Tuesday January 3, 2006

Column:

It's time for a reality check.

Despite the all-is-good-and-getting-better attitude adopted by most of the world - Palestinians and Westerners alike - the situation in Gaza is not good. The situation is bad, very bad. And it is not about to get better.

Wake up, world, look at the facts. Face the realities.

Gaza is a pressure cooker. Gaza is boiling up and over. Why are people so intent on deluding themselves? Why are they so insistent on convincing themselves that after January 25th, the date chosen for Palestinian Authority elections, things will be better? Why do they think that Palestinian leader Abbas will be better able, better persuaded, better moved to act on the 26th than he was on the 25th? The United States is waiting until after January 25th before forcing Palestinian Authority leadership to take action against Palestinian terror groups. Why?

The elections are not the panacea everyone wishes them to be. The elections will be the true reality check. After the election it will be made clear to everyone what the Palestinian people want. Peaceful co-existence and an end to terror will not be on their agenda. Au contraire, my friends, au contraire.

Let's look at the facts, the real events, of the past few days. Just the other day, in Gaza, a self described "Italian peace worker" on a fact finding mission was kidnapped. The hostage was the last person to walk out of a meeting on his way to a waiting mini van. The group was in Gaza to learn more about the situation in Gaza. They may have learned more than they hoped for.
Two white cars sped up, threw the Italian in and screeched away. In the mini van, among the participants in that meeting, was a deputy of the European Parliament. Was the parliamentarian the intended hostage? Did the hostage takers take the last man out because he was easiest to grab? We don't know. We will never know.

What were the demands of the kidnappers? I laugh out loud as I write this. The kidnappers demanded an investigation into Yassir Arafat's death. They also wanted the removal of all corrupt Fatah leaders. The group claiming responsibility for the hostage-taking was Al Aqsa Brigade-Sunni People. And yes, Al Aqsa is part of the Fatah and accountable to Abbas. The Italian was eventually released.

The government of Italy has been seen as very sympathetic to the Palestinians and in their statement they said only that they were grateful for the safe release of their citizen.

Soon after a group of Palestinian terrorists broke into the United Nations compound in Gaza. Five of the intruders pummeled the security guard while the others blew up the bar of the UN compound. The compound is on the beach, the compound openly serves alcohol, the UN compound is a hangout for Westerners.

There has been no United Nations statement about the explosion.

The situation in Gaza - reality vs perception - is encapsulated in the hostage taking of the Burton family. Kate Burton, a 25 year-old British relief worker and her parents were kidnapped. Burton worked for Al Mazan, a Gaza human rights group. Nobody knows who took them. No group claimed responsibility. The British were furious. Pleas went out asking whoever had the Burton family to free them. Two full days later they were released. And then the Burton family issued a formal statement. They wrote: "We are in good health and have been treated extremely well through the ordeal." In a very short interview with the BBC Kate Burton said she "could not say a bad word about her captors." Her tune has changed a little since. Burton was quoted in the Times as saying she "felt stabbed in the back."

What a warped sense of reality.

If you are thinking Stockholm Syndrome, stop. This is not a scenario in which captives begin to sympathize with their captors. This sympathy was there way before the events began. And despite the personal ordeal, the sympathy persisted. And Kate felt compelled to make it public.

It is almost as if the kidnapping itself was a tool that would help the Palestinian cause. Only it backfired. The British and Palestinian leadership were very embarrassed by the entire episode. And the Burtons thought they were making it better for the poor Palestinians by telling the world that they "were treated extremely well." Treated well by whom? By nameless, kidnapping, murdering terrorists.

Any Westerner is fair game in Palestinian Gaza. Media, business, aid worker. Anyone.

For journalists, it makes covering Gaza an extremely difficult chore.

As a journalist, if you happen to see reality differently than official and/or powerful Palestinians would have you see it, not so subtle pressure is put on you not to present that reality. James Bennett of The New York Times escaped a kidnapping outside a hospital in Gaza. Terrorists tried to push him in to a waiting car. He successfully resisted. You didn't read about it at the time because he did not write about it. He was told by Palestinian leadership that he misunderstood the events. Period. End.

Gaza. Upside down reality.