That's right, bucko, the POTUS has determined from and for reasons explicable only to himself that Hamas is no longer a terrorist entity which shot its way into power in the Gaza Strip whereupon it launched a rocket rain of terror on portions of Israel while entrenching and enriching itself by the open exploitation of those people unfortunate enough to find themselves at the wrong ends of Hamas controlled guns. Having decided that the current situation in Gaza is completely "unsustainable" the president opined, "it demands fundamental change."
The change envisioned by President Obama's "Announcement on Gaza," is not one which sees the overthrow of the Koran-waving, gun-toting, rocket-firing Mighty Warriors of Islam but its transformation via American declaratory policy into a legitimate government. Demonstrating that this "Announcement" was no mere exercise in patented Obama World Vision rhetoric, the Man in the Oval has put four hundred million of our (well, to err on the side of accuracy, borrowed or made-by-the-Feds-computers) dollars into the hands of Hamas and, to show proper balance, the Palestinian Authority.
The effect of the "Announcement" and the largess with other peoples' money serves to put the Palestinian Authority on an equal footing with Hamas. The logic of this defies rational explication considering that the PA at least makes some pretense of acting like a real, responsible government reluctant to fire rockets into Israel and, at least on occasion, showing some semblance of both democracy and a rule of law. The PA, in sharp distinction from Hamas, has even almost, sort-of, provisionally, allowed that Israel has a right to exist within secure borders.
Hamas has offered not even the slightest hint that it is prepared to (a) make peace with the PA, (b) submit its future to an open, transparent vote by the citizens of Gaza, (c) abandon its commitment to drive Israel into the sea, (d) drop its alliance with Iran, (e) stop its strident anti-Americanism, (f) observe even minimal human rights for its citizens, particularly women, (g) halt its antisemitic indoctrination of children, (h) cease all armed attacks on Israel by any person or group resident in the Gaza Strip and (i) commence an open, transparent, and effective program of economic development such as to benefit all residents of Gaza.
Considering that extensive but incomplete list of features, what is the goal of equating Hamas with the PA? What is the goal of the "Announcement?"
Mr Obama apparently believes that he can transform Hamas from its current nasty reality into a mature, responsible, legitimate government with the issuing of an "Announcement" and the provision of money. Of course, this hallucination is on a par with such previous triumphs of self-delusion as his belief that speaking nice, friendly, soft words to the mullahs of Iran would result in an instant abandonment of the quest for the Mahdi Bomb, a total rejection of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups, and the immediate ending of internal repression.
Perhaps Mr Obama would have done better had he thought in a manner less grand. Consider one less sweeping approach. A less grand move, to be sure, but one which would simultaneously test Hamas' will and ability to act the part of a genuine government and improve the lives and economic futures of the residents of Gaza. It would also directly address an ongoing point of friction between the folks of Gaza on the one hand and the PA on the other.
Electrical power is a point of ongoing distress for the people of Gaza. The operation of the one power plant in Gaza is also a subject of intense friction between Hamas and the PA. After the generating station shut down yesterday, Hamas immediately accused PA of causing the outage in order to "punish the people of Gaza." The PA replied that Hamas was seeking to "incite" the residents of the Strip against the PA.
Consider the following: Gaza receives a jilly-poo ergs per square meter from the sun. The number of cloudy days per year approaches zero. Solar panels, even the newer thin film sort, are no longer expensive to fabricate, although the process does include some very real environmental risks. The associated equipment, controllers, inverters, batteries, and so on are also relatively inexpensive to make and operate. The technology is reasonably mature, well understood, and not hard to master.
Solar based systems can be centralized which allows for the use not only of photovoltaic arrays but also solar heated steam turbines. Or the solar generation can be point-of-use based in the most decentralized way. This means the energy can be produced by either some central bureaucracy or by individuals. In short, this dual capacity obviates the he-who-controls-energy-controls-life tendency of Hamas.
On the human factors side of life, surely Hamas numbers among the creative engineering minds usually employed in designing and making rockets, IEDs, and explosives generally some men who can turn to the challenge of designing and fabricating point-of-use solar systems. Certainly, the large number of unemployed people can provide a labor force capable of making and installing solar systems.
All that is needed is (a) political will and (b) money. Mr Obama has made it obvious that money is available. In fact, the Europeans have been standing in line as well, all eager to toss money in the general direction of Hamas without any safeguards as to its usage beyond those of the pious hope variety. Only the political will on the part of Hamas has been lacking.
The will has been lacking because there has been no percentage for Hamas in doing so. Hamas gets money, lots of money, from various and sundry donors ranging from humanitarian NGOs to well-intentioned governments to governments whose intentions are not so benign. Hamas has been in the position of getting the wherewithal to do its terrorist thing and being freed of any responsibility to assure the citizens have more than the barest of bare essentials.
If Mr Obama entertained a serious desire to see Hamas change its nature from killer to governor, from bomb wielder to economic developer, he would have done something akin to linking American aid to a measurable, observable project such as the development, manufacture, and installation of low cost, point-of-use solar generation. This approach would have put a doable task before Hamas, a put-up or shut-up test as well.
If Hamas accepted the money, the conditions, and passed the it's-a-government-after-all test, the result would have been (a) green jobs, (b) ample electrical energy for residential, commercial, and limited industrial or agricultural use, (c) functional legitimacy with the citizens of Gaza and (d) a solid economic accomplishment of pervasive effect which would mean Hamas finally had something to risk if more rockets were fired with more IAF or IDF responses.
The "Sun Power For Gaza" concept is far from being the only option in the think-small-think-effectively category. It is an illustration of what should--and might--be employed if Mr Obama would only bring his ideas and ego down to mere human size. Grandiose pronouncements are fine, wonderful even--if substance and results are not considered.
Smaller ideas, lesser goals, do not sound nearly so magnificent. They do, however, have an advantage over their greater cousins. They lead somewhere. They accomplish something. The ancient Chinese put it succinctly and accurately, "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."
And, Mr Obama might be reminded, no journey can be completed with a single step.
No comments:
Post a Comment