Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams with Barack Obama
August 28, 2010
Hamas, the I.R.A. and Us
By ALI ABUNIMAH
Chicago
"GEORGE J. MITCHELL, the United States Middle East envoy, tried to counter low expectations for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations by harking back to his experience as a mediator in Northern Ireland.
At an Aug. 20 news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, announcing the talks that will begin this week, Mr. Mitchell reminded journalists that during difficult negotiations in Northern Ireland, “We had about 700 days of failure and one day of success” — the day in 1998 that the Belfast Agreement instituting power-sharing between pro-British unionists and Irish nationalists was signed.
Mr. Mitchell’s comparison is misleading at best. Success in the Irish talks was the result not just of determination and time, but also a very different United States approach to diplomacy.
The conflict in Northern Ireland had been intractable for decades. Unionists backed by the British government saw any political compromise with Irish nationalists as a danger, one that would lead to a united Ireland in which a Catholic majority would dominate minority Protestant unionists. The British government also refused to deal with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, despite its significant electoral mandate, because of its close ties to the Irish Republican Army, which had carried out violent acts in the United Kingdom.
A parallel can be seen with the American refusal to speak to the Palestinian party Hamas, which decisively won elections in the West Bank and Gaza in 2006. Asked what role Hamas would have in the renewed talks, Mr. Mitchell answered with one word: “None.” No serious analyst believes that peace can be made between Palestinians and Israelis without Hamas on board, any more than could have been the case in Northern Ireland without Sinn Fein and the I.R.A.
The United States insists that Hamas meet strict preconditions before it can take part in negotiations: recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by agreements previously signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, of which Hamas is not a member. These demands are unworkable. Why should Hamas or any Palestinian accept Israel’s political demands, like recognition, when Israel refuses to recognize basic Palestinian demands like the right of return for refugees?
As for violence, Hamas has inflicted a fraction of the harm on Israeli civilians that Israel inflicts on Palestinian civilians. If violence disqualifies Hamas, surely much greater violence should disqualify the Israelis?
It was only by breaking with one-sided demands that Mr. Mitchell was able to help bring peace to Northern Ireland. In 1994, for instance, Mr. Mitchell, then a Democratic senator from Maine, urged President Bill Clinton — against strenuous British objections — to grant a United States visa to Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader. Mr. Mitchell later wrote that he believed the visa would enable Mr. Adams “to persuade the I.R.A. to declare a cease-fire, and permit Sinn Fein to enter into inclusive political negotiations.” As mediator, Mr. Mitchell insisted that a cease-fire apply to all parties equally, not just to the I.R.A.
Both the Irish and Middle Eastern conflicts figure prominently in American domestic politics — yet both have played out in very different ways. The United States allowed the Irish-American lobby to help steer policy toward the weaker side: the Irish government in Dublin and Sinn Fein and other nationalist parties in the north. At times, the United States put intense pressure on the British government, leveling the field so that negotiations could result in an agreement with broad support. By contrast, the American government let the Israel lobby shift the balance of United States support toward the stronger of the two parties: Israel.
This disparity has not gone unnoticed by those with firsthand knowledge of the Irish talks. In a 2009 letter to The Times of London, several British and Irish negotiators, including John Hume, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the Belfast Agreement, criticized the one-sided demands imposed solely on Hamas. “Engaging Hamas,” the negotiators wrote, “does not amount to condoning terrorism or attacks on civilians. In fact, it is a precondition for security and for brokering a workable agreement.”
The resumption of peace talks without any Israeli commitment to freeze settlements is another significant victory for the Israel lobby and the Israeli government. It allows Israel to pose as a willing peacemaker while carrying on with business as usual.
As for Mr. Mitchell, since he was appointed Middle East envoy, he has so far enjoyed almost 600 days of failure. As long as the United States maintains the same hopeless approach, he can expect many more."
Ali Abunimah is the author of “One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse."
(A version of this op-ed appeared in print on August 29, 2010, on page WK10 of the New York edition of the New York Times.)
Interesting. I have met Adams myself and was active in the Irish Republican movement, both in the USA and Europe.
ReplyDeleteIt is a double standard. How much money was raised for the IRA in the US during the 70's and 80s? How much American money lead directly to bombings and other attacks in Ireland and the UK?
I guess the difference is that the IRA are white, look like us, and share much the same religion.
I think this is a beautifully reasoned, which is why I wanted to share it here. I actually thought of you when I read it because I remembered that you'd been involved in Irish Liberation. I became interested in Palestinian liberation as a direct result of my Anti (SA) Apartheid activism--so I can easily see the parallels. I hope this essay has a wide readership.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I got involved in the Palestinian issue and ended up becoming a Muslim because of my interaction with Muslims/Arabs in and around the Irish Republican scene.
ReplyDeleteThe close historical connections between the Palestinian movement and Arab movements in general and Irish Republicanism is something many American supporters of Irish Republican either deny or choose to ignore, especially post 9/11.
A lot of their American supporters are politically very conservative here in the USA which is an odd combo considering Sinn Fein and Irish Republicanism in general has been to the left or even far left since the 1970s.
Anyway, I dont know if you remember it, but there was a sniper attack at an Israel check point a few years back. 10 dead soldiers and settlers in 25 minutes with 25 shots. Reports were that it was an IRA man. It makes sense, Palestinians havent been known for that type of attack, especially done at at that. The IRA, however, has a long history of such attacks, especially the Volunteers in South Armagh who were responsible for the deaths of many British squadies, including one shot from almost a mile away with a Barrett .50
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1387326/IRA-link-to-PLO-examined-in-hunt-for-deadly-sniper.html
Your story is fascinating. I winder how many other activists for Palestinian liberation got involved as a direct result of the Irish struggle?
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting point about how American IRA supporters tend to be politically conservative. There is a larger argument there about the way people invested in singular struggles fail to connect the dots to others around the world. That is one of the biggest failures of identity politics, I think. Anyone who cares about Irish liberation or SA apartheid should be enraged by the colonization and oppression of Palestine.