mzalen-do
26th April 2006, 11:17
There is shock and awe in Israel and the western world in general about the recent coming to power of the Hamas in Palestine.
Hamas, an Islamist movement whose raison d’Ítre is to wipe Israel from the face of the earth, whitewashed the long-ruling Fatah party during the January 26 parliamentary polls.
Now, American and European aid taps are being turned off on the Palestinian Authority — they won’t touch "terrorists".
What Israel, America and the EU are not telling the world is that Hamas — just like Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda — is their child. John K. Cooley in Unholy Wars points out that Hamas has its roots in the Afghan Jihad, a crucial component of the 1989-90 US proxy war against the Soviet Union.
Hamas became the West’s enemy when on returning from Afghanistan they declared war on Israel, particularly from 1987 with the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifadah. Press reports show that Hamas is responsible for 60 suicide bombings against Israel between 2000 and today.
Like al-Qaeda, Hamas is one of the best examples of how the West’s (particularly America’s) foreign policy has backfired since the days of the Cold War, and how this is responsible for the deteriorating world peace and prosperity.
On paper, the policy is informed by the need to sow democratic seeds all over the world for the good of all. In actual fact though, America’s foreign policy is informed by imperialist ambitions with the doctrine of pre-emptive war as the spearhead.
With Israel as her foothold in the Middle East, the US has managed to turn that region into a permanent war zone for four consecutive decades since the 1967 Israel-Arab war, with devastating economic and social costs to both the Israelis and Arabs.
The situation has grown worse with the end of the cold war at the turn of the 1990’s, which paved way for the US to get directly involved. The 1991 Gulf war pitting Saddam Hussein’s Iraq against the American-led Western coalition forces, and again in 2003 has turned Iraq into a failed state — no legitimate central authority.
Critically, to call the bombing campaigns that characterised both occasions war is a misnomer. It is the massacre of innocent Iraqi children and hapless American youth (marines) in the name of protecting "our way of life".
Since 9/11, the US should have learnt important lessons in international relations. One is that the fact that an American airliner can be turned into a weapon of mass destruction against Americans within American soil is testament that global military dominance takes more than possessing B-52 bombers and an annual $400 billion military budget.
Second, there is palpable anti-Americanism around the globe. Forget North Korea’s and Iran’s vexing nuclear programmes. Things are not looking up well for the US in the hitherto malleable Latin America, a region the US has remote-controlled for centuries through direct and indirect military campaigns.
Hamas and other terrorist groups will not disappear in a hurry; neither will Iran or North Korea abandon their nuclear programmes tomorrow. But the US could begin to redeem herself by reconsidering her careless international foreign policy approach.
Hamas, an Islamist movement whose raison d’Ítre is to wipe Israel from the face of the earth, whitewashed the long-ruling Fatah party during the January 26 parliamentary polls.
Now, American and European aid taps are being turned off on the Palestinian Authority — they won’t touch "terrorists".
What Israel, America and the EU are not telling the world is that Hamas — just like Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda — is their child. John K. Cooley in Unholy Wars points out that Hamas has its roots in the Afghan Jihad, a crucial component of the 1989-90 US proxy war against the Soviet Union.
Hamas became the West’s enemy when on returning from Afghanistan they declared war on Israel, particularly from 1987 with the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifadah. Press reports show that Hamas is responsible for 60 suicide bombings against Israel between 2000 and today.
Like al-Qaeda, Hamas is one of the best examples of how the West’s (particularly America’s) foreign policy has backfired since the days of the Cold War, and how this is responsible for the deteriorating world peace and prosperity.
On paper, the policy is informed by the need to sow democratic seeds all over the world for the good of all. In actual fact though, America’s foreign policy is informed by imperialist ambitions with the doctrine of pre-emptive war as the spearhead.
With Israel as her foothold in the Middle East, the US has managed to turn that region into a permanent war zone for four consecutive decades since the 1967 Israel-Arab war, with devastating economic and social costs to both the Israelis and Arabs.
The situation has grown worse with the end of the cold war at the turn of the 1990’s, which paved way for the US to get directly involved. The 1991 Gulf war pitting Saddam Hussein’s Iraq against the American-led Western coalition forces, and again in 2003 has turned Iraq into a failed state — no legitimate central authority.
Critically, to call the bombing campaigns that characterised both occasions war is a misnomer. It is the massacre of innocent Iraqi children and hapless American youth (marines) in the name of protecting "our way of life".
Since 9/11, the US should have learnt important lessons in international relations. One is that the fact that an American airliner can be turned into a weapon of mass destruction against Americans within American soil is testament that global military dominance takes more than possessing B-52 bombers and an annual $400 billion military budget.
Second, there is palpable anti-Americanism around the globe. Forget North Korea’s and Iran’s vexing nuclear programmes. Things are not looking up well for the US in the hitherto malleable Latin America, a region the US has remote-controlled for centuries through direct and indirect military campaigns.
Hamas and other terrorist groups will not disappear in a hurry; neither will Iran or North Korea abandon their nuclear programmes tomorrow. But the US could begin to redeem herself by reconsidering her careless international foreign policy approach.