Amongst the many calamities which have befallen the Palestinian people one of the worst ones is being systematically led by incompetent and corrupt leaders with no strategic vision and a true knack for always choosing the wrong side in a conflict. From their misguided alliance with all kinds of unsavory terrorist groups in the 1970s, to their support for Saddam, to their naive participation in the Oslo Accords, to today completely misguided support for the NATO-Wahabi insurgents in Syria – the Palestinian leaders seem to never miss an opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot.
The fact that the Israelis have successfully split the Palestinians into three separate groups (Israeli citizens vs West Bank residents vs Gaza residents) is certainly the most glaring example of how easily the Palestinian elites can be manipulated. And each time, there is hell to pay by the Palestinian people for such mistakes by their leaders.
Look at the situation in Syria. What have the Palestinians done to themselves this time? By siding with the NATO-Wahabi insurgency, they have essentially turned against Hezbollah and Iran, their only true friends in the region. In contrast, the Israelis have carefully succeeded in completely isolating Hamas and now they can afford to safely bomb and kill as many people of the Gaza strip as they want.
And what can Hamas do in retaliation? Fire some rather useless rockets at Israel and hype the rhetoric about “opening the Gates of Hell” for Israel which, of course, is utter nonsense. The truth is that the Israeli Iron Done does a halfway decent job shooting down many Palestinian missiles and even when the Palestinian missiles actually succeed in killing a Israeli family (like what happened today), it only serves the political agenda of the Israeli government.
In May of this year I wrote a piece I entitled Clueless Arab and Palestinian leaders and pundits: “¡Que se vayan todos!” expressing my despair and disgust with the Palestinian leadership. Since May, things only got worse, and innocent Palestinians are dying again as a direct consequence of the mistakes and miscalculations of the Palestinian leaders. And this really begs the following question: how many more Palestinians will have to die before the Palestinian people realize that they are led by a clique of completely incompetent leaders which do not make things better for the Palestinian people, but only worse, much worse.
The Saker
If you were able to advise the Palestinians on strategy what would you advise them to do?
I suspect many Palestinian intellectuals have convinced themselves that if Israel were surrounded by democracies it would be easier for their cause to get a hearing in the West and Israeli propaganda about being the only democracy in the Middle East would be harder to sustain.
As for Hamas yes they are hopeless. The rockets are a complete waste of time. They are incapable of inflicting any serious damage on Israel and just serve Israeli propaganda about defending their civlians from Gazan terrorists. It is completely irresponsible to engage in a military operation unless there is a very good chance of it acheiving something.
The emir of Qatar met with Hamas in Gaza recently so its quite likely that Hamas regards the Wahabists and the Gulf monarchies as their main allies rather than Iran and Hizbollah.
@Robert:If you were able to advise the Palestinians on strategy what would you advise them to do?
The short reply is to stick to the Hezbollah/Iran camp. But really, its a much more complex topic as I believe that an effective Palestinian resistance need to built up from scratch, primarily in the ideological sense. Fatah is essentially an extension of the Shin Bet, while Hamas sees to want to become a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood. The worst part is that there is no credible Palestinian leader, only a list of rather mediocre figures. Which is really a crying shame since Hamas has had some real tactical successes (remember the they blew up a segment of the wall?). Anyway, this is a very long and complex topic which I cannot address right now. But I will say this: they need to ditch their entire current leadership, that is for sure.
http://resistance-episteme.tumblr.com/post/35786104784/nasrallah-on-the-link-between-gaza-and-syria
Read this morning that Hezbollah’s Nasrallah has spoken in support of the Gazan’s.
@Anonymous06:50:this morning that Hezbollah’s Nasrallah has spoken in support of the Gazan’s.
Yes, I would have expected no less from him. Hezbollah did not betray the Palestinians, its the Palestinians who betrayed Hezbollah and themselves…
I’m in partial agreement with you Saker.
While I agree Hamas’ political leadership has been utterly shameful, the military wing has remained close to Iran. For obvious reasons: they KNOW they need weapons and they know Qatar/KSA/Turkey are worse than useless for that.
I’m not impressed with Iron Dome at all. It does nothing to change the strategic picture. Reports of closing Ben Gurion airport, Netanyahu running for a bunker and photos of domestic security minister Avi Dichter running for cover with the look of fear on his face is proof enough.
ID does intercept 1/3 of the missiles (according to Israel, and they have enormous incentive to exaggerate) But that does nothing to change the strategic picture: most of them do no damage anyway. And consider that each Hamas rocket is probably a couple of hundred bucks and each ID interceptor is 50,000. Also, Israel almost certainly fird more than one interceptor per missile shot down, I’d have to say that ID is not very useful.
Now, if Hamas had precision rockets, then maybe ID could protect vital locations, but I’m not even sure about that.
Israel’s ability to pound people in a cage was never in doubt. But compare this attack to the last one: In 2008/9 Egypt conspired with Israel to lull Hamas into a false sense of security. Israel was thus able to attack with total surprise a police graduation ceremony killing hundreds all at once. This time Hamas was much better prepared. Also, from the Israeli side, they are suffering much more widespread disruption than last time. (not much I know, but more than before. I don’t trust the MB one bit, but at least Morsi is trying to avoid the open and blatant collaboration Mubarak engaged in. If for no other reason than he will be political lunch meat if he tries that sort of thing.
And don’t forget the Jordan factor. King Abdullah is in trouble with growing protests next door. His fall will put Israel in a very awkward position and the Gaza massacre might very well be the last straw.
@Lysander: First, I agree with everything you wrote. You are quite correct when you say that ID is rather useless, as are the rockets, of course. Its all about the Israelis being cowards and totally over-reacting to what is really minor and crude threat. I think that the worst consequence of the Palestinian’s supporting the NATO-Wahabi forces is not so much material, as it is moral. Basically, they have sided with the very same party which is bombing them today, and that is plain crazy. Yes, sure, Hezbollah+Syria+Iran would be better allies than Egypt+Jordan, and while Qatar+KSA+Turkey could in theory provide meaningful help, they will never do so since they are all in bed with Israel. But its not like Hezbollah+Syria+Iran could really protect Gaza either. So what we are left with is a morally bankrupt Palestinian leadership trying to win a pissing contest with an enemy which is pounding the shit out of them while they support the allies of that same enemy in nextdoor Syria, which used to support them.
A disgrace, imho.
Cheers!
The Saker
In exchange for their toy rockets, if we gave the terrorist Hamas organization cruise missles pre-programmed with ONLY military targets would Hamas still be terrorists?
End terrorism.