HOPE springs eternal, and Dan Gillerman, former Israeli ambassador to the UN, is an optimist. He must be.
He believes that there is hope of some sort of settlement to the Palestinian problem in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s retaliatory strike against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza who ordered the eight-year rocket bombardment against Israel.
But his optimism rests not so much upon Palestinians as upon moderate Muslims and moderate Arabs who he hopes may now see that the world is not witnessing the clash of civilisations Samuel Huntington predicted in his best seller over a decade ago, but within a civilisation, the Islamic civilisation.
“Most of the horror, most of the killing, is within the world of Islam, whether it is in Dubai or Sharm el-Sheikh, or Afghanistan or Morocco, Muslims are killing each other,” he said in Sydney yesterday.
“We are not seeing moderates saying, ‘Enough is enough’. The wars in Lebanon and Gaza may bring about some sign of awakening to the fact terrorism is being exported by a extremist regime in Iran.”
The former business leader, who had some notable diplomatic successes during his 2003-2008 posting to the UN, including being elected as a vice president of the UN General Assembly, said the Gaza operation initially brought about an unprecedented level of support and understanding for Israel’s action from much of Europe, the US, nations like Australia and even from some parts of the Arab world.
As it dragged on, some of that support eroded but many nations conceded they would have acted in a similar fashion if their people had been under rocket attack for eight consecutive years.
“Moderate Arabs and moderate Muslims are awakening to the reality that Hamas is a monster that brought suicide bombings to the region, sometimes as young as 11-years-old, who would don their bomb belts sometimes helped by their parents,” he said.
“They know that Hamas holds the Palestinian people hostage, that it is persecuting its own people.”
Gillerman said no other country in the world had instituted the protective measures taken by the Israelis in their attempts to reduce civilian casualties, citing 250,000 telephone calls made to Palestinians to warn them to leave homes containing Hamas arms caches.
Yet civilians were killed, though not in the same proportions that they lost their lives in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq - and Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
The difference between Israel and Hamas in their approach to civilian deaths was marked, he said, by the reality that Israelis sheltered their children and Hamas used them, and celebrated the death of every child. Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said there would be no peace until the Arabs learned to love their children, he said.
Four messages could be drawn from the conflict: That the Israelis were not to be messed with; that Hamas had been weakened; that the strike was about current and future events, and that extremists in Iran and other rogue regimes should learn that the Israelis will stand on the side of moderates in their conflicts with extremists. There was another “missing link”, he said - the number of world leaders eager to see a settlement, from the US, the UK, across Europe and in other parts of the world.
The solution Gillerman envisages is not just a two-state answer, but a 23-state solution that would also embrace the whole Arab world.
Which makes it more remarkable that two Western Sydney Councils, Marrickville and neighbouring Canterbury, would waste their ratepayers’ time and money by passing resolutions which gave both overt and tacit support to Hamas.
Apart from exposing the ignorance of the councillors who supported the resolutions, backing proscribed terror organisations like Hamas is unlikely to foster the ideals of peace embraced by the inner-urban Green councils. Perverse contradiction is the new green mantra.
Real support for the Palestinian people, including those in Gaza is coming from an entirely different source - the UK-based Portland Trust chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, which has offices in London, Ramallah and Tel Aviv.
It is committed to promoting peace and stability between Palestinians and Israelis through economic development and has had some success raising funds for a $1 billion development in Ramallah, which includes 15,000 homes.
Its global conferences dedicated to rebuilding a Palestinian economy, giving Palestinians real futures, would be alien to the terrorist-supporting councillors.
Well-meaning idiots perhaps, but the futile motions will bring joy to extremist generators of international terrorism in Iran as they bundle up weapons for Hezbollah and Hamas. Moderate Arabs and moderate Muslims will only despair at such a demonstration of stupidity.
He believes that there is hope of some sort of settlement to the Palestinian problem in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s retaliatory strike against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza who ordered the eight-year rocket bombardment against Israel.
But his optimism rests not so much upon Palestinians as upon moderate Muslims and moderate Arabs who he hopes may now see that the world is not witnessing the clash of civilisations Samuel Huntington predicted in his best seller over a decade ago, but within a civilisation, the Islamic civilisation.
“Most of the horror, most of the killing, is within the world of Islam, whether it is in Dubai or Sharm el-Sheikh, or Afghanistan or Morocco, Muslims are killing each other,” he said in Sydney yesterday.
“We are not seeing moderates saying, ‘Enough is enough’. The wars in Lebanon and Gaza may bring about some sign of awakening to the fact terrorism is being exported by a extremist regime in Iran.”
The former business leader, who had some notable diplomatic successes during his 2003-2008 posting to the UN, including being elected as a vice president of the UN General Assembly, said the Gaza operation initially brought about an unprecedented level of support and understanding for Israel’s action from much of Europe, the US, nations like Australia and even from some parts of the Arab world.
As it dragged on, some of that support eroded but many nations conceded they would have acted in a similar fashion if their people had been under rocket attack for eight consecutive years.
“Moderate Arabs and moderate Muslims are awakening to the reality that Hamas is a monster that brought suicide bombings to the region, sometimes as young as 11-years-old, who would don their bomb belts sometimes helped by their parents,” he said.
“They know that Hamas holds the Palestinian people hostage, that it is persecuting its own people.”
Gillerman said no other country in the world had instituted the protective measures taken by the Israelis in their attempts to reduce civilian casualties, citing 250,000 telephone calls made to Palestinians to warn them to leave homes containing Hamas arms caches.
Yet civilians were killed, though not in the same proportions that they lost their lives in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq - and Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
The difference between Israel and Hamas in their approach to civilian deaths was marked, he said, by the reality that Israelis sheltered their children and Hamas used them, and celebrated the death of every child. Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said there would be no peace until the Arabs learned to love their children, he said.
Four messages could be drawn from the conflict: That the Israelis were not to be messed with; that Hamas had been weakened; that the strike was about current and future events, and that extremists in Iran and other rogue regimes should learn that the Israelis will stand on the side of moderates in their conflicts with extremists. There was another “missing link”, he said - the number of world leaders eager to see a settlement, from the US, the UK, across Europe and in other parts of the world.
The solution Gillerman envisages is not just a two-state answer, but a 23-state solution that would also embrace the whole Arab world.
Which makes it more remarkable that two Western Sydney Councils, Marrickville and neighbouring Canterbury, would waste their ratepayers’ time and money by passing resolutions which gave both overt and tacit support to Hamas.
Apart from exposing the ignorance of the councillors who supported the resolutions, backing proscribed terror organisations like Hamas is unlikely to foster the ideals of peace embraced by the inner-urban Green councils. Perverse contradiction is the new green mantra.
Real support for the Palestinian people, including those in Gaza is coming from an entirely different source - the UK-based Portland Trust chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, which has offices in London, Ramallah and Tel Aviv.
It is committed to promoting peace and stability between Palestinians and Israelis through economic development and has had some success raising funds for a $1 billion development in Ramallah, which includes 15,000 homes.
Its global conferences dedicated to rebuilding a Palestinian economy, giving Palestinians real futures, would be alien to the terrorist-supporting councillors.
Well-meaning idiots perhaps, but the futile motions will bring joy to extremist generators of international terrorism in Iran as they bundle up weapons for Hezbollah and Hamas. Moderate Arabs and moderate Muslims will only despair at such a demonstration of stupidity.
Source: Daily Telegraph
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