It’s now 20 years since Hamas won a majority of the Palestinian vote on Jan. 25, 2006. Whereas the bulk of the Hamas vote was in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas won the vote on the West Bank. One year later, in 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza.
Had the election results been followed as laid out, Hamas would have been the voice of the Palestinians. The elections in 2006 were to reflect the combined will of the Palestinian electorate in both Gaza and the West Bank, not to mandate a division of the territories. But the Palestinian Authority never ceded power in the West Bank and Hamas refused power sharing in Gaza.
You know what has followed.
Hamas conducted an operation of terror based in Gaza culminating in its attack of Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel has since waged excessive retaliation on Gaza. In the meantime, the Palestinian Authority has been excluded from the Board of Peace established this past month by President Donald Trump. For understandable reasons, neither the United States nor the rest of the international community was ever going to recognize a Hamas political victory in either Gaza or the West Bank. But while the emirate of Qatar has been granted a seat on the Board, the Palestinian Authority has no say.
Granted, Trump has made room for a group of Palestinian functionaries to participate in rebuilding Gaza. But this Palestinian body has no voting authority (nor any authority). Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also feels slighted, as Trump did not first check with him as to his agreeability with the establishment of the Board of Peace. On the other hand, Netanyahu is pleased the Palestinian Authority has been denied a role, as its exclusion combined with the twilight of Hamas in Gaza makes a Palestinian state doubtful for the foreseeable future.
Netanyahu never learns. The Hamas which launched an attack on Israel in 2023 is the same Hamas to which he was providing assistance for years to undermine the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank. Though Hamas won the most votes in the Palestinian elections in 2006, the Palestinian Authority under Abbas was still recognized by most of the world community as the future impetus of a Palestinian state, thereby inducing Netanyahu to sabotage Abbas.
The current political dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict long predate Trump. When former President George W. Bush launched war on Saddam Hussein and Iraq in 2003, he had a vision of a new Middle East in which democracy could thrive. The problem was that Bush never considered the scenario (the very real scenario) non-democratic forces might win the most votes.
Not that the Palestinian Authority is a democratic entity. It’s corrupt and authoritarian in nature. Whatever vision Abbas harbors for a Palestinian state, it will have little to do with human rights. Just as doubtful are the democratic prospects for Trump’s Board of Peace. The United States has failed since assuming the role as leader of the free world after World War II to grasp that large pockets of the international community have no interest in peace and even less interest in human rights.
Not that Trump himself exhibits these values. His vision of Gaza in the future is a resort property to enable him and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to reap the profits. His hope is to clear the region of Hamas and continue disenfranchisement of the Palestinians on the West Bank. That’s not democracy and it’s certainly not human rights.
What must be done is for the United States to make clear to Israel that an independent Palestine is a goal. It’s doubtful such a state will be democratic and human rights might not be one of its priorities. But it just might reflect the will of the Palestinians. And as a bonus, the crossroads at which Israel finds itself may induce it to vote out of power the Likud government of Netanyahu.
As for the Board of Peace touted by Trump, it has no legs. Peace cannot be attained absent Palestinian participation. And the Palestinian Authority isn’t much more viable than Hamas. Neither Gaza nor the West Bank is at peace. Trump is nothing more than a Pollyanna in pushing his Board of Peace, a pseudo shortcut to a lasting settlement.
John O’Neill is an Allen Park freelance writer and a graduate of Wayne State University.
