Action, more than words…why recognition shouldn’t matter now
I wrote this on a whim, and the main idea is spread out, but it’s all there…
“Actions, more than words”
I’ll get straight to it. I see Hamas slowly transforming itself into an outfit that doesn’t quite fit its stereotype. If Hamas is the terrorist organization I think of when I know of what they have done, it confuses me when I see the same leaders dressed in suits, negotiating agreements and representing a quasi state. Terrorism is becoming more chic these days.
With that in mind, let me add that the recent Mecca agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas on a unity government has put Israel in a bind. The ball is in out court in this very long game of tennis war. Does Israel recognize this government that is composed of an organization we negotiated with, and an organization we are still at war with? And what about the agreement, whereby Hamas will “honour†all previous agreements signed by the PLO/PA and Israel? What, in fact, does honour actually mean here?
Israel’s expected response has been to declare that the Mecca agreement has not gone far enough. That honouring an agreement is not the same as accepting an agreement, and that partial recognition is no recognition at all. And so Israel has hit back the tennis ball into the court of the Palestinians, who are now wondering what exactly to do with that tennis ball.
Because as I see it, what Hamas agreed to at Mecca is as far as it will go for a long time to come. When you think about it, Hamas has done much this year in terms of shifting its presented character around. It has largely abided by a cease fire with Israel (unfortunately broken when it partook in the attack and kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit). Hamas has become a political party and agreed to participate in Palestinian Authority legislative elections, which by the way, is a product of the Oslo Accords. And then there are the nuances in Hamas official talk, whereby it would accept a long term “hunda†with Israel at the 1967 borders. And now Mecca.
So let me repeat. I do not see Hamas going much farther than it has at Mecca in terms of recognizing Israel. “Honouring†or whatever it may be is the farthest Hamas will go. So then, what do we make of this?
I am a true believer in the “actions speak louder than words†idea. It’s useful in conflict management, especially in a region where pride exists above all, and where accepting the other is tantamount to a strike against pride. But actions are often not. Are we really going to let ourselves get bogged down in semantics? Recognition? What does that even exactly mean? I do not want to get into a long diatribe on international law and the concept of recognition, because what I am saying here is actions speak louder than words.
Here is how I see it. Just this week, a terrorist was captured inside Israel ready to commit a large scale terrorist attack. The terrorist hailed from Islamic Jihad, still at war with Israel. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority it controls are aware of who these men are, and where they operate. And let’s be clear here, Islamic Jihad is a small organization when compared to Fatah and Hamas. And so if Hamas were to heed the actions speak louder than words principle, it would do its best to prevent Islamic Jihad from committing terrorist attacks against Israel. What a confidence builder that would be, if Hamas were to arrest and imprison individuals who commit terrorist attacks against Israel.
Israel, for its part, should head its part of the road map and immediately dismantle all settler outposts and cease construction of settlements. Just this week a report emerged for Peace Now that says 2000 settlers live in scattered outposts and they continue to grow.
And of course, there is the issue of prisoners, which both sides must come to an agreement over. Our soldier is still in the hands of the kidnappers, and thousands of Palestinians are languishing in our jails. Such a substantive issue ought to be dealt with now, and not to be left to be forgetten.
These are just three examples of outstanding issues that must immediately be dealt with, and could be dealt with without any “recognitionâ€. Actions speak louder than words. Dealing with these and other issues are much, much more important than getting bogged down over recognition.
The bottom line here is, it would be a terrible shame on the peoples of the region to let any chance of a settlement get bogged down over semantics and words. Because in the end of the day, conflict itself is a manifestation of not recognizing the other- in technical terms and in human terms. A settlement of conflict is in itself recognition by both sides of the other. Any final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will absolutely involve mutual recognition, and so then why should we let semantics serve as a barrier now, when we all know at the end of the day it will be dealt with?
Actions speak louder than words. Both sides much build some confidence here, because there is much to build.
Isn’t it interesting that the name-calling and fighting rages on in the “Thanks, Palestine” post, but here, where Jonny calls on specific actions from both sides to show some good faith (and in my opinion, is pretty easy on Hamas for someone posting from Israel), no one has a thing to say…. Good for you Jonny, for thinking productively and being productive. And shame on us for shying away from discussing real concrete steps and instead playing the moral relativism game over at that other post. Still not feeling good over here…
.. the silence could mean agreement here - otherwise there’d be at least at once a lot of critizism comments here - but this crucial theme of the main mideast conflict is that complex, that there are no ‘easy to tell’ solutions & suggestions for actions -it’s hard to discuss it if you’re not very well informed
the main problem is , if the one side does one of these suggested positive actions (it’s like laying one weapon down) & the other side doesn’t respond the same way - the first party will sooner or later take that dropped weapon up again –
I recognized giving back Gaza as a positive step, but since that time there wereover 1000 Quassam rockets from there shot at Israel – so if Israel would give back the West Bank, would that mean, that there will come a rain of Quassams from that area too? –
Releasing the Palestinean prisoners? – here I have not enough informations yet, why they are inprisoned, - you wouldn’t release prisoners in a semi-state of war if they’re found ‘guilty’ of having commited attacks on Israel – but may there are also only suspected people arrested? – I need more informations here.
Will there be peace if Israel would in a ‘land for peace`movement return to the borders of 1967? – I deeply doubt it. – as long as there is no united strong Palestinian leadership reliable for trusty contracts & also acting against those extremists who break the contracts like in the last armistice between Israel & Gaza. – yes there are extremists on both sides, but recently I read, that 2 Israelis, who had planned an terror act against a muslim school, were sentenced in Israel to prison for long years – I don’t see that people in Gaza get punished, because they break the official rules of the Fatah and Hamas government.
& I believe that it’s the crucial point to every negotiation between both sides: - to have an relieable partner on the other side, who stands for all of his people to his word.
What’s the sense if you act positive, while parts of your opponents act also positive, but others negative & others are totally out of control?
Hmm - & this is why I would never comment on a difficult theme like this..
Heimo, I agree — there is no easy answer and there is much suspicion on both sides. Your point about Gaza withdrawal bringing Qassam attacks on Israel and the danger of more from the West Bank should Israel with draw a valid one and one that I think about a lot, despite my naive wish for a speedy solution to the conflict.
Still, I believe talking about solutions, rather than rehashing each side’s greivances, is more productive than arguing over who is the victim, even if those solutions are seemingly way too simplistic. Mostly, I was just feeling sad about the contradiction. Lots of people have something to say in the name pointing game, but as you say here, no one seems to know what to say to make progress. (And in the spirit of full disclosure, I count myself among those who don’t know what to say here.)
Actually, in the other discussion, much of the argument was ABOUT not pointing fingers. One commenter and her picnic friend posted, and both resorted to generalizations and baseless accusations - and these mentalities as you know are not exactly appreciated here. That’s why they were targeted. It was hardly what you made it seem. The argument from our part was based on why we shouldn’t focus on who’s the victims and who’s right and wrong, rather than an actual fight over who’s the victim, which is what these commenters wanted, but what we didn’t do, it was a good opportunity to enforce our mission statement and policies.
So, Liora, you are mistaken in assuming that we’re here to fight and not to discuss, and that we chose that “fight” instead of commenting on this post instead. When people like that comment, it is my job and the job of the writers here to make sure that we aren’t here to do what they want to do, which is spread their hatred and generalizations over an entire nation rather than uniting with their Arab and Muslim brethren against all forms of extremism. If you truly believe that then you should’ve been here in the past when we spent much time discussing the same theme that Jonny brought up respectfully as we all did. It is possible and we proved to everyone that we are capable of these productive discussions, our archives are full of it.
Don’t accuse me of favoring that argument when I took it as an opportunity to make these people understand that saying Palestinians are blood-thirsty murderers will not help anyone, and how this mentality will ensure of only one thing, and that’s further bloodshed and war. The people who have such opinions are dangerous and must be targeted. I for one refuse to ignore them. They hurt everyone, including this site’s theme. And if I had to pick again, then yes, I would’ve still replied, and in the same manner in which I did, because I made your exact same argument and now it’s being seen as a game for victimhood when I specified in the thread itself that I won’t allow such pitiful discussions to take place here.
Esra’a — you misunderstood me.
I didn’t accuse you of anything. I didn’t even mention you by name. And I was commenting more on the angry posters — and the fact that you and others were SPENDING TIME on fighting them and contrasting that with what could be positive dialogue here. I was not saying that you — or anyone other member of the community here — had not been positive in the past. Sheesh! This response is really a huge surprise as my intention was so different from what you read. Much like you were angry yesterday in some of your responses (and I believe angry in this response as well) my inital comment here was one of frustration, and certainly not a commentary on you or this site’s mission. Just a point of comparison. Sorry it seemed critical to you.
That’s okay.
These days I am angry all the time due to what happened to Kareem, it is really depressing. My tolerance level is really low because of it and the excessive amount of unnecessary criticism and insults we are getting over the Free Kareem campaign pisses me off even more, and so I apologize if I am taking it out on people here.
My argument is that I took the time to reply because if I ignore it, that kind of mentality functions like a disease. They will continue going around believing what they do, and to be quite frank I am really sick of how many bloggers are portraying themselves as the victims and being ridiculously hateful against Arabs & Muslims. More and more bloggers are treating the blogosphere like a PR war and I wasn’t going to allow any of it to take place here, this place has a clear mission and I’d like to maintain it.
On a final note, Jonny’s post came in later when we had already began the discussions there. So to me it doesn’t make much sense to hop from one thread to the next if you were already tied to the discussions there.
Anyways, I would like to thank Jonny for this insightful post. But the above post is also much easier said than done. It’s not impossible, but it will take a lot of hard work from both sides.
Hamas is busy fueling its own civil war.
The realistic solution is not to just stop all violence. The issue is that every action keeps coming with an even worse reaction, and that’s the problem. Both sides are justifying their own crimes, and it’s not just by the governments. Actual people are dehumanizing their enemies, so how do we expect to move forward? Governments will always be corrupt, because power corrupts and it will continue to corrupt. Our targets should be on the people themselves, that’s where much of the power lies. Governments come and go, but the nation stays forever. Without public support, not a great deal of damage can be done by these governments, but the reason why many crimes are being dismissed on both sides is because people are treating them like “last resorts,” and so our problems are not primarily political (and they are definitely not religious), they are sociological.
Thanks, Esra’a, for your thoughtful reply. I can only imagine how stressful things must be for you with the Kareem verdict, and the shocking hateful comments you are getting on freekareem.org. Seems like we were both feeling angry and depressed these past few days! Another point of similarity between our worlds.
I guess I often feel like those people are so bigoted that no amount of common sense talking can make them see… and engaging with them can make otherwise rational people mad mad mad and less than tolerant. The conversation can just get out of control because those people make others so mad. Still, I appreciate your commitment to fighting those racist views, despite the emotional cost.
For me, I always want to say to those people, “how can you, as someone who is portraying yourself as fighting prejudice against Israelis and Jews (which most certainly does exist) in good conscience get behind prejudice against anyone else, such as Muslims?” If you’re against prejudice, you’re against prejudice. And if you don’t want your “side” to be discriminated against, how can you possibly do the same to another group?
Thanks again for your thoughts. And know that my thoughts are with Kareem, as well as the rest of the smart, committed people I have met virtually here. Let’s go get some schwarmas!
Hello,
Thanks for the positive replies to the post. I agree with many of you when I think arguing over historical grievances and who is the victim is best saved for after the fact- after the fact that we need to solve this conflict now and not later. Talking about grievances and victimhood is best saved for a nice cup of turkish coffee and some halva.
The point I was trying to get across here was that arguing over the concept of recognition now is just redundant and will not get us anywhere productive. Because, any final status agreement will absolutely include the fundamental procedural concept of recognition between both sides. And the point of final status agreement(s) is to put an end to the conflict, a conflict where by its nature neither side recognizes each other.
As an Israeli, I would be interested to know if and when Israel has ever recognized the possibility of a Palestinian state existing on any or all of the territories. I cannot recall such a declaration, though there is such declaration of recognition of identity in the Oslo Accords.
Hi, my name is Jonney, I am from Zaire.
Just like your resource :).