The Shake Hand

Friday, February 11, 2005
By: Tashbih Sayyed

It was a shake hand which did not change anything - the intractable differences that have beset peacemaking all along remain unaltered. That's why I find it very difficult to share the optimism being shown in some circles. The shake hand called for a cease-fire without signing any cease-fire agreement. And there are reasons for my pessimism – one of the hands in this shake hand belonged to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who did not acknowledge that the Palestinian Authority has always denied Israel's right to exist and has often presented the peace process as a tactic leading to Israel's destruction.
Mahmoud Abbas said nothing about the fact that so long as Palestinian leaders continue to ignore the Palestinian terrorism and label Israeli defensive security measures as occupation, no meaningful and permanent peace can take effect. He did not condemn the Palestinian preachers who continue to spread the venom of hatred and anti Semitism as religious messages among the Palestinians.

For example on Friday, February 4, 2005, Ibrahim Mudyris, a PA preacher sermonized, "We do not love any land more than the land of Palestine. Had the Jews not expelled us from it with their planes, their tanks, their weapons, their treachery around us, we would never leave you, Oh Palestine". He said, "We tell you Palestine, we shall return to you, by Allah's will, We shall return to every village, every town, and every grain of earth which was quenched by the blood of our grandparents and the sweat of our fathers and mothers. We shall return, we shall return. Our willingness to return to the 1967 borders does not mean that we have given up on the land of Palestine.

No! We ask you: Do we have the right to the 1967 borders? We have the right. Therefore, we shall realize this right with any mean it takes. We might be able to use diplomacy in order to return to the 1967 borders, but we shall not be able to use diplomacy in order to return to the 1948 borders. No one on this earth recognizes [out right to] the 1948 borders [before Israel's existence]. Therefore, we shall return to the 1967 borders, but it does not mean that we have given up on Jerusalem and Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramla, Natanyah [Al-Zuhour] and Tel Aviv [Tel Al-Rabia].

There was no suggestion from the Palestinian partner that there has been any change in their stated historical positions about the settlements, the refugees, the borders and the status of Jerusalem. Nobody said anything about the conditions the powerful Palestinian groups have set to renounce terrorism against Israelis.

The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said, "This was the beginning of a new era, the beginning of peace and hopes," but did not renounce his previous pledges that demanded, Israeli withdrawal from all the West Bank and Gaza Strip, equating to 22% of Palestine before the creation of Israel in 1948, East Jerusalem to be the capital of the new Palestinian state and a negotiated resolution for Palestinian refugees based on their right of return to homes in what is now Israel.

No body said anything about what will happen when the Palestinians will not get what they have always demanded - essentially a return to the lines of 1967, including the restoration of East Jerusalem. Because it is more than just a possibility that if they do not, they will resume the Intifada. No body mentioned the fact that the Hamas's terrorist infrastructure is untouched and Palestinian Authority has no intention of breaking it in any way.

In fact Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath emphasized that the PA had not agreed to disarm armed militias. "We didn't talk about disarming the infrastructure of the groups and an intra-Palestinian war," Shaath told al-Jazeera shortly after the Sharm e-Sheikh summit ended. "We talked about an internal agreement to achieve a cease-fire and ways of protecting the wanted men and merging them into the Palestinian Authority."

Tayssir Khaled, a left-wing veteran politician who ran against Mr. Abbas in poll, says Palestinians see it as their right to protect their interests and "resist" the occupation - even by military means. "We shall not give up our weapons until the occupation ends and we have an independent Palestinian state," said another Palestinian leader.

Another important factor that nobody talked about is the role of radical Islam, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria. I am convinced that so long as Saudi Arabia's tacit sponsorship of anti-Semitism continues, the whole region will remain in turmoil. A significant part of the Palestinians that refuse to listen to reason and work for peace is influenced by Saudi preachers. Unless Palestinian leadership declares a war on religious radicalism, all shake hand s will remain fruitless. In this respect the preaching of Saudi clerics that brainwash Muslims into hating Christians and Jews, and call for Jihad against the West should serve as a clear and present threat to any peace making effort in the Middle East.

Saudi cleric Musa Al-Qarni says, "Today, the Jews are occupying the Muslims' lands, raping their women, killing their children, and destroying their houses." "We ask Allah to strengthen the spirits of the Jihad fighters in Iraq, and to help them against their enemies, the Jews and the Christians. According to Musa Al-Qarni, the terrorism perpetuated by Al-Qaeda, Zarqawi, Hamas is legitimate.

He stresses, "Likewise, I emphasize that the Jihad that the Muslims are fighting in Iraq in order to repel the enemy aggressor, the Jews and the Christians, who are attacking land and honor – I emphasize that this Jihad is legitimate Jihad, Jihad for Allah's sake, and it is considered defense of Muslim countries, their lands and their honor. The doubts that are raised against this Jihad are not correct and are out of place." Such exhortation coming from the holy land will always overwhelm all peacemaking efforts.

Under pressure on its nuclear ambitions and driven by its anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, Iran will definitely use Hezbollah to create its own pressure on the U.S. and Israel. It can always use Hezbollah to derail the peace process. Al-Qaeda, having failed to disrupt elections in Iraq will surely use Hamas and Islamic jihad to realize its goals in Palestine.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have already said they are not bound by the cease-fire agreement, "The talk about what the leader of the Palestinian Authority called a cessation of acts of violence is not binding on the resistance because this is a unilateral stand and was not the outcome of an intra-Palestinian dialogue as has been agreed previously," Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, told The Associated Press. "The resistance is not committed to what has been agreed at the summit... since the Palestinian conditions were not achieved, Hamadan said. "We consider that there is no truce and there is no deal to stop the resistance," he added.

Hamdan said Hamas's decision would depend on "achievement of a substantial change (in Israel's position) to meet Palestinian demands and conditions." The two terrorist groups were at the forefront of attacks on Israel during the Palestinian uprising.

The Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine has also rejected Abbas's pledge to end terrorism, "It's premature to talk about the burial of the Intifada," said Qais Abu Lailah, a senior DFLP official in Ramallah. "As long as the "occupation" continues, there will be an Intifada, even if there is a hudna (temporary truce)."

The world, in my view, will once again be reminded in the coming months that it is not in the interest of peace and stability to create an impression that terrorism in any form can succeed in winning legitimacy in the form of a state of its own.