Weekly Commentary: If a Mother Teresa was running Gaza She Couldn't Possess
Rockets
D. Aaron Lerner 19 October 2017
I appreciate that all the talking heads are confident that there's a
snowball's chance that the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation is actually
implemented.
Nonetheless, I maintain that it is important that we get our sound bite
right.
Our issue with the massive deployment of rockets, mortars and many other
implements of war in the Gaza Strip, in gross violation of the agreements
the PLO solely signed with Israel, is not that Hamas currently controls
them.
Our issue is that these illegal weapons are present at all in the Gaza
Strip.
Special Representative For International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt
stated today that "any Palestinian government must ...accept previous
agreements and obligations between the parties – including to disarm
terrorists..."
Now technically you could argue that within the phrase "accept previous
agreements and obligations" he had in mind the very existence of illegal
weapons in the Gaza Strip, but I fear that by then saying "including to
disarm terrorists" that somehow it would be ok, in his view, if Hamas
handed over their rockets etc. to the "good Palestinians" to hold onto.
Israelis are also talking about "disarming Hamas" instead of "ridding the
Gaza Strip of illegal weapons".
What do Gazans think about these weapons?
Here are the results of a poll of 500 Gazans carried out 12-14 October 2017
by An-Najah National University Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies
From your own point view, what is the most ideal solution for the arms of
resistance?
37.8% Collecting all arms and there should be no arms other than the arms of
one authority
27.8% Restoring the situation to how it was before the dominance of Hamas
over the Gaza Strip
20.6% Leaving the situation as it is now
13.8% No opinion/I do not know
That's right - only 20.6% of Gazans support Hamas' demand that it keep its
weapons.
Yes. We most certainly want Hamas disarmed.
But we need to be crystal clear that those weapons are not to be added to
the armories of the Palestinian Authority.
They are to be either destroyed or removed.
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