by W. Patrick Lang (bio below)
WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Seventy U.S. senators on Wednesday called on President George W. Bush to make it clear to Palestinian leaders that Hamas and other groups that the United States wants terrorist organizations to disarm or be banned from upcoming Palestinian elections. The senators in a letter to Bush said the United States “would have little choice but to reevaluate all aspects of our relations” with the Palestinian Authority if Hamas “or such groups” were brought into it. The Senate letter follows a resolution passed overwhelmingly last week by the House of Representatives that also urged the exclusion of Hamas from the Jan. 25 parliamentary ballot. The House resolution said Hamas’ participation could undermine the ability of the United States to provide assistance to the Palestinian Authority. Senators said they were “deeply disappointed” that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “has yet to do what the Palestinian Authority has committed to doing on numerous occasions — asserting its control over the terrorist groups that operate freely within the West Bank and Gaza.” The senators said Bush should “press the Palestinian leaders to use the leverage they now have with these terrorist groups to insist that they adhere to a basic set of principles before they can run for political office.” Hamas has grown in popularity among Palestinians for a corruption-free reputation, its extensive charity network and its role in suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel. Reuters/AlertNet
… the leverage they now have with these terrorist groups … What leverage is that? Mahmoud Abbas is and always was incapable of “asserting his control” over Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and similar groups. These are groups that have always rejected the authority of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and they continue to do so. Israel destroyed the para-military forces of the PNA several years ago, fearing apparently that they would become a serious enemy in the event of Palestinian statehood. Abbas and his various PNA/Fatah predecessors have been a “wasting” element in Palestinian politics for some time as Israel has gradually demonstrated to the Palestinian people that they are not to be taken seriously.
Was the PNA supposed to attack and subdue Hamas/PIJ with what is left of their security forces. What a joke! They could never do it. Never! what is more the Palestinians have no desire whatever to make life easier for the Israelis by fighting a civil war against each other. “Assert its control over…” Ridiculous. Which brilliant scholar at AEI or wherever sold that to Rice and company?
We have a long history of self-defeating policy in the Middle East and one could view this folly as part of the American tradition of diplomatic foolishness in the region. Sadly, the Israelis, who live there and ought to know better, encourage this kind of silliness instead of having their friends in AIPAC put a brake on it. If the Israelis can not find a political solution with the Palestinians, they can always build their walls higher, but to further confuse the thinking of the US Congress is a big mistake.
This will further increase the prospect of Hamas political victory. Abbas should postpone the election again and hope that people shut up over here.
Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (interview), CNN and Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room (interview), PBS’s Newshour, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” (interview), and more .
Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
Recommended Books || More BooTrib Posts
Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver (download free by chapter, PDF format)
“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2
No! They should hold the election and turn over authority to the winners.
Why should the US be able to veto democracy?
What are you thinking?
If the new people have to face the reality of dealing with the Israelis and running the Palestinian Authority instead of just being an underground resistance group all the better it be done now.
The Israelis are in no real danger from the enervated remains of any of these groups.
LL
If the US and Israeli rightwinbgers can contribute to a completely failed election process for the Palestinians, then they’re in a better position to advance the deadly ambition of the lunatic Netanyahu.
And if Israel has a Supreme Court similar to ours in the US back in 2000, real electoral tragedy could result in the ascendencay of “Bibi” to the throne in Israel.
Talk about the perpetualtion of war in the Middle East! Netanyahu as PM would be like gasoline on the fire!
I think it might be a fair for the US & Israel to have veto power over Hamas’ (& any other extremist party they deem to espouse violence & violation of UN resolutions) participation in the elections
IF
the Palestinians are also given veto power over the participation of any Israeli party they deem to espouse violence & violation of UN resolutions.
Nifty idea, and as you imply, definitely a dream.
The men with the guns and the power never make deals that require them to relinquish power.
What other purpose did Sharon have in invading the West Bank and destroying police stations and confiscating all their computers than to assure that Arafat had no infrastructure to assert control and stop terrorist attacks against Israel.
If the terrorism stops, so too does the justification for the hard-line on West Bank lands.
An honest effort at reconcilation would take the long view. If Hamas gains power they have to deliver services and show improvement. They become politicians, and politicians behave like politicians, not like Hamas. If you want to take the energy out of a guerilla movement make them responsible for picking up the trash. Once their brother gets the contract to pick up the trash, staying in office will be more interesting than building bombs.
Either we believe in democracy or we do not. For the right wing, they believe in democracy until someone like Chavez or Morales gets elected, and then they believe in carrying out Bay of Pigs invasions.
Democracy works if you are patient.
It appears that this is what is happening, too. I ran across some polling results not long ago that seem to show a common sense balance of the normal vies of the issues.
I don’t think our help and advice comes with a great reference right now anyway.
Well said Booman. A similar position was proposed by the NY Times Editors.
Which 70 Senators signed this letter?
I was wondering about this too. But I’ll take sizeable bets that Lieberman was among them.
I’ll see if I can find it. That’s a great question.
As a matter of interest it would be of use to know which of those senators who signed the letter and who were in office before 1998 and entertained Jerry Adams. Martin McGuiness or any other senior members of Sinn Fein. Since that organisation was the political arm of the IRA, they had the same status as politicians within Hamas. McGuiness is widely believed to have been extremely high in the IRA Army Council and directed bomb attacks in both the UK and Ireland.
I’m having a hard time finding the list.
didn’t sign it, and subtract.
a website that referenced Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Jim Talent (R-MO) as the two who started circulating the letter on November 22nd. Maybe if we contacted a staffperson in one of their offices?
Remind me someone–I am having a memory lapse here….
When was it exactly when the rest of the world intervened to stop the US from voting for a thuggish, criminal, torturing, terrorist, planet-destroying regime?
Those US senators are only parroting their Israeli counterparts.
It’s hard to see the Israeli’s as honest negotiators; they have succeeded in a stalemate everytime, with the additional bonus of pointing their fingers at either the PLO’s terror or their inability to curb it. It’s the same old rhetorical game rehashed. Sharon has made clear his intention is to impose a solution, not find a political one with the Palestinians.
The Israeli’s encouraged the formation of Hamas as a hedge against the PLO. It worked. Now the PLO is unpopular, Hamas has wide support, & they’re declared ineliglible to participate in elections. Shocking.
This was a political tactic for domestic consumption. A way for the GOP to challenge the bona fides of any Dem Senator who didn’t sign the “pledge” as being pro-terrorist. They could care less about its implications overseas.
Frankly, it’s is disgusting.
Somebody else may have found this by now but it appears to be This
in another countries election. If Hamas win so be it. We have enough tainted history of interfering in other peoples countries ususally with hideous consequences for the peole of those countries.
Quite frankly I am disturbed to be reading these imperialist opinions on this blog.