Tanya Reinhart

De Israelische hoogleraar Tanya Reinhart schrijft: 'THE HAMAS GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED.
Yediot Aharonot, May 31, 2006, translated from Hebrew by Mark Marshall
(quotes and references added).

The Hamas government must be recognized, not only because recognition of
Hamas would be good for Israel, as the former Mossad head Ephraim Halevy
recently argued,(1) but because this is the right move by any criterion of
justice and international law.

The U.S. and Europe decided, despite Israel's opposition, to permit the
Palestinian people to hold democratic elections. According to Jimmy
Carter's report in the "Herald Tribune", the elections were "honest, fair,
strongly contested, without violence and with the results accepted by
winners and losers. Among the 62 elections that have been monitored by...
the Carter Center, these are among the best in portraying the will of the
people."(2)

In a just and well-ordered world, it would be unthinkable for a government
that was elected in this way to be disqualified because Israel does not
like the choice of the electorate in question. But in a world in which the
U.S. rules, might is right, and might can define democracy as it chooses.
Thus it was announced that the outcome of the Palestinian elections would
not be recognized until the three "mantras" were fulfilled: Hamas must
renounce terror, honour previous accords, and recognize the State of
Israel. Meanwhile the Palestinian people would be punished and starved
through an economic boycott, in the hope that this will lead to the
collapse of the elected government.

In January 2005, Hamas announced its resolution to replace armed struggle
with political struggle and agreed to a unilateral ceasefire ("calm"). In
the 17 months since then, Hamas has not perpetrated a single terrorist
attack. According to security sources, since the election, Hamas has not
even participated in the launching of Qassam rockets from Gaza, most of
which are carried out by Fatah.(3) What exactly is the substance of the
demand that Hamas renounce terror?

Regarding previous accords, Hamas PM Haniyeh explained that according to
the Oslo Accords of 1993, after an interim period of five years, a
Palestinian state was to have come into existence. But Israel violated
every clause of the Accords and continued to colonize and to dispossess
Palestinians of their lands. From now on, he says, his government will only
honour accords that are good for the Palestinian people.

Since the Oslo Accords, we Israelis have become accustomed to the idea that
negotiations with the Palestinian Authority always revolve around the sole
question of what is good for Israel - the extent to which the Palestinians
are prepared to recognize its existence as a Jewish state and to take care
of its security. Suddenly Israel is confronted with an elected Palestinian
government which is not willing to play that game any more. Haniyeh is
telling the government of Israel: From now on, you will represent the
position of Israel in the negotiations, and we will represent the position
of the Palestinians. At the Algiers meeting of the Palestine National
Council in 1988, the Palestinian people undertook to recognize the
partition of the country and to be satisfied with a state within the 1967
borders. Israel has not done a thing since then to prove that it is
prepared to accept such a compromise. The Palestinians will recognize the
right of Israel to exist only when Israel proves that it is prepared to
recognize the right of the Palestinian people to exist.

But that is precisely what the governments of Israel and the army have
never accepted. No Palestinian leadership has yet been found to be a
suitable partner for peace, but a leadership that announces that it
represents only the Palestinian people is in their eyes a real enemy that
must be destroyed.

Olmert may have succeeded in garnering a majority in the U.S. Congress for
a boycott of the Hamas government, but in Israeli society itself he does
not have a majority. According to a poll by the Truman Institute in March
of this year, 62% of Israelis are in favour of negotiations with Hamas.(4)
But for quite some time now, the majority in Israel has had no say. At the
moment, what remains to be hoped for is that Europe will come to its senses
and also influence the U.S. to accept the democratic choice of the
Palestinian people.

--------

(1) Interview in Yediot Aharonot Saturday Supplement, May 26, 2006. See
also Associated Press, 'Former Mossad chief calls for long-term deal with
Hamas' May 27, 2006.
(2) Jimmy Carter, 'Punishing the innocent is a crime', International Herald
Tribune
May 7, 2006
(3) Amos Harel, 'IDF and Qassams / Zero tolerance', Ha'aretz, April 7,
2006; Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, 'IDF: Hamas about to rein in Qassams',
Ha'aretz April 10, 2006.
(4) Poll conducted March 16-21, 2006, jointly by the Harry S. Truman
Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in
Ramallah, http://truman.huji.ac.il/upload/PressRelease-15-240306English.doc

http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart