I fear the violence will get worse, much worse
6:50pm
Mostly I am feeling too depressed about what's happening in Gaza to even find words to comment on it. Civil war has been looming for so long, and yet I kept hoping against hope that it wouldn't actually break; that somehow, something would change to divert things from their inexorable path.
For once, on this bleakest of days, I find it hard not to want to blame the Palestinians themselves. The roots of their desperation and grievance may lie in the economic, political and social prison they have been forced into by a combination of Israeli policy and international compliance, but truly, how can this most sickening of internecine wars do anything but damage the legitimacy of their cause?
I don't understand. I have met people in Hamas, people in Fatah, and I know they want peace - with each other, and with Israel. My Palestinian friends and acquaintances are some of the most intelligent, reasonable and hopeful people I know. How is this happening? And what can we do about it? What can anyone do about it?
I went to a deputy leadership debate earlier this afternoon in which the situation in Palestine was discussed and candidates were asked outright if they thought it was time to recognise the National Unity Government. Whilst they were all careful not to veer too far off the official party line, it became very clear that they all found some degree of inconsistency and hypocrisy in the fact that we are asking Hamas to recognise Israel when Israel won't return the favour (and nor will we). People will be quick to lay all the blame at Hamas' feet - they're an easier target than our 'allies' Fatah, after all. But they were, let us not forget, democratically elected in January 2006 - while the US and UK's rallying cries for democracy in the Middle East were still ringing in the world's ears.
Maybe, just maybe, if we had not exercised a total embargo on Hamas which, the aid of the TIM notwithstanding, has further crippled the livelihood of the Palestinian people; maybe if we had given support to the National Unity Government when they genuinely took steps to try and find a workable way of governing the Palestinian Authority together; maybe if we had shown the courage to extend our 'dialogue' - which, as Harriet Harman pointed out, we have nurtured with Israel even as Israel have continued to build a part-illegal wall and wholly illegal settlements - to the Palestinians; maybe this final devastating development could have been stopped. But we didn't, and it hasn't.
And, as civil war will no doubt spread beyond the prison walls of Gaza, unleashing, I fear, the worst violence we have ever seen in the region, we may all come to feel the consequences of that. The problems in the Middle East are all interlinked, and although not everything in the region would have been cured by an Israel-Palestine peace - nothing, nothing will be cured without it.
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Comments
Toby Belch
June 14th, 2007 7:49pmThat Camp David deal doesn't look so bad now, does it?
gandalf
June 14th, 2007 9:16pmFor once, on this bleakest of days, I find it hard not to want to blame the Palestinians themselves. Maybe you're on to something here! The Palestinians head-shooting their prisoners may actually be responsible for their actions. And if that's true, maybe the Israelis aren't so dumb after all?
Lee Jakeman
June 14th, 2007 10:25pmSo you've finally woken up to the fact that people really are responsible for their own destiny. It's just a pity that you've woken up 60 years too late.
Simon Allen
June 15th, 2007 2:14amWow! A British journalist acknowledging that the Palestinian's problems are the result of their own actions. Now I have seen everything. The Palestinians have consistently done the most stupid and counter-productive thing at every opportunity. This civil war is just more of the same. Why does the West not intervene to help us? They ask. Well, I never got on a plane worried that it may be blown up by an Israeli. I have never seen a Jewish suicide bomber either. These people need to show some discipline and intelligence otherwise they will continue to live in their current wretched state for generations to come.
aaron
June 15th, 2007 8:11amyou begin by saying you find it hard not to blame the Palestinians themselves and then proceed to blame everyone else except for the Palestinians. See, it wasn't so hard after all.
Og
June 15th, 2007 8:52amWith the greatest respect, how long have you been conscious of the Palestinian imbroglio? This strikes me as a hopelessly naive piece. There is nothing hypocritical in Israel's position - when it dealt with Fatah, it offered them a deal that was generous enough to cost Barak his job (though the fool Arafat turned it down and has a sea of blood on his hands as a result). Why should Israel deal with Iran/Hamas? Tnere would be absolutely no point. I suggest Israel do a West Bank deal with Fatah and let Gaza stew in its own festering juices until Hamas caves in.
RK
June 15th, 2007 11:21am"For once, on this bleakest of days, I find it hard not to want to blame the Palestinians themselves." Amazing. Even when gunmen are executing their own people in the street you struggle to find them culpable for their actions. You then incredibly come to the conclusion that the outside world’s failure to support the unity government is responsible! Hamas may well want peace but their failure to comply with the quartet conditions showed us that they are not yet ready to compromise and without this conversion to pragmatism and reason they well never have it.
Nick Biskinis
June 15th, 2007 5:58pmWhy the surprise? There was always tension between the more nationalist secular Fatah and the fundamentalist Hamas, who wants an Islamic (as opposed to Arab) state (so the Christian contingent of the Palestinian politik are out). The tensions between Hamas and Fatah go back long before the embargo on the Hamas governement in 2006. The Western Left narrative only sees violence in Palestine as purely 'Israeli', whilst steadily ignoring the extremism within Palestinian political factions and the manifestation of this (suicide bombings in Israel, killings of Palestinians who were seen to breach Islamic custom etc) . It's tragic but given the level of violence cultivated in the Palestinian Territories for years, no one should be surprised that civil war could take place. When extremism grows eventually it will turn in on itself.