When I was a college student in Boston, I knew a young acting student from Los Angeles. I remember one striking conversation with him.
Confident, intelligent and good-looking, he told me that his upbringing gave him little reason to rebel.
His mother so flowed with him, was so in harmony with him, that he had nothing to resist. The implication, if unspoken, was that he was self-sufficient and deeply responsible for himself and his choices.
Okay, he grew up in Beverly Hills, surrounded by celebrities’ children and over-the-top materialism. Just the thought of it sparks my rebel reflex.
But that young man’s sense of taking risks on his own responsibility, without a parent or authority figure to blame, is the fate I wish for Hamas and its followers.
In the wake of their barbaric takeover of Gaza from their Palestinian brothers in Fatah and two years after Israel’s removal of almost 9,000 Jewish residents from that tiny strip of land, I want Hamas to take responsibility for their choices and deal with the consequences of those choices.
After the outbreak of this horrific civil war — which has revealed how debased the Palestinians have become — perhaps the best future scenario would be for the residents of Gaza to get fed up when their garbage piles up, their children die for lack of health care and their suffering becomes even more intense and unbearable, all under Hamas’ leadership.
Perhaps they will hear about the Palestinians in the West Bank, who are more educated and wealthier, whose children live longer and see the light of possibility. Perhaps Gazans will notice the stark differences between their conditions and their enemy brothers’ only 40 miles away.
In my optimistic scenario, the poor residents of Gaza will blame neither Israel, nor Egypt, nor Fatah, but their own leaders.
One needn’t read many news stories to imagine other scenarios far less hopeful. According to recent reports, Iran is supporting the Hamas fighters with training and weapons. Arms are being smuggled regularly (above and below ground) through the porous border with Egypt.
A worst-case scenario would have Iran funneling money to prop a fundamentalist Hamastan. Propelled by visions of jihad, Hamas then uses brutal force to control and wealth to placate.
Somehow, in the first days of this new situation, Israel has not yet been blamed for the strife in Gaza (though I’m sure some pundits have or will point their fingers at the Jews). I write this on Tuesday, knowing that reality could be starkly different by Friday, when The Chronicle reaches readers.
But I’m holding my breath that Israel will stay out of this intra-Palestinian conflict. Already, on Tuesday morning, Hamas fighters renewed their rocket attacks on Sderot, aiming for Israelis living within Israel’s borders. Their goal (aside from the overall aim to destroy the state) is certainly to pull Israel into the conflict.
Israel negotiates a delicate line between needing to protect its citizens from attacks and not allowing itself to be manipulated into immediate responses that boost Hamas leaders’ status and prestige. And that line will become more jagged as Hamas feels increased pressure and tries to distract attention from its own failings by provoking Israel.
On Monday, the United States ended the economic and political embargo of the Palestinian Authority. The European Union announced a similar decision. Those moves will open the gates for millions of dollars in direct aid to begin flowing to the Palestinian Authority.
Money is also likely to come from Israel, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that Israel would release tax revenues that have been held since Hamas won elections and took control of the Palestinian parliament.
Somehow, the residents of Gaza must benefit from those funds. They must not be able to blame Israel or Abbas or the European Union or the U.S. for their lack of food, water, electricity or gas.
The squalor of the Gaza Strip — one of the most densely populated places on earth — must be the failure of Hamas. Finally the stewards of their own fate, Hamas must be left without an authority figure to blame. And then, perhaps, they will be held accountable by their people, and forced to be real leaders.
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