Worldwide Java Jag: 2009-01-04

Monday, January 05, 2009

HELP US BY GEORGE

I didn’t get my Christmas wish. Santa did not slide down the chimney and leave my gift under the tree. Perhaps he didn’t get my letter or perhaps he took a good long look from his pole position and saw the utter futility of my request. Too bad, because it was a very economical, very eco-friendly wish and left no carbon footprint. All I wanted for Christmas and beyond was a little George Orwell style precision in nomenclature. I wanted everyone to stop calling Hamas “terrorists.”

The start of the war on Hamas has been very hard for me over the last week. Not only am I still smarting in disappoint at Santa’s failure to deliver, but it seems that he is actually trying to humiliate me, big time. Next year having learned my lesion I am going to write for my gift directly to the spirit of George Orwell. I could do no worse.

Here is what has happened in the last week to unnerve me. Everyone in the Israeli and American political establishment has been calling Hamas “terrorists” or a “terror organization”. Tzipi has call them that, so has Barak and Netanyahu. George Bush has been shouting “terrorists” from the rooftop.  Yesterday to my utter disappointment Condi Rice used the “T” word numerous times in her statement when referring to Hamas and their actions. Nicholas Kristol the N.Y Times columnist did so Monday.

Orwell left an indelible mark on the western mind when he so brilliantly examined the role of language in shaping political thought and real world actions that result from those thoughts. Everyone in Tel Aviv and Washington should re-read Orwell. Calling Hamas a terrorist organization or an organization that uses terrorism delegitimizes Hamas government and its actions and may even make them even angrier than they already are, thereby prolonging the conflict.

Let’s give them credit for the government they have set up and let’s acknowledge the concrete actions they have taken towards achieving their political goals. Even if those goals are war to regain all of Palestine by eliminating the Zionist occupiers, as Hamas’s spokesperson stated on Janurary 5th.

A small but crucial matter of terms: terrorists are non-state players using indiscriminate force to inflict destruction on their enemy. The Mumbai gunmen are recent examples; shadowy, unelected, without spokespeople or uniforms. Return address unknown, rank and serial numbers defaced, denials of involvement from all queried.  Does any of that describe Hamas?

Hamas are state players. They were elected by a majority of Gazans. They have numerous spokespeople who can be reached for comment via Blackberry. International journalists regularly receive text messages from these Hamas leaders, usually containing key words like Zionists, burn, hell, drop, blood, last, martyr, massacre. These message senders can be phone interviewed and attributed. As for their organization it is as clear as the water in the Red Sea. Khaled Mashaal in Damascus, in Gaza there is Ismail Haniya and the late Nizar Rayan. They are not in the shadows, they are out in the open. They have plainly and frequently articulated their plans and goals for Gaza and the Zionists and the Jews beyond. They have a published charter available online, you can read all about them on Wikipedia.

The factual, accurate, descriptive word Orwell would have preferred to describe the Hamas leadership is “high command.” Just try it, let it enter your thoughts and roll off your lips. Like splenda instead of sugar, substitute “ high command” every time you would use “terrorists.”

Words can help define reality and the reality you have in Gaza is a war between two states. The shooting of rockets into Israel is no more an act of terror than the shooting of GermanV1 rockets into London. Hitler’s rockets were one of many weapons of war. Mortars have been a traditional armament used by forward armies for about three hundred years. The firing of mortars by the Hamas high command into Israel is not terror, but old-fashioned WWI style stuff.  Hamas has used the six-month truce to rearm and re-supply itself. That’s what armies do. The tunnels dug under the Philadelphia corridor could have been used for food, medicine or economic development. They were not. The Hamas high command (see how fast you can get used to it) made a clear policy decision to ship in Grad missiles instead of Parmalat.

Credit Hamas for what it is, look it in the eye and acknowledge its political and military goals. Stop politically infantilizing them. It serves the Israeli’s very poorly to misidentify Hamas because it makes the Israeli military response seem disproportional. A state vs. a band of you know whos. Psychologically, substituting the term high command also stops the underdog lovers from always siding with Hamas. It evens out the fight.

Using the right words would add to the clarity of the conflict, watch public opinion shift even more to the Israeli’s favor. Orwell helped us all by stressing the importance of language, now let’s take advantage of those insights to correctly describe the Hamas threat.