“On The Romanticisation of Villains and The Price of Peace”
Dana, who lives in KIbbutz Nir-Am and who is one of the targets of Hamas rockets, stands in front a collection of kassams fired during the past year. Hamas has targeted civilians for the past eight years.
“Peace? Peace. I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.”
- Tybalt
“Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much
excuse the appertaning rage to such a greeting:
villiain am I none. Therefore farwell. I see thou
Knowest me not. ”
- Romeo
ROMEO + JULIET
I shall try to be rather plain and simple with my present argument, and be accordingly, deliberately bereft of legal suppositions, which are for all intents and purposes, based on logos and reason; in the rare instance wherein my Public International Law professor might read this, as well as my fellow creatures of el ley, I do humbly beg their pardon – it was never my intention to have a discussion of Israel’s extensive state practices or a conversation on the effectivity of United Nations Resolutions. This will not be about the Palestinian right of return as well either, as I feel such rights are in the present question, inapplicable although truly relevant.
What I shall try to talk about is the romanticisation of Hamas in the media.
(Here are several links to the world’s and the press’ reaction to Israel’s offensive:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/29/israel-gaza-attack-palestinian-reaction
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28425590/
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/559374
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gmNkvusJr_EjXQf57lRjP7WZS14w
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=185784
I am certain that there are a lot more; but in summary, the general sentiment is the disproportionate response of Israel and the sanctimonious outcry against it. )
Let us be clear: Hamas, is a terrorist organisation- it has been responsible for numerous deaths of civilians, more famously by means of sending rockets beyond the Gaza border and onwards to nearby Israeli settlements and communities. Its commitment to blind violence and cruelty does not extend to the citizens of Israel however; it has been in no uncertain terms, rather brutal towards fellow Palestinians as well, notably with rival Fatah members.
It has also been proudly anti-Semitic as shown by its charter (http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm) and much worse, explicit in its rejection of peaceful means in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
“Article Thirteen:
Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. “Allah will be prominent, but most people do not know.”
Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?
“But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah.” (The Cow – verse 120).
There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:
“The people of Syria are Allah’s lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation.”
And yet, the world sympathises.
It feels sorry for cowards who sue for peace not as a honourable means of resolution but as a matter of convenience; a truce was offered and it was consistently violated numerous times by Hamas. Certainly, discretion is a necessity and safeguards must be undertaken in order to ensure, at very least, that the Israel Defence Forces should inflict the minimal amount of civilian deaths and damage to the general populace. What I do not understand however, are the protests against the right of Israel-as guaranteed by the United Nations Charter- to defend itself: the world feels, wrongly, that as a greater force and a greater power, Israel must suffer and instead turn the other cheek.
In other words, to be a hostage to the insanity of mad men.
As a civilisation, we stand upon a delicate precipice in our history- numerous economic troubles presently descend upon us like a cavalcade alongide episodes, almost oddly normal in terms of its intermittence, tragically, of terrorism; as such, the easier choice of course, is to surrender, to capitulate, to tread upon a Pyrrhic path to peace so that we may have the deceptive courage to face our lesser troubles.
Let us remind ourselves the price of having such a false peace- a few years after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain landed on the tarmac of the Heston Aerodrome, (estimates ranging from) 50 to 70 million people perished in the second World War II.
That is not the price of a true peace; that is the cost of romanticising a villain.
With a resolved and firm reminder of circumspection for Israel’s actions, my humble yet clear and unwavering call for the world is this.
Let us be resolute. Let us be righteous.
Let us not bow before the the guillotine of terror and instead, bravely face its barbaric horrors with strength and with might.
With the firm determination of civilised nations.
And the true reality of being heroes.
