'The need to be dishonest is tragic'

by Hassan A. Barari

Provoked by my article last week on Ariel Sharon's belief in the utility of employing force against the Palestinians, an Israeli friend and right-wing academic, blamed me for failing to articulate that the elimination of Hamas leader is to the benefit of everybody, including Jordan. He assumed that I would agree with his opinion and added that "the need to be dishonest in the Arab world is tragic".

First and foremost, let me clarify that it has been my unwavering conviction that the strategy pursued by Hamas has been detrimental to the Palestinian cause. I have written at length on the need for Hamas to confine its activities within the occupied territories and to discard suicide bombing as a weapon, for both political and moral grounds. Non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation is both necessary and desirable.

Unfortunately, Hamas has played a negative role in the Palestinian noble and legitimate struggle, thus preventing the emergence of a unified Palestinian strategy to contend with the Israeli occupation. It goes without saying that terrorist tactics employed by Hamas have strengthened the right-wing coalition in Israel while concurrently leading to the deterioration of the Palestinian image worldwide.

Hence, in order to help the peace process, weakening Hamas is a must. It hits peace lovers hard when they see how the Israeli prime minister's assassination policy has helped the radical forces within the Palestinian society and undermined the moderates. Eliminating leaders such as Abdelaziz Rantissi can only backfire. Therefore, interpreting my criticism of the assassination policy as "dishonest" is, to say the least, misplaced.

However, I do believe that as long as Sharon's war coalition rules Israel, there will be no chance for peace at all. I do not, of course, back the removal of Sharon by force, but hope that the Israelis will vote him out in coming elections. The failure to rid the region of Sharon and like-minded politicians would only exacerbate the already charged atmosphere. I expect the Israeli elite to be honest at least in this regard.

To my Israeli friend, I would also say that the need to be dishonest is tragic in Israel as well. You cannot be honest while backing the last occupation on earth. You cannot be honest while you support a government that has never worked for peace. It takes a great man to be honest and stop backing a government that has adopted an outdated security doctrine that led to the killing of more than one thousands Israelis over the last three year.

Perhaps it is the time to remind my Israeli friend that Hamas was created by none other than Likud governments in the 1980s, when Likudniks unwittingly thought that the weakening of the national liberation movement lies in strengthening the Islamic elements within the Palestinian society. Undermining this movement can be easily achieved once Israel is keen to empower the moderate forces within Palestinian society. It does not take a prophet to assume that this can be done by withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and by arriving at peace with them.

One last relevant point is that people in our part of the world do not respond positively to suggestions coming from abroad. Given the historical legacy experienced by these people, under colonisation, they tend to perceive any intervention or suggestion of what is supposedly good for them as a colonialist approach, thus deserving to be rejected.

Honesty obliges those who survived the Holocaust or still remember its terrible impact on the Jewish psyche to admit to the historic injustice inflicted on the Palestinians by the Zionist movement. Some post-Zionist Israelis have done so, but the mainstream has not yet. Put differently, dishonesty is on both sides, and hence the tragedy. I hope that my Israeli friend understands now my concept of honesty.

This article originally appeared in the Tuesday, April 27, 2004 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.