|
Letter to the
editor of The International Herald Tribune
Countering
Bias and Misinformation mainly
about the Arab Israel conflict
THE HAMAS CONUNDRUM
Maurice Ostroff
About the
Author
The
statement in your editorial that seeking an opening for genuine
peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict will not be easy, is
unfortunately too true. (The Hamas conundrum March 27).
In fact, there can be no hope at all
of a peaceful solution, unless the following essential factors are
addressed.
Palestinians cannot be expected to
think of peace while their state controlled media teach children to
emulate suicide martyrs, video clips portray happy child martyrs in the
after-world and hatred is spewed daily in mosques and schools. See http://www.israel-wat.com/spc_eng.htm.
Article 9 of the PLO Covenant declares
plainly that armed struggle is not merely tactical, it is the overall
strategy. Article 19 rejects the 1947 UN partition, thereby rejecting the
Quartets proposed two-state solution and advocating destruction of
the entire Jewish state. Article 20 unashamedly deems the Balfour
Declaration and the British Mandate null and void.
Peaceful negotiation is emphatically
ruled out by the Hamas charter. Article 13 states that peaceful solutions
and international conferences, contradict the principles of the Islamic
Resistance Movement and that the only solution is through Jihad.
We must also ask if it is possible to
negotiate rationally with a party that generates hatred based on
fantasies. For example the Hamas Charter states that freemasons, Rotary
clubs, Lions and similar organizations stirred the French and Communist
revolutions as well as World War I, formed the League of Nations and
control the world media. It promises that these organizations will be
obliterated when Islam takes control. Obviously, to be realistic, any
proposed solution for the conflict must take the above considerations into
account.
The PLO and Hamas constitutions should
be required reading for every journalist and politician concerned with the
Palestinian issue. The documents can be viewed in English at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/plocov.htm
and
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm
NOTE re
Amendment of the PLO Constitution
(Not included
in the letter to IHT due to pace limitations)
Although
repeated undertakings have been made in the past to amend the
PLO Charter, it still appears in its original form on the website of The
Official Palestine Media Center (PNC), an institution under the direct
supervision of PLO Executive Committee Member Yasser Abed Rabbo
This
web site refers to letters written by the late Yasser Arafat to
the late PM Rabin, Mr. Peres, President Clinton and others, stating that
those articles which denied Israel's right to exist or are inconsistent
with the PLO's new commitments to Israel were no longer valid. It also
states that in April 1996, the Palestine National Council agreed to the
abrogation of certain sections of the charter and the matter of drafting
amended sections was passed to the PNC's legal committee.
The
following statement on the PMC web site confirms that such
redrafting has not yet been done as at March 2007.
“no
redrafted Charter has yet emerged, and the PLO executive committee meeting
did not ratify the letter from Arafat to Clinton, which specified the
amendments to the Charter. On the basis of this, the Israeli government is
calling for the Palestine National Council to convene, stating that
amendment of the Charter has not taken place. Palestinians feel that their
obligation was to abrogate those sections of the Charter, which call for
the destruction of Israel “ and that this obligation has been fulfilled.
Furthermore, they feel that this fulfillment having been recognized by the
government of Shimon Peres, this current Israeli government has no right
to demand a say in what should replace the voided sections, particularly
since the Palestinians had every right to expect quid pro quo “ a
similar Israeli fulfillment of their contractual obligations under the
Oslo Accords”.
 Read
more articles by Maurice Ostroff
Mr. Ostroff's website: http://maurice-ostroff.tripod.com
|
