Contrary to common accusations levelled at Egypt, Hamas is second after Israel in upholding the siege on Gaza, writes Abdel-Moneim Said The international community has finally taken note of the tragedy of Gaza under the siege imposed upon it since the Hamas coup two years ago. Evidently, the Israeli war on the Strip a year and a half ago was not sufficient to focus the international spotlight on this intractable crisis; it took the Freedom Flotilla and nine Turkish dead. The crisis has its roots in an occupation that has gone on far too long. Passing through several phases since the beginning of the Palestinian cause in 1948, the Israeli occupation has wrought the steady erosion of Palestinian rights year after year. It is the story of a partial occupation that expanded into the complete occupation of Palestinian land, and of an occupied people who struggled for self-determination only to meet constant attrition of their rights to life and human dignity. Meanwhile, the newly established state of Israel evolved into a military power that succeeded in gobbling up the rest of Palestine. Along the way and ever since, the international community granted it extraordinary privileges: the right to possess a nuclear arsenal free of international checks; licence to use force wherever, however and in whatever doses it pleased while the international community looked the other way; and huge injections of money and technology and facilitated access to national markets, enabling it to grow ever more economically and militarily powerful and domineering. How all this came about is not the subject here. The story is too long, and the pain and grief it tells are too acute and deep. Suffice it to say that one of its essential themes is the contrast between an extraordinary ability to manage an intense conflict by using diverse means to build up strength and energy versus an extraordinary incompetence that has no difficulty in exacerbating its own weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The recent incident pretty much encapsulates the story, at least since the early 1990s when the Palestinians regained -- for the first time -- a portion of their own land and their own ruling authority. Granted, the land and the Palestinian Authority (PA) were still in the grip of the Israeli occupation. However, the Palestinian flag flew over government buildings, Palestine had an observer seat in the UN and a prominent place in international forums, and the Palestinians had became the recipients of aid and resources that no other liberation movement had ever received. For a while it seemed that the establishment of a Palestinian state was just around the corner and that all that remained was a question of timing. Sadly, however, the opportunity of the 1990s was squandered and the clock was turned back to the situation that had prevailed during the Oslo process. Worse yet, now all that had been lost could only be recuperated at a tremendous price. The Israeli siege on Gaza was part of that heavy price, because Gaza had gone its own separate way, beneath the banner -- and political and religious domination -- of Hamas. Curiously, both Israel, Hamas and other groups in the West that never see eye-to-eye with each other have joined forces in the attempt to paint Egypt as a guilty party in this picture. For the sake of the historical record, it should be stressed that Egypt exercised no end of patience and self-restraint as it withstood a mass storming of its borders and saw its sovereignty perforated with tunnels to permit the smuggling of arms in both directions between Gaza and Sinai, and the infiltration of the elements needed to create militia cells to threaten the Suez Canal. Perhaps what was even more difficult for the Egyptian authorities that do not deal with the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate political group inside Egypt was the de facto reality of their rule in Gaza. In practical terms, Egypt's policy here translates into respect for international rules that regulate relations between Gaza and its neighbours while refusing to allow for the strangulation of Gaza and the destruction of human life there. Hamas played the second greatest part, after Israel, in the implementation and perpetuation of the siege on Gaza. Regardless of what one might say about the legitimacy or illegitimacy of its coup and its complete rejection of all proposals for intra-Palestinian reconciliation (including those it had initially approved), Hamas adamantly and persistently refused to allow any PA presence at the Gaza crossings, of which six are at the borders with Israel and only one along the border with Egypt, at Rafah. It even rejected the Egyptian proposal that PA soldiers and representatives at the crossings be drawn from the inhabitants of Gaza who are under the iron fist of Hamas. The determination to supplant the PA at the crossings carried more weight with Hamas than the need to lift the blockade. I have no idea what is going on in the heads of the people in Hamas. The central point of the Palestinian struggle for six decades was not to solve a refugee problem but to advance the cause of a people having a right to self-determination. This cause had reached a stage where aid and assistance was pouring in, in order to build the foundations and institutions of a forthcoming state. Then along came Hamas, which has so far succeeded in reverting the cause to where it had originally come from in the eyes of the world: a refugee and relief crisis, a humanitarian tragedy that required only maritime rescue missions. Israel was handed precisely what it wanted. After a few days of worldwide sympathy for the Palestinians, the Palestinian cause was completely redefined. Along with this change, the compass of sympathy shifted, the issues were blurred and confused, and Egypt and Turkey were dragged beneath the glare of censure and suspicion, in spite of the fact that the true aim and intent of both countries is to save Palestine from the abyss into which it has sunk. The situation, now, is clear. Unless the Arabs and international parties pressure Israel not only into lifting the blockade but also into reopening avenues to the resuscitation and further development of Palestinian governing institutions, there will be another round in the conflict. Moreover, I do not believe that pressure will be effective unless Hamas makes the major strategic choice between its desire to hijack the PA without electoral legitimacy and the future of the whole Palestinian cause. Such critical decisions are difficult to make. In fact, it was the inability to respond to this type of challenge constructively that has led to the continued deterioration of the cause generation after generation. It is sad to say, but so many decisions taken by Palestinian organisations, groups and movements were poorly judged, if not plain wrong and frequently foolhardy, which served only to alienate friends and allies and broaden the ranks of enemies. Poor judgement stemmed from the mistaken assumption that the world could not turn a blind eye to the "un-ignorable" Palestinian cause. Unfortunately, the world is brimming with "un-ignorable" and pressing causes. Over recent decades Somalia, Afghanistan and other countries have been torn apart by war and strife, and elsewhere plumes of smoke have flared into uncontrollable blazes. Occasional outbursts in the media may recall our attention to this issue or that, but the uninterrupted din simultaneously works to reduce issues to the same familiar chords heard daily throughout the media. When everything has been levelled to the ordinary in this manner, all that remains of the noblest and greatest causes is the business of organising relief operations. Is this what Hamas wants? Is this what the Arab League and the Palestinian people aspire to?
