There
are real lessons to be learned from the outcome
of the recent Palestinian elections, not least the
United Kingdom's and the United State's outspoken
support for the electoral process in other peoples
countries needs to be taken with a large dollop
of salt. For as soon as a political party which
is not on their most favored list gains the electoral
support of the masses, the USA's and UK's support
for the democratic process wilters and they begin
to erect roadblocks as to why it is not possible
for the electorally successful but unfavored party
to form a government.
Take
the case of Hamas, who recently became the majority
party within the Palestinian Parliament. The US
administration and their British counterparts have
used the fact that Hamas's military wing has engaged
in suicide bombings in its war against the Israeli
occupation to bar their way from holding office
within the Palestinian Authority [PA]. Fatah's armed
wing in the occupied territories, the al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, have also been involved in the same, yet
we never heard a word from the US or UK governments
that this would prohibit the Fatah leader, Mahmoud
Abbas, from being Palestinian President, nor members
of his party from forming the P.A. Government.
What
has become increasingly clear is that both the GFA
and the Oslo Accords have been used as a stalling
and blocking device, designed to prevent democratic
accountability and good Governance within the north
of Ireland and an independent Palestinian State
on the West Bank and Gaza strip.
As
soon as one problem is over-come, another takes
its place to prevent the process moving forward
to fruition. Without going into the fine details
of this, as the list of obstructions to a just settlement
emerging within either localities lengthens by the
day, I will just point out a couple of the major
obstacles which have been erected down the years.
First,
according to the Israelis and their US paymaster,
Arafat became the problem in Palestine. Now with
his removal from the scene and fair and free elections
having taken place, Hamas' success in these elections
takes his place as the main obstacle to progress.
Something similar happened in the north. We had
the PRM involvement in criminality, next decommissioning
re-emerged as a road block and when this was removed
it was again replaced by criminality and PIRA intelligence
gathering as highlighted in the recent IMC report;
and so it goes on.
Of
course the British government in the north of Ireland
claims it is not they who are erecting these road
blocks but the Unionists, who are merely following
their electoral mandate. The USA does much the same
in Palestine when they claim it is the Israelis
who refuse to move due to the aforementioned problems.
Both governments are being disingenuous for both
Israel and the northern state-let exist on the good
will and economic input of their benefactors from
across the seas. To suggest the Ulster Unionists
and the Israeli government is its own master on
this matter is nonsensical.
If
this was just a matter of the two governments erecting
the roadblocks and SF and the PLO getting on with
their business of building their political support
and servicing their political base then whatever
the two governments did would not weigh so heavily
within the communities from whence the PRM and PLO
came. However both the PLO and SF leaderships have
chosen to counter every false claim and in the process
have run themselves ragged selling to their own
constituencies one compromise after another in their
vain attempt to stay in the game. In the case of
SF its leadership is forever trooping off to be
briefed by the British government, only to return
to its political base having to sell yet another
compromise demanded of it by its British enemies,
only further down the line to be recalled to Downing
Street to be told some other trivial matter is blocking
the way of progress and so the process repeats itself.
Not
only must this exhaust and demoralize the SF leadership,
and its core support base, but it does not allow
this leadership a minute to reflect and ponder on
the progress of events as they always on a tread-mill,
the speed of which is controlled by their Unionist
and British opponents. Thus they continuously find
themselves rushing from one 'vital' appointment
to another as if they were the Belfast Fire Brigade.
Compare
this with what Hamas have achieved in the years
since the Oslo accords came into being. True, their
leadership has had to dodge Israeli assassination
squads, often unsuccessfully. But whilst doing so
they and their activists have worked away building
a radical support base and infrastructure which
these days Fatah and SF's leadership can only admire
nostalgically. The irony of this is that the likes
of Fatah and SF were the role models for Hamas and
many radical groups of how to build a political
machine. While SF leaders were shaking yet another
President, Prime-Minster, leading churchman, journalist
or celeb's hand and spending endless hours moving
between one meeting to another, Hamas was doing
what a radical political organization and its militants
should be engaged in, plotting and working towards
the downfall of all they oppose.
An
old Yorkshireman once said to me when I had done
something foolish, Think on. Perhaps it is time
the SF leadership and its rank and file did so and
considered if it might be advantageous for them
to untangle themselves from a process which has
brought them, and more importantly those they represent,
few real benefits in the last couple of years, but
a great deal of bad publicity and misinformation.
The problem with the Good Friday and Oslo Agreements
is when in recent years its governmental sponsors
said jump, the radical parties it was designed to
bring in from the cold have been reduced to replying,
'how high' and this cannot continue if a fair and
just settlement is to be the end game.
