Is it really peace they want?Palestinian banner. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
There’s an old saying from the Bible that a house divided against itself cannot stand. A divided house also doesn’t make for a very promising peace partner. Some Palestinians may be negotiating a peace deal with Israel, but others are actually calling for violence as an option in resisting the Israelis. This would be very bad for you.
The Palestinian terrorist Hamas group in Gaza on Saturday laid out their vision for handling the conflict with Israel: no negotiations. None. Zip. Zero. Instead, the Ma’an News Agency reported that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for Palestinian factions to band together and consider a range of options regarding Israel, including violence.
“To confront any dangers or possible compromises emerging from negotiations, Palestinian factions and dignitaries should get together and build a Palestinian national strategy,” Haniyeh said. This would include as options the “armed resistance,” protests and aggressive diplomacy.
Regardless, Haniyeh absolutely rejects the negotiations being held, claiming the US is blackmailing the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Haniyeh was quoted by his group’s own website as calling for a new “intifada”—an Arabic word that can be translated as “uprising”—that would include all the Muslim nations. Violence tends to be part of the intifada concept, and the so-called “Second Intifada” against Israel involved numerous suicide bombings.
To reinforce this point, the Hamas website said Haniyeh on Saturday praised the “armed resistance” against Israel in the West Bank region.
In other words, the group leading almost half of the Palestinians is adamantly opposed to talks with Israel and openly supports violence.
That could lead to a surge in violence as negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians continue and may hint at the danger of violence continuing even after a “peace” deal is signed.
Such conflict is not only bad for Middle East stability and oil prices, but Palestinian violence against Israel also tends to set off global violence against Jews. In other words, protests and even violent attacks of anti-Semitism could reach a country near you if things get out of hand in the Palestinian-Israel conflict.
The current Hamas proclamations in favor of violence only reinforce the idea that peace on the ground should be achieved before major concessions are made by Israel.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, October 20, 2013)