactly the same place you describe.
sadly, what you are saying Nas is very true! Well said.
Great post.. although I totally agree with Arabi, it is time for it, now is the time for it.
Extremists are everywhere, and their viewpoints are being expressed the whole time, but we don’t see it on daily basis because we tend to engage in political issues or any other only when it’s the most “talked-about†issue, we feel we are obliged to impose our opinion regardless of how true and proper it was.
That’s our problem when it comes to debating, we never debate, we just impose our views and don’t even show interest in what the other party has to say, and YET, we insist to provoke others with silly arguments based on misinterpretations and ignorance that unfortunately happen to be not heir own!
Even those who never were really involved in such political debates are now stimulated to speak out about it because everyone is, and their conversations are usually based on what they’ve been hearing, so basically it isn’t their point of views they tend to express after all. And those would never be able to make sense.
In any case, extremists are there and have been there ever since. We just make them sound even more extreme and ugly when we try to get across the wrong message or even emphasize on it.
Thank you
http://www.acililaclama.com/pire_ilaclama.html
Thank you for your thoughts. I start my day with your words, and spend my day thinking about them.
Play 99.6 is giving a concert on the 17th at The Courtyard with Palestinian and Jordanian artists. All proceeds will go to Gaza. It is called “Gaza Calling, A Charity Concert” at
http://play.jo/blog/gaza-calling-the-charity-concert/
Thank you again for your inspiring efforts.
What bothers me more than anything about this extremely emotional heard of sheep is that when all the extreme emotions cool down they will go back to being mostly.. just a heard of sheep, the experience doesn’t enlighten or open their minds.
Don’t you think that it really is NOT the time?
Maybe “its” time should never come?
What’s wrong with our “war mentality”? Why can’t it be our true mentality all life long?
Without this war mentality this wouldn’t have happened…
http://www.black-iris.com/2009/01/02/the-gaza-campaign-part-i/
or this…
http://ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleNO=32676
Or many many simliar “war efforts”
When was the last time you’ve seen so many Jordanians/ Arabs/ Muslims agreeing on something? ANYTHING? yet they all agree on this one thing, they all are together in this one thing.
True Hamas mishandled this situation and almost everything that led to this, and we agree on that, but that doesn’t even qualify as an excuse for all this slaughter and THAT’s what we should care about now….We’ll have enough time to blame each other after the killing has stopped…
If the war mentality keeps all focused and united regardless of who is “7amsawi” or “Fat7awi” then by all means I hope we always stay in war…Because we are.
BTW “your” != “you’re” 🙂
Good post Nas…You hit the nail on the head…
If I was to give my honest opinion on the whole issue I would be branded as and Israeli spy…So I would prefer to keep my thought to myself, watch how events unfold and if my conclusions are correct.
visit http://www.aaramnews.com for the excellent analysis and coverage of the Gaza crisis.
Peace
Over’n’Out
Lass: that’s probably my second biggest problem with all this…those analogies and metaphors that people shove down our throats and are completely inapplicable to the real life situation. (but your point is well taken)
Hameed: than you for simultaneously pointing out my typos while making my point for me. that’s a first.
mo: i would agree with the “now is not the time” to debate anything if it was in the context of “now is not the time to talk politics while…”, but it’s not. instead, it’s in the context of “now is not the time to disagree with my politics while…”
“Hameed: than you for simultaneously pointing out my typos while making my point for me. that’s a first.”
I am afraid you didn’t get my point, I am not telling you not think or to think later, I am not accusing you of unloyalty, I am simply asking you not to waste time on the blame game.
Imagine what would happen if we really stopped thinking “those” thoughts, stopped thinking who is to blame, stopped thinking politics and started thinking how can we help?
I still don’t see what wrong with that…
While you guys slandering and blaming Hamas ,the Israeli public having fun watching Gaza burning
What a bunch of losers and fakers!
Hameed: this isn’t about the blame game. i’m not whittling down the entire thought process of a people to a single question of “who should we blame?” there are many thoughts and beliefs when it comes to this issue. going down to any of the protests one can see how they collide.
I think that it always helps to ask who is benefiting from the situation. Diala is 100% correct in seeing the correlation between the sentiment of us vs them in the US post 9/11, and here now. Obviously it is with an astrix(*), but it is a good place to start. Picturing anything in plain black and white is always going to lead to trouble. This situation is one of the most complicated in recent political history, and it is going to require a different kind of thinking to solve the problem, than the kind it took to get into it.
There are a lot of similarities between Hardliners on all sides. Bush saying “you are either with us, or against us” sounds a lot like what I am hearing in streets of my village today.
Developing some kind of loud moderate voice on this (and many other) issues is the only way to educate a seemingly uncaring world population to the plight of 1.5 million Gazans. Flexibility is the key to true debate, that and empathy. And you can have really good debate while moving boxes of medicine to trucks, its not hard. Now is always the time.
If the moderates are drowned out by voices like this in the western media
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/06/gaza.alqaeda/index.html
then there will be a lot less good will from that side of the world. Many people in the west are on the side of palestinians, its just the leaders who are not. The debates are just as heated in Iowa as they are here.
Elmashkalgyee, not all the people is Israel are in favor of whats going on:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/417186.html
” Imagine what would happen if we really stopped thinking “those†thoughts, stopped thinking who is to blame, stopped thinking politics and started thinking how can we help? ”
– whats the agenda here? help in what? is there an exclusive way of helping Gaza or the Palestinian Cause?
“I still don’t see what wrong with that…”
– Its all about grassroots and capacity building.
Jota: with all due respect…when the president tells the citizens to leave…where is their destination supposed to be? israel has created a prison out of gaza for years. are they supposed to flee to the desert or to the corner of this cage like a scared animal?
secondly, hamas is a militia. this isn’t an organized army of a nation. a militia by definition is made up of the citizenry who are mobilized to fight and resist. every time israel kills palestinians, it creates 10 more recruits. in its most simplistic form, it is a revolutionary struggle against an occupying force and revolutionaries always outlast and out-die occupiers every single time.
and can we stop with the “israel is defending its people” – at this point that phrase has become a product someone is selling that no one is buying.
it’s just false advertising.
@ Hameed
isn’t it possible to criticize hamas for their way of doing warfare (e.g. using women and children as human shields) and in the same time donate to the people in gaza? why not? can empathy only evolve when it is connected to this ridiculous “with us or with them”-scheme? honestly i think most kind of war crimes rely heavily on that scheme, because one doesn’t question one’s own actions anymore, no matter what they look like. as long it helps us an is against them…
I thought Hamas was also the only democratically elected government in any Arab state (besides being a militia), lately. I could be wrong, as I am not as up to speed as I likely should be.
On one hand, you are right. Indigenous revolutionaries fighting occupiers of a different ethnicity and culture almost always win.
But one the other hand, there are examples to the contrary:
the IRA got co-opted into the peace process. now there is the line in the sand in Northern Ireland, and the IRA has turned into the Sein Fein political wing? Boliva, Haiti, and the US and Canada (ask an Indian) just to name a few.
On the third hand (the one i use to type) , it does not always take militarization. Gandhi basically shamed the British into leaving the subcontinent by effectively understanding his enemy (British imperialism) and using weapons appropriate for the cause. The thoughts on this thread I think are a great example of that. Check out all the different takes. The emergency state of mind puts blinders up to all the possibilities. It is hard to escape when we see people dying though.
I’ve never been one to buy into the “with us or against us” ideology… you can’t look at the world in black and white, because nothing ever neatly fits neatly into one category.
I don’t understand people who seem to think that being critical of Hamas is somehow being supportive of the Israelis… it is actually possible to be critical of both, believe it or not. My sympathy does not lie with a faction, with a political entity, with an ideology or a religion… my sympathy lies with the innocent people of Gaza, my fellow Palestinians, who are being slaughtered in the hundreds, and are being collectively punished, as they have been since 1967.
But, at the same time, Hamas has not helped in any shape or form. I will never accept an organisation which claims to be a resistance movement that seeks to help the Palestinian people, but at the same time ceases power for itself and acts in such a self-serving manner. This applies to both Hamas and Fatah, who are more concerned with serving themselves than the Palestinian people. It is just one example of the biggest problem plaguing us Palestinians and most Arabs: a lack of solid leadership.
And regarding now “not being the time”, now is the best time. Another big problem we’ve always had is that we are always the underdogs in the PR department. If not is not the time for us moderates to actually speak up and show that we do not conform to the extremes of one side, and that our sympathy lies with those innocents being slaughtered and starved and not with an organization, then when is?
The world will be quick to forget this even happened when it is over, as it always does… you just need to look at the way the Western media reports things, as if history started yesterday, to see that. There is no better time to stand and make our voices heard than now, because in a few months time nobody will be listening.
I don’t think that this has to do with Hamas or Fatah or any political agenda, it is Israel who is incorporating politics into this matter. Sadly, this is an exclusive quest of justice and human rights.
It was the people of Gaza who withstood the blockade, who chose their destiny, who are now rebelling against decades of in-justice, and they are there under the raids because somehow they know how to stand for their rights and to demand their freedom. It is a costly war for them, it is perplexing for us, but it’s an honest sincere quest for freedom. For them, it is not about Hamas; they never care about Fatah. All these political entities are not the issue. Whatever colour we choose for their genuine quest is our issue, not theirs.
This is about fighting a tyranny that is wanting to wipe out their identity from the face of the earth, an act that triggered angry voices to shout all over the world, because the voices that spoke in favour, figured the humane face of this tragedy – for the people who still talk about the fake politics involved, let them talk shall they may. When abducted humanity and integrity cries in pain, politics might take the pain away, but will it cure the disease? Let’s hope so!
i would agree with the “now is not the time†to debate anything if it was in the context of “now is not the time to talk politics while…â€, but it’s not. instead, it’s in the context of “now is not the time to disagree with my politics while…â€
semantics my dear nas … and yes now is not the time to disagree with hamas either … not as long as they are under fire … imo …
anyway all we ever do is talk anyway so might as well … who cares what time it is … let the people talk all they want … your words will not change anything … and that goes for everyone … regardless of what side they’re on
Hamas has vowed to continue the rockets for months – if they truly cared about their population this should not be their stance. No country as powerful as Israel would allow a continuous stream of rockets to be fired into their cities. Hamas wants this war – they thrive on the war mentality.
It is true that now no one wants to argue the finer points of the conflict – it’s ‘pick a side’ time. I am often critical of Israel but this War to me seems provoked by Hamas (Israel did play a big part) and if Palestinians truly don’t want war then they are going to have to be critical of their government at some point.
Jota ,,your are pointing out to the tiny minority and Am speaking out of overwhelming majority and here is prove http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/picnic-of-blood-and-corpses.html
It is the time to expel that Zionist in Amman and close the embassy once and for good ,it is the time to send food , weapons and volunteers to fight along the resistence, it is time to force the reactionary puppet government to stop conspiring against the resistence, i t time to force Husni Mubarak to stop his alliance with criminal racist regime in Zionist land ;it is time to stand up to the right of the resistance whether it’s Islamist, leftist, of secular it is time to speak truth to power where it may be,it is time to scream and raise the voices of the oppressed every where ,it time to be accountable in front of the people ; it is time to show the crimes of the Zionist entity, it is time to go out and take the streets and demand real democratic change in our countries ,it is time for hard work and sacrifices like the resistence in Gaza, it is time to honor our children who are falling victims of
Isreali’s mayhem and carnage, it is time to bring logic to the discussion ,it is time to fight for justice because justice is the mother of all peace
AND IT IS TIME TO EXPELL THE ISRAELI EMBASSODOR AND CANCEL THIS Shamefully surrender treaty that the elites signed without asking the public, it IS TIME TO TELL THE ZIONIST ENOUGH OF YOUR CRIMES!
some people expressed their dissatisfaction with my comment about how its not ok to criticize hamas at this point in time so let me rephrase that .. its ok to hate hamas, but its certainly not ok to want them to lose this war .. and here those same ppl will say but its not a war on hamas u buffoon .. but i beg to differ
Carlo,
I will not ask you to read 100 years of middle east history. Just check from 2006 and review what happened since. I do not agree with Hammas’s approach, but the stress to terminate any voice who tries to reach conflict resolution in a way that Israel sees it not in their interest.
Though any resolution of this conflict would not be fair, since fair is terminating Israel and compensating the Palestinians for the last 60 years and the era of English colonization.
AJ,
Our suffering did not start in 1967 as that drops the right of return to the 6 million refugees. It officially started in 1948, and 60 years before in conspiring.
to arabi comment num4
you just cant get rid of the bad in each side ,and you cant let people live without a leadership ,and you cant blame neither hamas nor fateh for what is going on and leave isreal out of it,thats what they want us to think ,as for you mr naseem ,iam sorry to tell you that its really not time for it .if wearing a black and white kofiah,singing songs is bathering us ,,,,,,,,,,just look around and thank allah its all we have to do,not sleep ,eat, live (if there was a life )under the fire ,iam welling to memorise 100 of songs ,wear 10 kofiahs red and white get into 100 of debates ,fight with my friends just to give the children of ghaza the peace of mind they deserve.
thanks
بعض المعلقين يصÙون الشعوب والاأÙراد الذين يقومون بواجبهم الاأنساني تجاه شعبÙاً مظلوم بقطيع من الغنم،،ياللغزي والعار
This is supposed to be a representation of Arab moderates?
Gods help you.
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the world map , Is why Alaska is separated from the USA mainland by another country (Canada), I found that it was bought later on.
You see now its the same for the Palestinians divided between Gaza and West Bank , Israel wants to integrate it with Egypt so when someone like me pops this question he wouldn’t find the truth on why the Palestinians lands are divided in such a way as in USA and Alaska.
Israel might achieve its objective (Ethnic cleansing and brainwashing) if the Arab leaders are not thinking enough or pressured and by getting world sympathy about the Palestinians civilians they bomb , this way they can attract both Arabs and international community to approve integrating Gaza with Egypt to end the planned massacre.
If Israel objective was to end rocket fire or kill “Terrorists” they could have used special forces instead of 100 meters wide explosion missiles and white phosphorus bombs.
first of all Naseem,im becoming a regular costumer of you blogs,thnx for that
I’m trying to read all the reply’s searching for a word,a word that Sais bottom line…
half the road i gave up…i’ve been fighting my half the road reading habit…i think it’s really bad
but I truly believe beyond all talk beyond all blames…
isn’t there a clear msg,the israel is trying to kick out any Arab soul from that perfect land…
no matter what reasons they find to do that,though recently there not needing much
isn’t that the bottom line?
It is not a new phenomenon. The generation that lived in the 60s know how any criticism or even a doubt of the “strategy” of Abdul Naser was a crime. In the end the Arab war was faught on Radio only. In 1990 and in 2003 all the Arab world rallied behind Saddam and it was not acceptable even to question the effeciency of his war tactics, if there were any at all. The same in 2006 with Hizbullah and the same in 2008-2009.
No one is questioning the sincerity of Hamas but it should be legitimate to ask about the real political gain behind this enormous cost of human lives in Gaza. This is not even allowed by the majority of people. One of Hamas leaders today asked for a air networking system for providing Hamas with weapons by Arab countrues? is he kidding or what? Are Hamas’ war approach being based onj such naive assumptions?
The Israeli army is nothing but a bunch of psychpaths and criminals with extreme power. The resistance is great and should be admired but again the real meaning of this war is not clear and the amount of political gains for palestinians is not adequate to the great amount of sacrifices committed. But as you said, this is not the time for this argument, and there will NEVER be such a time, so the whole horrible tragedy will happen again.
To the people who are not informed and brained washed by Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford
Ya Batir,,, What would the French resistance had done to get ride of the Nazis occupation of their country ,ya Batir fighting them with french bread ,baguettes and french cheese,ya Bastir,what would the American revolutionaries had done to fight the Britsh with hot dogs ya Batir, what would the Algerian resistance would had done to end the french occupation of their country with couscous, ya Batir,what would the vietnamese Resistance would had done to get ride of the American occupation of their country ,use steamed rice to shell the American position ya Batir what would the Palestinian resistance would do to liberate their country from one of the most brutal occupation , ya Batir, make rockets from Mujadarah, Bosaraha and صوريخ Ù…Øشيه بزعتر والزيت،
Batir you just keep amazing me with your pontifications…
batir said ..
The resistance is great and should be admired but again the real meaning of this war is not clear and the amount of political gains for palestinians is not adequate to the great amount of sacrifices committed.
if this war succeeds in making the international community start talking to hamas then that is a victory .. at least then we will have a real representative who was elected by the people not some puppet who just follows orders like abbas .. few arabs could say that btw .. actually no arabs can say that .. death and destruction is bad but that’s israel’s fault nobody else’s
There is no dispute that Israel does not need an excuse for its rampage and killing and I know that the only factor that can restrain Israel is the fact that it may pay a high price that is at least half the casualties suffered by the Palestinians. With the current ratio of 100:1 of victims Israel will seek more blood.
Al Mashkalhi, the common factor about all those resistence movements you mentioned was the mere fact they had a PLAN. They knew exactly what their purpose is, and all the sacrifices that were shown in the fight against occupation was rewarded with a political gain that eventually led to freedom. Is the current status and balance of force enough for a victory?
As for the political gains that can arise from this massacre, you only need to look at Mo’s comment saying “if this war succeeds in making the international community start talking to hamas then that is a victory “. This victory does not need total destruction of Gaza and the killing of 1000 people including 300 children subjected to the brutal Israeli war machine.
I respect your opinions and your perspective that is based on the need for mass martyrdom to lead to freedom, but I also belive in the sacred values of Life and that any “resistance” to occupation should have a clear military/political plan that justifies the big human cost. I may be wrong, and this is why I prefer to to engage with this debate for all the good reasons Nas mentioned in this post.
As for the political gains that can arise from this massacre, you only need to look at Mo’s comment saying “if this war succeeds in making the international community start talking to hamas then that is a victory “. This victory does not need total destruction of Gaza and the killing of 1000 people including 300 children subjected to the brutal Israeli war machine.
__________________
no batir it does .. it shouldn’t .. but it does .. see the world tried overthrowing them .. when that didnt work they tried starving the palestinian people to make them turn against hamas .. when that didnt work they decided to just flat-out kill them .. and that doesn’t seem to be working either .. so?
note that to get the world talking to hamas is not the goal .. it is what hamas will accomplish for the palestinian people once it becomes recognized .. however if after being recognized hamas accomplishes nothing and takes the same road as the current PA (i.e. sells out) then we can say that all these people died in vain and we can curse hamas the same way we curse abbas and his gang
very nice post.
I am inclined to sympathize more with Hamas than with Fatah since they are behaving like a caged animal, looking tirelessly for recognition after being denied this legitmate right, tbh. I am not their biggest fan and I am a less fan of the current representors of hijacked Fatah.
but the truth remains, Hamas was not given peace of mind or time to run the palestinian terrotories for many factors. Having said that, one of their biggest mistakes(Hamas) is sometimes they get too big-headed for their own good, whether that is because of outside factors or the fact that they do not have any experience in polictics play a part, I think both. I hated when Khaled Messhal made a very immature annoucement against Fatah, he didn’t expect the chaotic protests that followed in Gaza universities. He should be aware that he is not an ordinary palestinian person lashing out against Fatah but a man of authority thus his words hold more weight and responsibility. I am hoping he learned from this obvious mistake.
I think the reason why many have this “you are either with us or against us” is because these times are quite emotional and wars polarize emotions and extreme reactions by its nature, yes i do believe people shouldn’t be extremely critical of Hamas in their comfort zone when Hamas fighters are doing their best to resist in the beseiged Gaza. It is also disheartening when I hear some holding Hamas responsible for the killings in Gaza and NOT israel. Yes, Hamas is by no means perfect but the way some people speak is almost as if Hamas fighters are the ones killing Gazans and not israelis. No matter how disappointing Hamas or Fatah or whomever palestinian faction is, the biggest problem IS israel and the israel seige and the israeli occupation.
about the whole Hamas/Fatah using this onesided onslaught for their political gains. It is true, they are. Politics is dirty. All political groups in the word use the results of wars for their own political gain. What Hamas clearly wants after this war is “inclusion in authority” and it is their legitmiate right being the electecd party, too bad it wasn’t handed to them in the most peaceful way thats why things turned out bad for them reputation-wise. What Fatah wants is to “reenter Gaza” again, all these talks by Fayyad of reconstructing Gaza clearly is simply a cover for Abbas and his political faction to enter Gaza again to reinstate their political power.
my biggest disappointment of this war is no doubt Abbas, what he said about the resistance “being futile” and unneeded, is the one I never expected to hear from a supposedly palestinian leader. He could have helped win some of his lost popularity back, but he continues to further delegitimize himself.
Arafat(god bless his soul) was both negotiating and resisting, as long as occupation exists , all options were and must be available. his sight was spot on the problem, the problem was the occupation. that goes also for Ahmad Yassin(god bless his departed soul) when he forbid palestinian blood(fighting against eachother). both were killed, and if they were alive, things would have never turned out this bad, they were too wise for this. oh well.
and this is what all palestinians should think like, we should be open to all OPTIONS, and what Abbas showed in this horrible tragedy/crisis, that he is not up to the responsibility, he is soooo obsessed with negotations and convinced that they are the only ONLY way to go.
Oh well, we really need new political figures who are up to the responsibility of bearing the just palestinian cause, who are vivid and dynamic, sadly none of the political figures existing now have any of these traits.
this tragedy was completely sad, not only in the humanatarian level(as some are trying to solely paint it) but in the palestinian national view, I have never seen us so fragmented, so weak , so disunited in my entire life. tbh, and I will admit, it seems that some palestinians just wanna live even at the expense of their dignity. we were truly defeated in this one-sided war and I am not talking in a military POV(because that was obvious from day one), but I just never saw us acting in such an unpatriotic way in the last 60 years.
I am completely disappointed in my people this time -_-
and btw it is not of israelis best interest to actually “destory” Hamas, it is the opposite, because if Hamas was hypothetically truly destroyed, palestinian people will no longer blame eachother for their misfortunes and will return focusing in israeli. so by having Hamas/any other opposing faction alive, they are channeling the palestinian effort toward inter-fighting instead of actually reisisting the core of all problems and that is the israeli OCCUPATION.
Regards,