From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Feb 11 2009 - 15:42:49 EST
The Somalization of Hamas
11/02/2009
By Dr. Hamad Al-Majid
Khalid Mishal as leader of the Palestinian Authority, Ahmed Qurei as Prime
Minister, Saeb Erekat as Foreign Minister and Ismail Haniyeh as Minister of
the Interior. This is what the Palestinian political scene would be like if
we transferred the results of the previous Somali elections which obtained
political confirmation, and US blessing, and instead apply them to the
Palestinian scene with regards to the forthcoming presidential and
parliamentary elections.
I am aware of the substantial geopolitical differences between Palestine and
Somalia, but there are similarities that need to be examined. The new Somali
President, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed heads the political movement known as
the United Islamic Courts [UIC] which has a military wing, while Khalid
Mishal is leader of the Hamas movement. The UIC was previously considered to
be a terrorist organization by America, as Hamas currently is. America
attempted to suppress the "terrorist organization" of the UIC by using the
Ethiopian cats-paw, while America attempts to stifle the "terrorist" Hamas
movement by using the violent Israel cats-paw. America ran the UIC out of
Mogadishu, while it gave its blessing to the bloody and terrible Israeli
attack on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And so the former [the UIC] collapsed,
while the latter [Hamas] survived, and this is due to the different
ideological structures of the two movements. The UIC used Islam as a uniting
cause because it is not homogenous, while Hamas on the other hand was
founded upon ideologically harmonious principles, even though its leadership
varies between hawks and doves, and on their degree of political ambition.
Sheik Sharif became a refugee in Eretria, a country that is hostile to the
Ethiopian aggressor, while "Sheik" Khalid Mishal remains a refugee in Syria,
the country of "resistance" against the Israeli aggressor. Eritrea does not
ideologically agree with the UIC, while Syria does not stand with Hamas with
regards to its line of action. The former Somali President [Abdullahi Yusuf
Ahmed] was appointed by America after the UIC was quashed, while the
President of the Palestinian Authority received US blessing after Israel had
destroyed Gaza. Both have been put into place as a result of large US
political support, but it is the Somalis, and the Palestinian public who do
not cheer [this], and who are not quenched from hunger.
The former Somali President fled to Yemen as a refugee after America took
away the Ethiopian life-support [of his political regime], while if America
were to withdraw the political and financial life-support from certain
Palestinian leaders in Ramallah they too would flee to America.
Mohammed Dahlan [former leader of Fatah in Gaza] was described as the
strong-man of Gaza, but we did not witness any strength after the arteries
of external support stopped flowing. The fact is that Hamas did not defeat
Dahlan; rather Dahlan was defeated due to his lack of popular support
amongst the Palestinians. They [Fatah] had no leader, and [therefore] no
victory [in Gaza], and although Hamas's attack on Dahlan's offices in the
Gaza Strip are not comparable to the Israeli attack on Gaza; Hamas managed
to survive in the face of the terrible Israeli military might, not due to
military strength, but because of their arteries of popular support, for any
liberation movement cannot -even in the face of a superpower's army- be
destroyed.
And so what America has learned late on is that it has no choice in Somalia
other than to engage with a section of these Islamist "former terrorists"
who are led by Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who has become in the eyes of
America the moderate political figure. Following the destruction of
Mogadishu, they realized that it would be impossible for the Ethiopian
occupation to continue whilst being attacked by Islamist forces. They also
realized that those they [America] had put into power in Somalia could not
be described as rulers, for they only controlled the district where the
Ethiopian troops were based. It was for this reason that they fled from the
allied Islamic forces as if they were fleeing from a pack of African lions.
And so since "Obama's America" engaged with a former Somali "terrorist" will
they find themselves forced to engage with current "terrorists" in
Palestine, who hold in their hand hands blank checks of support from the
bank of Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic public support, rather than those
Palestinian leaders who only have traveler's checks that can be spent in
American banks?