A Fearful Truce
The six-month cease-fire agreed to between Israel and Hamas has brought a calm “Fury and Fear” in Israel, and in Gaza ─ “tahadiya,” the Arabic word which means not quite a truce, not quite a cease-fire, but a temporary cessation of hostilities.
Hamas has offered a ceasefire of sorts ─ a hunda. A hunda extends beyond the Western concept of a cease-fire and obliges the parties to use the period to seek a permanent, nonviolent resolution to their differences. A hunda affords the opportunity to humanize one’s opponents and understand their position, with the goal of resolving the inter-tribal or international dispute. “Such a concept ─ a period of non-war but only partial resolution of a conflict ─ is foreign to the West and has been greeted with much suspicion. Many Westerners I speak to wonder how one can stop the violence without the conflict,” said Ahmed Yousef, a senior advisor to the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya. “After all, the Irish Republican Army agreed to halt its military struggle to free Northern Ireland from British rule without recognizing British sovereignty. Irish Republicans continue to aspire to a united Ireland free of British rule, but rely on peaceful methods,” Yousef added.
Hamas has agreed to peace talks. The only question is pre-conditions and a date which can only be agreed to when communicating face to face. Israel and the Palestinians, and other Arab cousins should again join forces and work together the way they used to during the caliphates.
The alternative is civil war in the Palestinian territories and cross-border conflicts with Israel and Egypt. With Egypt because of President Hosni Mubarek’s repression of Hamas’ sister organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, for which Hamas is seeking political concessions by threatening that if Egypt fails to open its border with Gaza, “there will be no border.” Hamas officials getting busted at the border carrying million of dollars in cash, as guns and munitions are smuggled from Egypt to Palestine through tunnels beneath the border only escalate the tension and violence.
It is time to end the fearful truce and embark on the road to a regional permanent peace.
Hamas has offered a ceasefire of sorts ─ a hunda. A hunda extends beyond the Western concept of a cease-fire and obliges the parties to use the period to seek a permanent, nonviolent resolution to their differences. A hunda affords the opportunity to humanize one’s opponents and understand their position, with the goal of resolving the inter-tribal or international dispute. “Such a concept ─ a period of non-war but only partial resolution of a conflict ─ is foreign to the West and has been greeted with much suspicion. Many Westerners I speak to wonder how one can stop the violence without the conflict,” said Ahmed Yousef, a senior advisor to the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya. “After all, the Irish Republican Army agreed to halt its military struggle to free Northern Ireland from British rule without recognizing British sovereignty. Irish Republicans continue to aspire to a united Ireland free of British rule, but rely on peaceful methods,” Yousef added.
Hamas has agreed to peace talks. The only question is pre-conditions and a date which can only be agreed to when communicating face to face. Israel and the Palestinians, and other Arab cousins should again join forces and work together the way they used to during the caliphates.
The alternative is civil war in the Palestinian territories and cross-border conflicts with Israel and Egypt. With Egypt because of President Hosni Mubarek’s repression of Hamas’ sister organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, for which Hamas is seeking political concessions by threatening that if Egypt fails to open its border with Gaza, “there will be no border.” Hamas officials getting busted at the border carrying million of dollars in cash, as guns and munitions are smuggled from Egypt to Palestine through tunnels beneath the border only escalate the tension and violence.
It is time to end the fearful truce and embark on the road to a regional permanent peace.
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 6:10 AM
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