By Hesham Tillawi, PhD

    April 2006

 

    Hamas  - : The Biggest Trap Ever For The Palestinians

 

Is  Hamas an experience in democracy or a pre-planned design that worked?  They say that in an election anything can happen.  In most elections we have winners and losers, but in the Palestinian election this was not the case;  both parties lost and Israel won.  Even the Hamas leaders, such as Hassan Yousef, said, before the election, it would be disastrous for Hamas to get more than 25 seats in the Palestinian Parliament. Well, Hamas got more than 70 seats and it appears to be not only disastrous but catastrophic, not just for Hamas, but for all Palestinians.

 

Hamas opposed the peace process of 1993.  This process created the Palestinian National Authority under an agreement between the PLO, the Sole Legitimate Representative of the Palestinian People and the State of Israel.  It included recognition by both parties for each other.   Hamas, who opposed that agreement, now finds itself,  not by choice but by design, on top of the PNA,  which is a byproduct of the Oslo agreement.  This is a design that the Palestinians could not and would not have participated in, but might actually have, unknowingly, helped create. The suit was tailored especially to fit the Palestinian people who willingly wore it.

 

Hamas' Finance Minister cannot even find a bank in the West Bank to open up an account to deposit the money donor countries promised the Palestinian people.  And yet they had no problem in bringing millions of dollars to the West Bank to conduct the campaign which put Hamas on top. Israel was aware of every transaction that took place on behalf of Hamas and could have stopped it.  Yet they chose not to.

 

Fateh made the biggest mistake of its life by not seeing the election results before the ballots were counted. I say that it was a mistake because a mistake normally can be prevented while it's in the problem phase.  Once a problem progresses to a mistake usually not much can be done to correct it. Fateh produced a list of candidates with Marwan Bargouthi as one of its top candidates.   Marwan and his closest supporters came up with another list on which he was the top candidate. Then Fateh consolidated both lists into one, by going to court in the last few hours before the election to get permission to consolidate the lists.  This action caused some of the candidates to drop off the final official Fateh list while remaining on the ballots.  This, in turn, split Fateh's votes and allowed Hamas to win the majority of seats in the Parliament. The question that presents itself  loud and clear is: Didn't Fateh see this disastrous result coming? Didn't Fateh understand the ramification of a Hamas government as far as the balance of powers in the world that had designed this suit for the Palestinians to wear?  Was Arafat the only person within the Palestinian leadership to smell the attempt of the liquidation of the Palestinian cause? Whatever happened to the Palestinian National Interest?  Why didn't Fateh have the discipline amongst its members to withdraw their names from the ballot books?

The PLO and Fateh officials I spoke with all agreed this was a Fateh blunder and no external hands played any significant role in keeping its unofficial candidates on the ballots.  Most agreed that it was pure political immaturity.  I believe the immaturity factor took place because this is the first time in its history that Fateh had a serious challenger that it did not take seriously.

 

Imagine how brilliant the Palestinians would have been if Hamas, who was as surprised about the election results as anyone else, had asked some of their elected members to the Palestinian Parliament to resign their seats to allow a Fateh Majority with Hamas keeping a substantial Minority. Of course this would not have been a democratic process, but democracy should not come before the salvation of the cause. What the hell would we do with a democracy without a cause?  

 

Israel is counting on the Somalization  of the Palestinian society;  Anarchy, confusion, and banditization of the Palestinian Armed Resistance. The economic situation in Palestine is so severe now and without real industry or commerce to add to the Palestinian GNP, and without donors money reaching the Palestinian Government,  there is only one end to this problem, the end of the Palestinian aspiration of a viable independent Palestinian State.

 

This trap was a big one for Hamas.  Now it is in a real dilemma.  It cannot survive unless it recognizes Israel, yet if it does, that will be the end of its political life.  I do not think anyone envies Hamas for the position it finds itself in. But reality says that Hamas did recognize Israel when it entered the Palestinian elections to participate in a byproduct of Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO.

 

Maybe the only way to get out of this trap is for the Hamas government to resign, president Abbas to ask someone else to form a new government, and with a Hamas majority in Parliament,  to block the creation of a new government.  This gives Abbas the legal cover he needs to call for new election so everyone can be represented according to his weight amongst the Palestinian people. Let us keep in mind the fact that Fateh has control of all security forces and most of the civil servants in the Palestinian bureaucracy.  This is not a healthy situation for Palestinians but it's a fact of life that should not be ignored.  It should be fixed in the future not in an over night take over by a government that does not have what it needs to govern.  Democratically, is this a just and fair solution? No, but its the only one that would work to save the Palestinian people.