Lost opportunity of relevance

[barb162]

5 - 11 July 2007
Lost opportunity of relevance
The left wing in Palestine has proven historically impotent amid the Fatah-Hamas crisis, which could have been avoided, Ramzy Baroud* opines

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The entire Arab world has become a scholar of law and an expert in constitutions. It has grown concerned with legality, observed regulations, and historical traditions, both those written and those not. I had thought that this trend applied only to the Arab-Israeli conflict, in whose context Arabs always throw out that valid phrase about the necessity of applying the resolutions stemming from the "legitimacy" of the international community. The world has always marvelled at how the Arabs possess this ability in the international arena but lack it in the establishment of states based on the rule of law.

snip
If you don't much care for Lebanese legal debates, you can always move on to the Palestinian arena, where the number of legal experts exceeds all global averages. As for constitutional scholars and those working in political science (focussing on politics both legitimate and otherwise), their numbers block out the sun. If talk had worth, Palestine would immediately be liberated under an effusive flood of legal rulings that would explain and clarify that missing or vague in constitutional articles and legal texts. Wherever you turned next, east or west, you would find a journalism of interpretation with an outstanding ability and acrobatic talent in transforming military coups into first class constitutional, legal, and legitimate situations. This would be true even if they had broken an agreement, fragmented a country, or turned a nation that had not yet gained independence upside down.

Wherever you go in the Arab world, you'll find the same cry. Even when the logic appears pieced together, lies seem believable thanks to their reinforcement through repetition. Look at the case of the Hamas overthrow of Palestinian legitimacy when the judge, with a boldness to be envied, looked into the extent that the measures taken by the Palestinian Authority were legal and constitutional, but not into the crime of those who imposed change with armed force. Writing placed all the actions of the Palestinian Authority under the guillotine of the law and its texts, while not a word was said about the extent to which Hamas's behaviour, Ismail Haniyeh's statements, or the actions of Khaled Meshaal, who was directing the crisis from Damascus, were in keeping with the law. It was as though all Palestinian factions were beyond judgement, and only one group was out of line.

snip
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/852/op5.htm

[pelsar]

1. its been quite the eye opener....

In the Lebanese and Palestinian cases, where the political entity has been destroyed in the name of the resistance, such talk is approaching various forms of black comedy and terrifying nightmares.

i've read quite a few articles from the palestenians to the lebanese to the egyptians.....it took hamas and "their methodolgies" to open quite a few eyes. Its not that it was any surprise to many of us who actually believe in what they said, it but was for those who "kept their head in the sand because the occupation was the evil of evils."

raises and interesting question for some: whats better for personal security with a secular occupation or theorcratic dictatorship with an occupation with those from the same gene pool

somehow i doubt i 'll get much discussion here on that, though many palestenains have expressed a preference for the israelis..... (i think that is heresay here)

[pelsar]

2. another eye opened....

About the coup in gaza 2007

Does it have to be that ugly? Does it have to be that bloody? How did ideological and moral changes take place without us noticing?

http://www.contemplating-from-gaza.blogspot.com/ Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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how did they not notice?...a lot of us did. But perhaps because it was directed against israel, it didnt count?..or perhaps because they were too busy blaming israel or believing all the false and exaggerated accusations to pay attention to what was happening to their own society? Perhaps all those "moral equivalents" from the left excusing their targeting and killing of israeli civilians (what choice do they have?), palestenains real estate agents, etc confused them?

[barb162]

3. Yeah, it's been happening right in front of everyone for years.

"How did ideological and moral changes take place without us noticing?"

There's a question that says a lot about the author. It reminds me of the people who complain about oil prices as they fill up their Dodge Durangos.