Fraser’s view of Hamas is ‘misguided’
JOHNNY Baker responds to former Prime Minster Malcolm Fraser's call for the Federal Government to engage with Hamas.
JOHNNY BAKER
FORMER Prime Minster Malcolm Fraser’s call for the Australian Government to engage with Hamas in an article titled The isolation of Hamas is impeding peace (The Age, August 11, 2009) is as misguided as it is misleading.
Misguided, because it would lead to a strengthening of extremists over moderates and misleading, because it distorts the stated policies of numerous parties.
Fraser infers that the Obama administration had indicated in its pre-election campaign that it would create dialogue with ‘potential enemies’ like Hamas in the hope of bringing them in from the cold. Nothing can be further from the truth.
Whatever one’s views on the US administration’s policies on the Middle East, there is a very good reason why Hamas is emphatically not part of that equation.
This is simply because to confer legitimacy on Hamas would simultaneously cripple the standing of Fatah which also came to power through ‘legitimate elections’.
Strangely, Fraser’s article makes little reference to Fatah. To do so would undermine his flawed argument. Make no mistake, there is an ideological chasm between Hamas and Fatah.
One party, at least in principle, supports a two-state solution whereas the other is ideologically committed to a one-state solution involving the elimination of the State of Israel. These stark differences were underscored as recently as this week’s Fatah conference in Bethlehem where a resolution was passed calling for the establishment of a Palestinian State alongside Israel.
Hamas’s charter, on the other hand, is punctuated with references to the need for Israel’s destruction through force. And its actions throughout have been entirely consistent with such an invidious ideology.
Make no mistake. The enmity between Fatah and Hamas at the moment is as acute as that between either party and Israel. It seems the Arab world comprehends better than Malcolm Fraser that it is Palestinian division and intransigence rather than Israeli policy that is making peace so elusive.
This was succinctly put by Saudi King Abdullah who in his address to the Fatah conference last week pointed out that Israel was unable to “to hurt the Palestinian cause as much as the Palestinians hurt their cause themselves”. He went on to say that “I can honestly tell you, brothers, that even if the whole world joins to found a Palestinian independent state, and if we have full support for that, this state would not be established as long as the Palestinians are divided.”
So why would Malcolm Fraser wish to charter a course that would inevitably divide the Palestinians even further? Surely he understands that dealing with both Fatah and Hamas is mutually exclusive and counter-productive.
Why on earth, would the Australian Government choose to engage with the extremists at the expense of the moderates? Why support an organization that is founded on precisely the ideological platform that threatens the entire Western World, Australia included, when there is an alternative that can potentially accommodate our values?
Contrary to what Fraser infers, this is precisely the line of thinking that is driving current American and Australian policy. To suggest that somehow they stand in isolation by refusing to deal with Hamas is also misleading.
Indeed, Hamas, under its current charter, has been defined as beyond the pale for a role in the peace process by the EU, Russia and the UN Secretary General, as well as the United States (the “Quartet”). Underpinning their approach, is the recognition that moderates in all parties need to be strengthened and, conversely, extremists weakened.
They understand that Hamas can only be recognized if it meets the internationally established criteria for being a party to the talks- recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence, and agreement to be bound by past agreements. Fraser’s formulation is for the exact opposite and its naivety is staggering.
Which brings us to the most disturbing aspect of Fraser’s exhortation. His oft-repeated sinister claim that the reason the Australian government has not adopted his approach is for ‘fear of criticism from the Jewish lobby’.
Sadly, this raises the ancient canard of pointing the finger at a minority group and suggesting it exercises undue power through illegitimate means. Malcolm Fraser knows full well that Jews make up less than 1% of the Australian population. He also knows that they are an articulate and engaged community that is totally committed to democratic processes.
At the end of the day, no force in the world can prevent a Government from doing what it sees as being in the best interests of this country.
Perhaps the reality is simpler than fanciful conspiracies. Australia, in keeping with most Western democracies, is simply carrying out good policy in refusing to engage with an extremist fundamentalist group.
One can only be gratified that there is bi-partisan support in the Australian parliament for promoting moderation rather than extremism. Hopefully, Malcolm Fraser’s counter-productive formulations will remain as marginal as the extremist organization whose cause he has been consistently promoting over recent times.
Johnny Baker is a member of the Editorial Committee of Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council.
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