The Hamas moderate background, and the way forward, are linked, Jamal A. Khashoggi,

Opinion, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

The Hamas moderate background, and the way forward, are linked,

Jamal A. Khashoggi,

The Daily Star, 6/30/03

After the criminal attack in Riyadh, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) did not hesitate, like some other groups, to condemn the event in the strongest of terms. Khaled Mishal, the head of its political bureau, seemed very disturbed when he called me to transmit the message of regret to be published in my newspaper, Al-Watan, and in particular the attempt by some to link Hamas’ martyrdom operations with Riyadh’s suicide attacks. It is actually very easy for any Western commentator working for a television station like Fox or a pro-Israeli magazine like The National Review to link the two operations to discredit Hamas’ resistance activities.
This demarche by Hamas comes naturally and in tune with its religious and political background, for it belongs to the “mainstream and middle of the road Islamic trend.” Its tenets are at the core of the legitimate Islamic movement and have nothing to do with irreverent and angry movements. It seeks to liberate a nation and build a state, while the nonbelievers want to destroy a nation, unravel a legitimate state, and create discord between them.
Those who know Hamas well also know that it has shielded itself and other Islamic movements in Palestine and in exile against infiltration by extreme and irreverent ideologies. Also, the very few Palestinians who were known to preach irreverence, like Abu Mohammed al-Makdesi or Abu Qatada al-Falastini did not grow up within the movement’s fold but rather within the folds of those who formulated the ideology whose ravages we are now suffering from. The public doubtlessly has noticed that Al-Qaeda and its adjuncts have no Palestinians adherents, although they, among all the Arabs, have the most right to be angry at the USA and Arab regimes. Furthermore, if we go back to the details of how extremist groups were uncovered in Jordan, we would find that they were always caught before they actually committed their act thanks not only to the expertise of the Jordanian intelligence services, but also to local elements of the legitimate Islamic movement closely linked to Hamas, who first gave them the relevant information.
Hamas members know full well the key role that Sheikh Abdullah Azzam played in the establishment of their movement, and only those who do not know him well find it easy to link him to extremism, forgetting, or pretending to forget, his strong stand against the extremism that reared its ugly head in an attempt to discredit the honorable jihadi movement in Peshawer in the two years before his martyrdom. If those who witnessed Peshawer were to look into their historical records, they would find many stories to tell about his steadfast attitude regarding nonbelievers who arrived on the scene, most of whom were unfortunately from Egypt. It is enough to go back to the Friday sermons Sheikh Azzam delivered during those days at the “Sabe al-Leil” Mosque to recall how enlightening they were to the many young men who wanted to make him one of their own. It would be very beneficial indeed if the son of Sheikh Hathifa and his son in law, my good friend Abdullah Anas, were to publish those sermons which contain a clear and relevant message about the current situation from a man whose sincerity no jihadi can ever doubt.
Hamas’ moderate and middle of the road background, which falls into the mainstream of the Islamist movement, makes it imperative that it face up with wisdom and careful planning to the current severe crisis which it and the entire Palestinian cause are going through. The movement has embarked on a state-building project and not on an angry and suicidal reaction that says “I will do what I will and damn the consequences.” It is therefore strange to witness the absence from the scene of the wise men of the Islamic movement to guide and advise their brothers at a time the whole world is at their throat. Fortunately, their absence did not deter others from doing their part, like the Egyptian intelligence services currently playing the role of adviser and counselor, with the approval of the movement. Their laudable role is both nationalistic and courageous, but the truth is that neither they, nor anyone else, holds the key to Hamas’ heart and mind. Those who do hold them are the esteemed sheikhs of the Islamic movement, like the brotherhood’s spiritual guide Mamoun al-Hudaibi and others like Yousef al-Qardawi, Rashed al-Ghannoushi, Najm al-Deen Arbican, Kamal al-Halbawi, Abdallah al-Matou and Jassem al-Yasseen. It is thus very important that a meeting bringing together the aforementioned men as well as various other key Hamas members take place in order to be able to face up to US pressure on the movement.
The latter situation, compounded by the Oslo Accords, as represented by the Palestine National Authority, the presence of a popular majority willing to deal with it and its results, and the stubborn attempt by the US administration to arrive at a solution no matter what it takes, are good reasons to stop at this juncture and help Hamas find its way forward.
The most important subject on the agenda now is a halt to martyrdom operations, the mainstay of Hamas, through which they hoped to duplicate what was achieved by Hizbullah in south Lebanon. However, a trend that does not belong to the mainstream Islamic movement, and has very little if anything to do with Hamas, has hijacked these heroic operations and distorted the meaning of sacrifice through the futility of suicide. As a consequence, international public opinion no longer saw Palestinian resistance as a struggle for a just cause but rather as killing for the sake of killing, akin to Bali, Riyadh and Casablanca.
That is why we should be courageous enough to question the logic of continuing with these types of operations. Hamas’ abandonment of its armed struggle does not mean abandoning its resistance to occupation, for resistance could take many forms, one of them being nonviolence. What is strange is that we reject that notion without even discussing its merits. Listen to Jawdat Saeed, that old man who has been preaching for decades the merits of that positive option; maybe he can teach us some wisdom. The culture of nonviolence has succeeded elsewhere, so why not also in Palestine? The steadfastness and resistance of three million Palestinians on their own soil is very irksome to the occupier and consequently every rebuilt home, new school, clinic or business is further resistance and poses a long term challenge to Israel. There is not an iota of violence in any of these activities except on the part of Israel.
The wisdom of the spiritual leaders of the Islamic Movement and their tendency to moderation are guaranteed to lead them to an astute decision that will spare Hamas and the Palestinian cause the ravages of a raging storm that could eventually lead to inner fighting and leave a negative imprint on the people. The US administration is in a bind and no longer sees things straight enough to follow the right “road map” for peace. It is being guided by the Israeli Likud and the Christian Zionists who are misleading it and directing it toward the belief that “Hamas is the enemy of peace,” to encourages it to adopt plans to annihilate the movement.
The American administration will realize, however, once it is too late, and after inflicting a lot of pain and creating many victims, that Hamas is a national movement that exists and acts within the daily fabric of Palestinian society, and has neither military bases nor weapons of mass destruction waiting to be uncovered. It will also come to realize that Hamas came to be as a result of the people’s daily suffering, their hatred of occupation, their love of life and their belief in God. We have to realize that US President George W. Bush wants a solution that puts an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict regardless whether it is just or not, for he came to realize that he is the reason for the hatred of the Arabs and Muslims for America, even if he does not openly admit it; therefore, any solution that pleases him will be a just one in his eyes.
The need for a permanent solution is therefore the only clear and evident thing in front of Bush, as far as Palestine is concerned. That is why it is time for us to see things as they are and to realize that the situation is both serious and dangerous, and that existential decisions are about to be made.
The pragmatism of Hamas and the astuteness of the Islamic Movement that surrounds it should convince us of the wisdom of the strategy of “minimizing our losses as much as possible,” and, God willing, we will triumph in the end.

Jamal A. Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and former editor in chief of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Watan newspaper, writes a regular commentary for The Daily Star

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).