President George Bush’s ringing declaration accusing Hamas of terrorism after 26 Palestinians and Israelis were killed in Jerusalem and Gaza is exasperating. But he has a point.
The Palestinians are sending out contradictory messages. All the indications are that, while pessimistic as to the outcome, they want the present peace efforts to succeed, unlike Hamas, which is ideologically opposed to them. Yet they support Hamas every time it sends out another suicide bomber. In that sense they are not much different to the Israelis who want peace, who agree that there has be a Palestinian state, yet who continue to vote for Ariel Sharon.
The reality is that both — Palestinians and Israelis — are so traumatized by violence that they no longer think rationally. But never was rational thinking more needed than now.
With the US-backed road map, the possibility of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state is there on the table, waiting to be grabbed by the Palestinians. Never has it be so enticingly close. All it needs is for them to make the right moves. But Sharon is also there at the table, determined to stop them.
The situation is now at a critical stage. Every suicide bomb that goes off plays straight into Sharon’s hands; they reinforce his veto over the peace process. What the Palestinians need to do is call his bluff — and the best way to do that is by breaking with Hamas.
Many will ask why the Palestinians should do all the hard work, why should they have to bend over backward, making compromise after compromise while the Israelis do nothing. The answer is that the prize of freedom is worth it — and, anyway, there does not seem to be any other way of pulling the rug from under Sharon’s feet. Moreover, Hamas is as much an obstacle to peace as Sharon. It needs to be sidelined.
Lastly, the fact that we all understand why the suicide bombers do what they do is not the same as approving what they do. It does not make it right.
Seize the day, runs the Latin phrase: Carpe Diem. That is what the Palestinians need to do. They — their political leaders, their spiritual leaders, their business leaders, the whole community — need to seize what is potentially on offer while they can.
It infuriates, of course, that George Bush is not evenhanded in his war on terrorism, that he turns a blind eye to what the Israelis do. All the more reason for the Palestinians to be as cunning and manipulative as the Israelis.
With no suicide bombers around, the spotlight will be on Sharon’s intransigence — making it all the more difficult for him to sabotage the road map.
