What is Hamas' alternative?

[IndianaGreen]

What is Hamas' alternative?

July 8, 2009
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Haidar Eid is a resident of Gaza City, a professor of English and a leader in the new Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Here, he looks at the political leadership of Hamas and its approach to the question of a "two-state" solution.
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After Barack Obama's much-talked-about speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, in which he had nothing of substance to say about the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, Dr. Ahmed Yousef, a senior adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, said in an interview on Al-Jazeera International that he was extremely happy with the speech. According to him, it was like Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech!

Two nights later, and on Hamas' Al-Aqsa television, the ex-spokesperson of the first Hamas government argued, and I would say with conviction, that Obama's (in)famous speech was a clear indication of the change taking place in the U.S. administration, and that "we" need to make use of the "diversity" within the American establishment. This, of course, came after Hamas sent a letter to Obama which Sen. John Kerry, who visited Gaza a few months ago, refused to carry.

Failing to understand that Obama's election does not represent a radical change in American Middle East policy is a sign of, to say the least, political immaturity. The "diversity" within the U.S. establishment is like the difference between the Likud and Labor parties in Israel. Obama still represents the Democratic Party, which is a part of the mainstream American establishment. Obama's victory in the presidential elections, therefore, has not produced a change in the nature of American imperialism.

Obviously, Hamas has bought the fiction brought about by the election of Obama and his "seriousness" in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas fails to see that in essence, what Obama is offering is not different from what George W. Bush and, before him, Bill Clinton offered.

In his speech, Obama made it crystal clear that U.S.-Israel ties are "unbreakable"; prior to that, he was more than clear in announcing that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of the Jewish state." For the Obama administration, Israel's security remains the issue that, ultimately, marginalizes the whole issue of Palestine.

http://socialistworker.org/2009/07/08/what-is-hamas-alternative