http://news.ft.com/cms/s/8622b5ee-f68a-11da-b09f-0000779e2340,s01=1.html Financial Times June 8, 2006
The writer is a senior fellow on the Middle East at the US's Council on Foreign Relations and a visiting professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The issue is not whether Hamas recognises Israel By Henry Siegman What hope there may still be for avoiding a complete meltdown in the Palestinian occupied territories, not to speak of the hope of ever achieving a two-state solution, lies not with the initiative by Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, to put the two- state formula to a popular referendum but with the ruling Hamas movement's refusal to play by Israel's old rules. Those rules have in effect eliminated the prospect of viable Palestinian statehood and were intended to achieve that end. Hamas is determined that Palestinian recognition of Israel will not come about without Israel's recognition of Palestinian national rights, and that only an end to the occupation and Israel's acceptance of the principle that no changes in the pre-1967 borders can occur without Palestinian agreement (a principle enshrined in the road map that Israel pretends to have accepted) will constitute such recognition. The most widely respected Israeli security expert, Efraim Halevy, believes Israeli and American efforts to overthrow the Hamas regime are misguided. A hawk who headed Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, under five prime ministers and served as Ariel Sharon's national security adviser, Mr Halevy is convinced these efforts damage Israel's vital interests. His view shocked members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations when Mr Halevy addressed them recently in New York. He has held it for some time. In September 2003, he said Israel should signal to Hamas that if it "enter[s] the fabric of the Palestinian establishment, we will not view that as a negative development. I think that in the end there will be no way around Hamas being a partner in the Palestinian government". At that time, when Hamas had the support of only a fifth of the Palestinian population, Mr Halevy said: "Anyone who thinks it is possible to ignore such a central element of Palestinian society is simply mistaken." How much more so today, when Hamas enjoys majority support. Asked last week on Israeli television how he could justify advocating engagement with a terrorist organisation that does not recognise Israel's right to exist, Mr Halevy ridiculed the stale assumptions that underlie that question. Do not look at Hamas's rhetoric, he said, look at what it does: Hamas declared a truce 18 months ago and has committed no terrorist acts against Israel since. In spite of Hamas's refusal to change its theological rejection of Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister in the Hamas-led government, ordered his ministers to seek practical co-operation with their Israeli counterparts. Mr Haniyeh also confirmed that Hamas's self-declared truce is open- ended. [from Ed: As we're aware, Hamas just ended the self- imposed truce, in reaction to the upsurge in assassinations and deadly shellings of Palestinian civilians and militants by Israel. In all likelihood, much as Sharon's triggering of the current intifada by his personally-led raid on a holy shrine, these actions by Israel were designed to allow the killings to now be justified and to dampen the rapidly-growing global opposition to Israeli tactics and policy. In any event, Halevy and Siegman's analyses hold, largely unaffected by current events.] Why should Israel care whether Hamas grants it the right to exist, Mr Halevy asked. Israel exists and Hamas's recognition or non-recognition neither adds to nor detracts from that irrefutable fact. But 40 years after the 1967 war, a Palestinian state does not exist. The politically consequential question, therefore, is whether Israel recognises a Palestinian right to statehood, not the reverse. Using Mr Halevy's criterion of looking at what a government does, not what it says, it is clear that - its many declarations to the contrary not withstanding - Israel does not recognise a Palestinian right to statehood in the West Bank and Gaza. The position of Ehud Olmert's government is that Israel's right to annex at will any parts of Palestinian territory east of the pre-1967 borders supersedes any Palestinian rights. This is implicit in the Israeli government's decision that a Palestinian government that even wishes to place on the agenda of a peace negotiation the territorial changes made unilaterally by Israel in the West Bank, or the question of the Palestinian refugees, cannot be a partner for peace. Israel's "concessions", such as the withdrawal from Gaza and isolated West Bank settlements, are intended to serve narrow Israeli interests. As noted by Peace Now's Settlement Watch, Israel is continuing to thicken its existing settlements and expanding the settlements' territorial boundaries for yet further expansions. In these circumstances, what is puzzling is not Hamas's refusal to accept Israel's dictates but the support given by the international community - particularly by the European Union - to Israeli efforts to isolate and overthrow Hamas. Israel's government has left no doubt that even if Mr Abbas's promised referendum passes by a large majority (indeed, even if Hamas were to sign up to it), Israel will not accept it as the basis for a peace process and will proceed to set its border with the Palestinians unilaterally. Should that turn out to be the case, will European leaders continue their support of Washington's incurable pandering to Israel's rightwing policies, or will they muster the political will to re-engage with the Palestinian Authority and provide the needed political and economic support for the Palestinians' achievement of their national rights? The answer to that question may well determine the future of the entire region. *** Notes from Latin America 1) Chavez to Travel to Panama 2) Bolivia Wants Venezuela in CAN 3) Garcia to Aim for Latin American Unity http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aF2su1N7zr9Q Chavez to Travel to Panama Venezuela's Chavez to Travel to Panama to Broaden Energy Ties June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will travel to Panama on June 22 to broaden energy ties between the two Latin American countries. Talks will center on possible sales of crude and petroleum products to Panama, Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Pavel Rondon said in an interview with the state Bolivarian news agency. Chavez and Panamanian President Martin Torrijos also may discuss building an oil refinery in Panama as well, as the extension of a planned natural-gas pipeline between Venezuela and Colombia to the Central American country, Rondon said. Panama isn't in Venezuela's PetroCaribe initiative, which offers its 13 members petroleum products on preferential terms, cutting out third parties. Countries also are allowed to pay for oil in goods and are offered special financing. http://tinyurl.com/on393 Prernsa Latina June 10, 2006 Bolivia Wants Venezuela in CAN La Paz Bolivian Minister of Foreign Relations David Choquehuanca encouraged attendance of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) Summit to be held next Tuesday in Quito. Caracas says Chavez won´t go, but Choquehuanca says he could, especially considering what his country feels is a necessity to preserve the CAN and the friendship between Venezuela and Bolivia. The leader of the latter, Evo Morales, will assume the CAN presidency at the Quito meeting. Venezuela announced a pullout from that organization a few weeks ago, saying it was mortally wounded by the FTA´s signed by Colombia and Peru with the USA, undermining Andean integration. On a recent trip to La Paz, Chavez proposed moving ahead with the Bolivarian Confederation of Nations, which Morales supported but asked him to put off Venezuela's departure from CAN. http://tinyurl.com/r7wza Prensa Latina June 9, 2006 Peru Garcia to Aim for Latin American Unity Lima Peruvian President-elect Alan Garcia said on Friday that his government, to be inaugurated July 28, will set its foreign policy toward the ongoing Latin American unity. During a press conference for foreign media, the Aprista Party leader said he will subordinate all international relations to this objective. Questioned by Prensa Latina about his stand regarding the free trade agreement with the US, now pending ratification in Congress, he said he will back it as long as it solves the country´s serious social problems. FTA should not be a one-way pact, and we must find a relevant balance in the signing of trade agreements with the European Union and other blocs, he said. Garcia recalled that the EU prefers to negotiate the agreement in the framework of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), so he asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez not to abandon the institution created in 1969. The Peruvian president said he wants a normal relationship with Venezuela. However, he refused to say whether he would appoint an ambassador in the neighbor country. Since the beginning of May, both diplomatic seats have functioned on the level of business consuls. _______________________________________________________ portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. To subscribe: http://lists.portside.org/mailman/listinfo/portside ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> You can search right from your browser? It's easy and it's free. See how. http://us.click.yahoo.com/_7bhrC/NGxNAA/yQLSAA/7gSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
