Dire Obfuscation

As the situation in the Middle East spirals out of control columnists almost seem to relish the new opportunity to again nakedly reveal their unwavering pro-Palestinian biases.

Gwynne Dyer is just one of many columnists who fails to give a balanced perspective of the recent events.

Writing in the Citizen (sorry, no link) Dyer’s article entitled “Extremists are just an excuse” is another example of the mainstream trend to completely disregard and even ignore Palestinian provocations, writing them off as just an excuse for Israel to escalate the violence.

In this column, Dyer managed to sneak in a lie that, given his historian credentials, can only be a deliberate attempt to mislead readers into believing his Alice in Wonderland tale. Dyer writes

The Israeli government is run by men and women with decades of experience at navigating the shoal waters of Middle Eastern politics – people who think strategically and fully understand the complex relationship between an elected Palestinian government that doesn’t carry out terrorist attacks, and related but semi-autonomous militant organizations that do. They understand it because it was part of Israeli history too. Sixty years ago, when the Jews of British-ruled Palestine were an unrecognized proto-state under foreign military occupation, they had respectable political and military organizations. For example, the Jewish Agency and the Haganah (the militia self defense force that became the IDF). They also had brutal terrorist organizations, like Irgun and the Stern Gang, which killed both British soldiers and the Palestinians, who had a rival claim to the land, without compunction. The legitimate organizations did not control the illegitimate ones, but there was constant contact between them. The Palestinian Authority’s relations with the current crop of terrorist outfits is very similar. Hamas the militant Islamic party that won the Palestinian elections and subsequently formed a government has observed a self imposed cease fire with Israel for more than a year. Its “military wing” is a largely separate organization, has not - nor have other radical groups whose goal is to discredit main stream Palestinian organizations that want a negotiated settlement.

Dyer is comparing the relationship between the political arm of Hamas and its military wing to the (non) relationship that existed between the Jewish Agency and Irgun/Lehi!

The Irgun and Lehi were completely separate and independent from the Jewish Agency. The Jewish Agency through the Haganah often hunted down members of the Irgun and Lehi, notoriously turning them into the British who subsequently hanged them in what became known as “the Season”. The aim of this persecution campaign was to liquidate the Irgun and put an end to its activities. Hardly the type of relationship that exists between the political and military wings of Hamas.

The rivalry peaked in 1948 when the Jewish Agency opened fire on a ship called the Altalena which the Irgun had organized to bring much needed arms to Israel during the war of Independence. 16 Irgun fighters were killed and 200 arrested.

The Irgun and the Jewish Agency had completely separate ideologies. The Irgun were deeply associated with the Revisionist Zionist movement whilst the Jewish Agency were representing mainstream Zionism. They had completely separate organisational, intelligence, and militia structures. The Jewish agency denounced the existence, strategy, and tactics of the Irgun from the very outset. They were rivals.

Dyer knows this and has lied to his readers in a vain attempt at making a point that is impossible to make – i.e. that the political leaders of Hamas are reasonable and pragmatic statesmen.

In contrast, the political and military parts of Hamas are 2 wings of the same terrorist body. When the political wing makes a political decision it is Hamas that has made the decision. When the military wing perpetrates an act of terror it is Hamas that has perpetrated the act of terror.

If proof is needed then look no further than the pudding. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah, (regarded by Dyer as part of this legitimate and pragmatic political leadership) wrote in the Washington Post two days ago that

Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively.

As Honest Reporting pointed out we can therefore only assume that Haniyeh is taking responsibility for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit along with the Hamas leadership of Khaled Meshaal in Damascus and the "military wing" of the terrorist organization.

Write to the Citizen at [email protected]. Be polite and make quick, stern and reasonable points.

Either way, I am utterly opposed to a comparison of Hamas to the Irgun and Lehi. Feel free to debate this in the comments section. I think we need some good intellectual thinking around this.

Comments

[Steve]

I note that there clearly is some rivalry between Meshal and Haniyeh but that rivalry is within the confines of Hamas - not across it as is the case with Meshal/Haniyeh and Abbas of Fatah.

[Spider]

http://smoothstone.blogspot.com/2006/03/surviving-members-of-stern-gang-reject.html

The Stern Gang, derisively named by the British for its founder, Abraham Stern, called themselves LEHI, the Hebrew acronym for the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel. One of their underground leaders, Yitzhak Shamir, went on to become Israel's prime minister. Some analysts draw a parallel between Hamas and LEHI, yet the old fighters I interviewed were outraged at the comparison. They insist that the perceived parallel ignores the most critical and morally significant distinction between the two groups: Only Hamas uses indiscriminate terror against women and children as a regular instrument of war, and encourages its followers to commit acts of martyrdom to aid its cause.

Amos, now 92, told me: "We didn't blow up cinemas in London. We could have, but we didn't want innocents to die. We never willingly killed the innocent." Irit, now 76, explained: "We never touched the families of high officers and we knew exactly where they were. It simply never entered our minds. It was important to hit only those who continued British policies, stopping us from establishing our nation." Eyal, 83, insisted that many LEHI operations were canceled when there was a risk to innocent civilians.

Yasmine, 78, recounted that by age 17, she had pasted forbidden LEHI posters on Jerusalem billboards, smuggled arms past British sentries, traced the movement of His Majesty's soldiers through Jerusalem streets, and ridden troop trains throughout Mandatory Palestine, recording their timing and movements in an effort to assist the sabotage campaign against the railroads. But "we didn't kill even one child," she told me.

Hamas has carried out dozens of bus and restaurant bombings in Jerusalem and all over Israel, targeting not soldiers and policemen, but families out to dinner or kids going home from school.

[Raphael]

Well, both Hamas and the Irgun/Stern folks have the attitude that they should rule the land alone and the other side should disappear because God Told Them So.

Spider- can you back that up with information from people who were not members or supporters of that group? The members you quote only seem to talk about not killing *British* civilians, too.

And IMO it already says a lot that they were killing British soldiers while the British military was trying to stop Adolf Hitler from taking over the world. Wasn't the reason for the temporary split between Begin and Stern that Stern was willing to cooperate with Nazi Germany?

(To avoid misunderstandings: I completely agree with the main point of the post about he differences between the mainstream Zionist/Irgun relation and the Hamas military wing/Hamas political wing relations)

[Anti-UN]

Even worse - he is comparing the Israelu government to the Hamas political leadership.

[Steve]

Raphael, if I remember correctly you are correct - Stern wanted to go against Britain at all costs and pondered the idea of a deal that would see him harming British naval interests against the Nazis. The deal never got off the ground.
And it did cause a split in Lehi.

[greenmamba]

Here's a link to Dyer's article.

http://tinyurl.com/hrwcy

He's absorbed the worst Arabist mentality from Canada and the U.K. His bio says he "served in 3 navies." I suspect he was a waiter and a bad one at that.

[Steve]

Thanks for the link

[Amin]

The difference between Hamas and Irgun is that Hamas are not foreigners to the land, Irgun and his gang were European invaders.