When the war on terror became focused on the creation of democracy in the Middle East, many Americans began to wonder how the war on terror’s democratic goals could be reconciled with the possibility that terrorists could win elected offices. When Hamas won the Palestinian election in January, this nightmare scenario actually happened.
I remember hearing many observers in the media at the time commenting that Hamas would likely become more moderate. The prediction that Hamas would become more moderate was based on the fact that the new Palestinian government could never win recognition from other countries or a legitimate standing on the international scene if its leaders actively endorsed terrorism. After winning the election, Hamas could no longer pursue its goal of destroying Israel without the entire Palestinian government being held responsible for its attacks against Israeli civilians. After this election, attacks linked to Hamas are considered to be acts of war rather than simply being the illegitimate activity of a militant group in the region.
When an Israeli soldier named Gilad Shalit was kidnapped on June 25 by three groups, including the militant wing of Hamas, the change in dynamics that occurred after January’s election became clear. Although there have been instances of trading Palestinian prisoners for kidnapped Israelis in the past, the fact that the ruling party of the Palestinian government is openly involved in Shalit’s kidnapping made a prisoner swap out of the question for Israel. Instead, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has seized this opportunity to order the arrest of a number of Hamas officials and to attack a region in the Gaza Strip that has been used by militant groups to launch recent attacks against Israel.
By the time this article is published, the deadline that the militants have set for Shalit’s fate will have passed. The Israeli government has already made clear that it will accept nothing less than the unconditional release of its kidnapped soldier. A spokesman for the Hamas political wing, Ghazi Hamad, continues to ask for negotiations over Shalit’s release. However, Hamad is pleading for negotiations on the same day that the military wing of Hamas has set a deadline for killing Shalit. It’s very unlikely that this is a sign of disorganization within Hamas. Instead of focusing on arranging for the return of Shalit safely to Israel, Hamad has repeatedly stated that the military wing’s demand of releasing Palestinian prisoners should be met. Therefore, the request for negotiations appears to simply be propaganda, an attempt by Hamas leaders to appear ‘diplomatic’ and ‘humane’ in contrast to Israel’s ‘inhumane’ military response to Shalit’s kidnapping. This is propaganda that is flawed to the extreme.
For one thing, Israel’s military response to the soldier’s kidnapping is justified because the kidnapping was partially conducted by the legitimately elected Palestinian government. Secondly, the request for diplomacy by Hamas leaders is accompanied by an impending deadline by Hamas that leaves no time for negotiation. Thirdly, the asymmetrical demand for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for nothing more than information about Shalit’s condition is completely outrageous.
I came across a CNN article that showed a picture with the following caption: “Palestinian children hold portraits of relatives held in Israeli prisons at a news conference in Ramallah.” This caption is reminiscent of so many other articles I’ve read in the past week. It is as if the media wishes to prove that the Hamas militants’ demands for Shalit’s release are justified. If those imprisoned relatives of the Palestinian children displayed in the CNN article cared more about the welfare of their own children than about holding on to their hatred for a Jewish state, they would not have committed the atrocities that landed them in an Israeli prison. What needs to be understood is that Hamas is in power as the result of a democratic election. Not only is the Palestinian government now responsible for attacks carried out in Hamas’ name, but the fact that Hamas was elected democratically means that the Palestinian population is getting exactly what it asked for in January.
If a militant group like Hamas actually cared about the welfare of the Palestinian people, who it claims to be fighting for, the Hamas military wing would have released Shalit in order to stop Israeli attacks against militant bases in Gaza that have cut off electricity and food supplies to those living there. By electing a political party that has the professed goal of destroying Israel, the Palestinian people have themselves asked for these terrible consequences of a continued lack of peace in the region.
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