I have mixed feelings about Muammar Qaddafi. There’s a certain quality about him that reminds me of Michael Jackson… something is definitely off balance up there. For some reason, over 200 traditional African rulers recently named him “king of kings” although things haven’t gone too smoothly since then. Even if he actually is insane, Qaddafi does occasionally drop gems like the one in the New York Times last week.
Unfortunately, the Libyan leader’s wisdom is often overwhelmed by his madness. The day before his article on “Israstine” was published, he told an audience of Georgetown University students that President Obama should seek peace with Al Qaeda.
“I think Osama bin Laden is a person who can be given a chance.”
I don’t know what Qaddafi was smoking… What could possibly lead him to believe that Bin Laden is even remotely considering peace?! The guy has repeatedly made clear that he is pursuing the exact opposite agenda.
In his last call for ‘jihad’ Osama hailed the numerous problems facing Obama, such as the recession and the situation in Iraq. He continued beating the drums of war like a madman blinded by his twisted vision of faith. He repeatedly implied that America was sinking further into the abyss and that he and his followers would “fight until victory is achieved” or they would “seek martyrdom for the sake of God.”
But Qaddafi interpreted things differently. “Maybe he wants peace.” Unstable as he may be, he must have based his argument on something… Maybe this is the part of Osama’s rant in which he mistakenly found hope:
“Can the US continue fighting us for the coming decades? The reports and indicators suggest otherwise. 75% of the American people are pleased by the departure of the president who entangled them in wars that exceeded their power, and plunged his country into economic turmoil. His successor has inherited a heavy legacy and was left between two bitter choices… It is a most difficult inheritance – a long guerrilla war with a patient stubborn enemy… For if he withdraws from the war, it would be a military defeat, and if he continues the war he will exacerbate the economic crisis. He is inheriting two wars, which he is unable to continue, and we are preparing to open other fronts, God willing.”
Bin Laden released his latest audio message during Israel’s war on Gaza. Although he was calling on his followers to join the fight against “the Zionist entity” (I guess he didn’t know the borders were sealed), Osama never mentioned Hamas.
That may come as a surprise to brainwashed people who think Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Al Qaeda are one and the same. They are certainly not. In fact, there is a significant degree of animosity between Salafist groups like Al Qaeda and resistance/political movements like Hamas. They do not like each other and all signs indicate that they do not cooperate in any way. A recent article that appeared in the Herald Tribune did well in explaining the relationship between Al Qaeda, the question of Palestine and Hamas.
This deep-seated hostility between the Al Qaeda current of Islamism and the more nationalist tendency represented by Hamas suggests that Israel, the United States, and others might do well to shape policy with these distinctions in mind. If Hamas acts as a barrier against something much worse – the undeterrable fanatics of Al Qaeda – then the political eradication of Hamas might not be a desirable goal.
I’ve gone on the record repeatedly in stating that Western powers need to negotiate with Hamas; despite its shortcomings and flaws, it is a group that needs to be taken seriously in the political arena. However, people like Osama Bin Laden have no interest in participating in global politics. It’s unfortunate Qaddafi saw fit to give credence to Bin Laden and his network. By doing so he undermined perfectly reasonable calls to open negotiations with Hamas (at least for the uninformed). President Obama is perfectly justified in refusing to deal with the likes of Al Qaeda, but that justification does not apply to Hamas.
While it does need to be included in the political process, Hamas and other groups like it have a long way to go before they are accepted in the international community. Let’s face it – people in the US and other Western nations often equate Islamists with terrorists. Muslims and Islamist groups in particular should not be expected to capitulate to prejudice or placate the mass of bigots, however they have every incentive to tone down their religious rhetoric when addressing the international community. It’s little wonder Americans confuse Al Qaeda with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah – their speeches and statements are all very similar. A couple lessons in public relations could go a very long way…
Related posts:
- Obama, Osama, Yo Mama
- Qaddafi: One State Solution
- Osama’s Book Club
- Obama Campaign Outraged By KABOBfest, Attacks Cover As Tasteless, Offensive
- Osama Bin Hippo
The only difference between al Qaeda and Hamas is that American forces have exterminated most of al Qaeda.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 10:39 amAnd that Hamas has not attacked Americans. And that Hamas focus’s its struggle against the Israeli occupation and blockade of its people.
Posted by Michael | January 26, 2009, 10:58 amHamas has killed Americans, even if it has not yet targeted them. Some Hamas members have called for targeting Americans.
As for the rest, al Qaeda also has a string of excuses why it has murdered tens of thousands of innocents around the world. Terrorists always do.
All is not well with Hamas propaganda, however.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 11:07 amYou mean Israel has killed several Americans, including US service men, and activists such as Rachel Corrie.
Hamas has not targeted America. Hamas is no threat to my country, the United States of America. However, Israel is a threat to my country. Why? Because they use my tax dollars to oppressive a refugee people. Which in turn creates unneeded anti-Americanism.
I don’t want my tax dollars going to an oppressive, brutal, apartheid regime any longer.
As for the article you linked. The EU envoy is only repeating the baseless Israeli propaganda that the victim is somehow the one to blame for the massacre that took place in Gaza.
Posted by Michael | January 26, 2009, 11:30 amI don’t want my cigarette dollars doing to Hamas and Hezbollah owned gas stations in Chicago and Michigan, money that is used to fund terrorism and murder innocents, but we don’t always get what we want.
“Unneeded Anti-americanism”? You’re delusional. America is not hated for supporting Israel. It is hated for not conforming with the Arab mindset and submitting to Muslim control. They are outraged that the culture their religion told them was superior uber alles is not feared or respected in the world.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 11:39 amOf course there’s a difference between Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda’s now an irrelevant terrorist network that is hated by most Muslims – their theological justification for Jihad is flawed at best, and even Hamas and Iran dislikes them.
Hamas was created out of legitimate grievances of the Israeli occupation. It is a resistance movement against the Israeli occupation that uses illegal terrorist methods (whereas Al-Qaeda has no real reason to hate the US or the West). Hamas is more in the same league as the IRA whereas Al-Qaeda is in the same league as say, the Nazis in Germany.
Posted by Shafiq | January 26, 2009, 11:58 amEverything always goes back to the Nazis. Is that the only universal standard for evil in our world? Because all the Nazis were exterminated none are left to justify their actions, and so it’s ok to just dump on them and use their image to blacken anyone we don’t agree with. Jews are Nazis. Palestinians are Islamofascist Nazis. Everyone has become a Nazi.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 12:02 pm“Unneeded Anti-americanism”? You’re delusional. America is not hated for supporting Israel. It is hated for not conforming with the Arab mindset and submitting to Muslim control. They are outraged that the culture their religion told them was superior uber alles is not feared or respected in the world.”
You are the only one suffering from delusions. Your argument is also tinged with racism.
I’ve been to the Middle East. People there love us for our values. Yes, they love our values. In fact they admire them and most of them wish their governments were democratic and similar to ours.
However, American support for their dictators on top of unconditional support for Israel in its massacres against the Palestinian people are the reasons anti-Americanism exists in the Middle East. Go to any Arab country and ask an Arab his view on America. You will always hear this response,”We love American people, we hate your foreign policy towards us.”
Its really that simple, and the fact that you have dumbed it down to a “they hate us for our values!” argument is simply retarded. They love our values. In fact the whole world does.
*I also want to give kudos to Kalash for writing another brilliant article on Hamas, and alerting us to the differences between various Islamist ideologies.*
Also, your assessment of Al-Qaeda and Hamas is dead on Shafiq.
Posted by Arayus | January 26, 2009, 12:03 pmThe call by a leader of Hamas that children of Jews anywhere in the world are now legitimate targets simply for being Jewish will certainly confirm in many people’s eyes that they are little different from Al Quaida. You guys are surely not defending that?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/gaza-mahmoud-zahar-hamas
Posted by xoggoth | January 26, 2009, 12:11 pmBin Laden often sounds a reasonable chap, taking his videos out of context one might think this is someone (like the IRA’s Gerry Adams say) that one could deal with.
It’s just the tampering with history that’s the problem. Maybe my old memory deceives me but weren’t Bush’s wars after 9/11? What legitimate grievance justified that?
Call us picky, but after nearly 50 years of seeing our civil aircraft hijacked, our oil men and aid workers and reporters kidnapped or beheaded, our policewomen shot, Russian schoolkids and theatre goers raped and murdered we ordinary people in the west do tend to lack a little sympathy for even genuine Arab and Islamic grievances, especially when we see Jews doing none of these things.
Posted by xoggoth | January 26, 2009, 12:28 pmThis is what Zahar said:
“The Zionists have legitimised the killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people.”
I’m not defending that, but clearly Jewish and Zionist are not synonymous with one another.
Anyways, such rhetoric is at best counterproductive and deserves to be roundly criticized.
Posted by Kalash | January 26, 2009, 12:34 pmArayus, what was the Arab support for al Qaeda on September 12, 2001? The reason why Arabs and Muslims how hate al Qaeda are threefold.
1) al Qaeda has been defeated. no one likes a loser
2) al Qaeda went from killing Americans and Jews to killing Muslims.
3) al Qaeda actually set up the Caliphate government in Fallujah. It turned out their governing style was one of Islamist fascist terror, and even muslims don’t appreciate random death
If these three factors had been reversed, al Qaeda would still have the overwhelming support of the Arabs and Muslims. There is now a full blown discussion within al Qaeda how to reverse these setbacks and regain the people’s trust by refocusing the war back on the West and Jews.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 12:36 pm“If these three factors had been reversed, al Qaeda would still have the overwhelming support of the Arabs and Muslims. “
and you’ve determined that they ever did, how exactly?
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 12:41 pmKalash, the reason why you’re confused is because Hamas doesn’t differentiate between Jews and Zionists. They rightly assume that all Jews are Zionists, the way all Muslims turn to Mecca. To them it doesn’t make sense that it would be any other way. Of course the Jews demand their homeland, that every Muslim recognizes is given to them in the Torah, and fight for it.
Obviously Hamas is talking about targeting Jews everyone, and not Zionists. If we assume they are talking about only “Zionists”, then that also means they are targeting the children of UK PM Gordon Brown, who is a Zionist, or the children of Prez. Barack Obama, who is a Zionist, or the children of French President Sarkozy, who is a Zionist.
You need to choose. Is Hamas targeting Jews, or anyone anywhere who believes the Jews have a homeland in Israel (Zionists)?
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 12:42 pmDid you just seriously imply that Barack Obama’s children are Zionists?
Anyway….
Israel can keep saying it has “no partner for peace” or it can move forward and negotiate with whoever represents the Palestinian people.
On top of that Hamas has stated several times that they are willing to negotiate on any peace deal that involves a viable Palestinian state based on the 67 borders.
Furthermore, as Kalash pointed out several posts ago, Hamas has removed the clause calling for the destruction of the state of Israel from its government manifesto.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jan/12/israel
On top of this they are willing to negotiate based on the 67 borders, just like everyone in the Quartet insists be done.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1035414.html
Hamas spokesmen have also consistently said they would support the Arab Peace Initiative.
Simple description of the Arab Peace Initiative:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Peace_Initiative
As the spokesmen of Hamas said: “That would be satisfactory for all Palestinian military groups to stop and build our state, to be busy in our own affairs, and have good neighborhood with Israelis.” (In reference to the Arab Peace initiative of 2002).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/28/MN222422.DTL
Even according to the top leadership of Hamas, the conflict is not about driving the Jews into the sea.
As Haniyeh the top Hamas official in Gaza states:” Does a besieged people that is waiting breathlessly for a ship to come from the sea want to throw the Jews into the ocean? Our conflict is not with the Jews, our problem is with the occupation.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1035414.html
These are statements from Hamas. Hamas is probably one of the most radical mainstream Palestinian groups. Yet they sound like doves compared to Israeli ministers and Rabbi’s who threaten “holocausts” on the Palestinian people.
You can continue to apologize for Israeli war crimes or face the facts. The occupation is the sole grievance of the Palestinian people, end the occupation end the problem.
Posted by Arayus | January 26, 2009, 1:25 pmReally, Arayus?
Haaretz.
Also Monday, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Israel has offered Hamas a cease-fire for an unlimited amount of time and the opening of Gaza’s borders in return for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
According to the report, Hamas rejected the offer on the grounds that it linked the opening of the border crossings to Shalit’s release.
Controlling the fate of one Jewish soldier is more important to Hamas than the opening of all borders and the end of “occupation” of Gaza. The big trophy – a single Jewish soldier – holds the key to the future of Palestinians in Gaza. Will they have a job, or not? Can they leave Gaza, or not? Will they receive their UN rations today, or not? This is your heroic resistance? These are self-serving criminals and thugs who would happily starve and murder their people if it fit their narrative, and have done so.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 2:13 pmYou should expect tough talk from Hamas, given the massacre that recently occurred in Gaza and that is ongoing due to the blockade. We are hearing the same bullshit coming from Israel.
Anyway, it looks like you didn’t even read the article you posted.
“[Hamas] called for a complete lifting of the blockade and an opening of all the crossings,” Taha said.”
“Hamas listened to the Israeli proposal presented by [Defense Ministry official] Amos Gilad, and with it a proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a counterproposal of one year only,” Ayman Taha told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.”
You know what this sounds like? It sounds like negotiations. People make proposals, and then make counter proposals. Lets see what happens when this is all said and done.
Furthermore, Palestinians have every right to resist Israeli occupation to the very end. By insisting that Palestinians remain quiet while the occupation intensifies in the West Bank is ludicrous, particularly when you consider that resistance is the only leverage that Palestinians have in these negotiations.
In any case if Hamas does end up rejecting a decent proposal to open up the borders, it will lead the people of Gaza to choose others to represent them or force those in charge to become more moderate.
Lets see how these negotiations play out.
Posted by Arayus | January 26, 2009, 2:48 pmPalestinian violence (aka resistance) destroys any leverage the Palestinians have during negotiations. This is a widely recognized fact by every reasonable person, including most writes on this blog. Of course no one here will condemn “resistance”, but everyone knows it is counterproductive.
In fact, Palestinian terrorism eliminates the urgency or necessity for negotiation, and encourages punitive military and political actions by Israel. This is why many Arabs speculate that Hamas is really composed of Israeli collaborators who provide Israel with an excuse to continue responding aggressively.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 3:21 pmTo Anon. 2:13 – I believe the issue of the one captured soldier has always been for Hamas a way to try and get some of the 10,000 incarcerated Palestinians in Israeli jails, and that they have resisted making use of negotiating anything but prisoner swaps where he is involved.
Posted by alfannaan | January 26, 2009, 11:04 pmLet’s take a poll and see what 1.5 million Gazans prefer – the opening of all borders and peace or the return of 400 prisoners whose sentences are ending in two months anyway.
The prisoner issue is irrelevant anyway. Once there is peace everyone in administrative detention will be released. Only those who have been convicted in a court of murder will stay in jail. These people are not martyrs, they are murderers, and they’ll stay where convicted murderers should stay – prison.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2009, 11:35 pmResistance is counter productive perhaps, but the peace negotiations haven’t produced anything at all. In fact the peace process so more check points go up, more settlements go up, and even nastier measures being taken against the Palestinians.
The Palestinians did not even get recognized as a people by the Israelis until the first intifada. It seems as though Israel only budges when the Palestinians respond violently.
At least Hamas is negotiating after the violence. This is what most people see, and this is why most people will continue to support resistance rather than some peace deal that only buys Israel more time to put even more “facts on the ground.”
Furthermore, these are secret negotiations so we don’t even know what is really be said there until after all is said and done. =P
Posted by Arayus | January 27, 2009, 11:55 amArayus, you have a lot to learn. The last resistance died around 2004. What resistance? Israel can go anywhere and kill anyone. That they don’t is not out of weakness, it’s out of pity.
That Palestinians are clinging to any desperate acts of violence (and suffering exponentially greater when Israel responds) is more indication of how utterly defeated and helpless they are as a people.
Let’s face it, the Palestinian cause is finished. The Palestinian cause was never about “human rights” or “a 2 state solution”. It was about reversing the nakhba, and every day the prospects for this grow dimmer. It’s not clear if the Palestinians can even survive as an intact people, or if regional political divisions (Fatah/Hamas) and the forces of modernity and Islam will rip apart the Palestinian traditions and leave behind just another group of Muslim Arabs that live in Judea or Gaza.
That was never the plan, Arayus. The Palestinians had a beautiful culture, but the youngest generation that knows are now in their 40s and 50s. Their children in the 20s and 30s remember, but don’t know. And their children won’t know, and won’t remember. They’ll visit museums.
We’re watching the destruction of a people, accelerated by factors they do not control. Israel bears a great deal of responsibility for this, much out of malice, most out of apathy and ignorance. In the end, however, Israel is just one force among many, the match that lit the powderkeg.
The Palestinians are not the first culture to lose their identity when removed from their agricultural felahe roots. They may be the last.
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 1:39 pmAnd before someone else here, Arab or not, starts ripping the comment I just made, ask yourself what YOU have done to educate yourself about Palestinian culture, or if that is even something you care about.
Do you know how to weave a thob? Do you know the distinct sewing patters in each village? Do you know even one? Have you listened to any Palestinian folk songs? Or do you prefer Bano? Do you know how to plant olive trees? Do you know how to climb them to get at the olives? Do you know how to press the olives? Do you know a single Palestinian painter? Have you ever seen a single Palestinian painting? Have you read any traditional Palestinian folklore? Do you know what a jin is? Did you know Palestinians believe in magic, spirits, demons, sorcery, all those things that Islam prohibits? Have you ever slaughtered a chicken with your bare hands? Have you ever made bread outside on an oven powered by goat droppings? Have you been bitten by scorpions at night? Do wild animals crawl into your home to die? Do you know not to go out at night outside the village because of the wild dogs? Have you ever slept under an olive tree because often you’re too far from home during harvest? Do you know how to build an outhouse and dig the hole? Do you know the path to take by donkey to get to Jerusalem?
What do you really KNOW about Palestinians? Not the westernized, modernized, Muslim Arabs who live in Ramallah and drink coffee at starbucks, but about Palestinians. Real Palestinians. Keffiye? Hummus?
Do you want to learn? I’m sure you do. Do you want to live that way? You probably don’t. And that means Palestinian culture will be extinct.
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 1:54 pm