Hamas' Cynical Plan

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish.  It is the child of hope and the home of the brave.  It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success.  It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

            President John F. Kennedy 

This past week, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the U.N. Riyad Mansour spoke of the recent troubles between his state and Israel.  He spoke of Israel breaking the recently agreed upon cease-fire and castigated the Jewish state for the massacre of Palestinians.  Interviewer Charlie Rose asked about the actions of Hamas, breaking the truce with thousands of rockets leading to the Israeli response.  Mr. Mansour, speaking with either shocking naïveté or willful obliviousness, said that Hamas does not represent the Abbas government and therefore, does not represent a violation of the cease-fire.  The U.N. Observer’s verbiage is characteristic of an unbalanced and cynical approach in the worsening climate of the Middle East. 

Since the Oslo Accord in 1993, Israel has been pushed into one agreement after another in which it sacrifices and Palestine does not.  Israel has ceded territory, has agreed to a needed two-state solution and nine years ago, it demolished a slew of Israeli settlements throughout Gaza and the West Bank to secure a possible peace.  It has entered into negotiations with the Abbas government who has shown, at times in the recent crisis, remarkable courage in speaking out against Hamas and those who support the terrorist group.  Yet, Hamas lies just outside the light of diplomacy and refuses to budge.  

Hamas has pursued a policy that calls for the destruction of Israel by inviting its fire and using ordinary Palestinians as shields.  Despite Mr. Mansour’s blithe understanding and acceptance of Hamas, the terrorist group has fired its many rockets out of homes, schools, mosques and areas that would ensure, in the retaliation, what Charles Krauthammer called the telegenic death of hundreds of innocent civilians.  The deaths of innocents televised are callously used as part of a public relations campaign that has won support throughout the world.  Morality does not matter, only the end result.  Hamas fires away at Israel while some throughout the world justify the means used.  I guess terrorism works.  

For all those who chastise and criticize Israel for its actions, it fails to offer an alternative.  Some have suggested at other times that Israel needs to negotiate.  To what end?  To lose more land or invite more rockets?  Other observers have correctly assessed that since Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank ended nearly a decade ago and Palestine has been able to pave its own path, vital economic and political institutions, needed infrastructure and stability has been absent.  Despite the fact that Israel gives the Palestinian state millions of dollars a year in aid and supplies, a periodically well-intentioned Mahmoud Abbas and the powerless Palestinian civilians have been in the grips of Hamas.  The terrorist organization has repeatedly sought to undermine any efforts of peace.  They want the destruction of Israel and if it can’t happen militarily, they will do so by cynically placing its own “constituents” in the line of fire to convince the world that Israel is in the wrong. 

Israel, to its credit, has failed to dove-tail into the culture of death and martyrdom that is being embraced in Gaza.  Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, referring to the words of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has come out to say that Israel will not glorify the Jews responsible for the reaction to the death of three Israeli teenagers.  Those who killed that young Palestinian man will not be hailed as heroes, will not have public squares named after them and will not be taught to young Israeli children.  All of which has happened in Palestine.   

It is difficult to say how Palestine and the ordinary citizen will be able to take control again of its future and its faith.  Thankfully, if recent international news coverage holds true, there has been a more even-handed reporting of the recent violence with a hard look being cast upon Hamas.  Israel has little open to them in the way of options.  Hamas is counting on that and hoping that the old formula will work once more.  Perhaps, people are starting to see the position with which Israel has wrestled over the last couple of decades.  If Hamas can be shown for what it is, it might bring the region closer to peace.  Sadly, I don’t expect to see it any time soon.

An Eagle Rising?

In 2000, there was much excitement in Mexico over the election of the first non-PRI candidate in nearly a century with the inauguration of Vincente Fox.  Mr. Fox came into office promising sweeping reforms and an attempt to roll back institutional corruption and graft that had held the Mexican economy and people back.  Felipe Caldorón, the former mayor of Mexico City, said many of the same things.  In 2012, PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto was swept into office with again, promises of reform.  However, with Mr. Peña, the world press has focused and sees a bright future for Mexico.  The question is whether Mr. Peña can succeed where his well-meaning predecessors failed. 

Several fronts need to be tackled, simultaneously, if Mexico hopes to realize its potential as a society and as an economy.  Mr. Peña has help that can prove instrumental.  One, he is the head of the leading party in the country but also enjoys support for his reforms from the party of his two predecessors, the Reform Party or PAN.  However, not all of his fellow PRI compadres will go along because some of Mr. Peña’s efforts and plans include checking the influence of the powerful unions.  Some PRI politicians are not going to take on that battle.  Still, Mr. Peña has the chance to make some changes by addressing three key areas – the economy, corruption and migration.   

Economically, while there are some parts of Mexico that are doing well, others are lagging dramatically behind.  No one party can lay claim to an economic plan that will save Mexico therefore, a new approach will need to be developed nationally, if not locally.  Nationally, the north is developing at a nice pace with GDP per person at some of the highest levels in the country (Nuevo León, $16,000; Coahuila, $11,100).  Outliers to this statistic include Quintana Roo on the Yucatán at $10,600 and the hub of money in the Federal District ($19,200).  Most of the country, including the bone-crushing poverty in the south in states like Chiapas ($3,600) and Oaxaca ($4,100) and those hovering around mediocrity such as Tabasco ($5,900) and Michoacán ($5,500), are in desperate need of increase investment and more business-friendly measures.  The only way this can happen is to loosen the power of the unions. 

The unions, along with politicians and the police, is a source of corruption and graft.  There can be no “business-friendly” atmosphere unless the level of crookedness and red tape can somehow be reduced.  It is not just the big corruption but the everyday, almost mundane levels of graft that is crippling Mexico.  In a study reported by Economist, Mexican households spend approximately $2.5b (32b pesos) annually on bribes for things ranging from “public” services to primary school.  For many international businesses, to go into Mexico is to accept a level of corruption that is seldom seen.  Of course, the same Mexicans who are paying these bribes cannot or will not express their outrage – many feeling that the problem is too big.   

Only by increasing the economy throughout the country, only by reducing corruption from the highest levels to that directly impacting each Mexican family, can there be any hope of curbing or regulating more effectively the migration issue.  It is true that recent emigration levels have dropped significantly but only because the economy of the U.S. is so uncertain.  The most recent Pew Research study show there are roughly 12m people in the U.S. who were born in Mexico.  Consider the talent and the intellect that is leaving the country - and in many cases, not returning.  Additionally, the cavalcade of children making their way into the U.S. highlights Mexico’s issue with immigration across its southern border.  Included in this tale are those who are entering the U.S. under the orders and threats of drug cartels.  The Mexican government, in recent years, has made progress against such forces but to suggest that the threat has reduced would be a fallacy. 

Several years ago, I visited Mexico City.  What I saw is a hard working population that is fighting uphill to make it to the end of the day.  Regularly, they see a government that does not seem to work while they pay their Danegeld each day with little to no long-term benefit.  Mr. Peña has a tough road to travel but he has the resources, both in the land and the people, to make Mexico the envy of the developing world.  A great many things need to fall in place but if political courage can rise with public outrage and indignation, the major problems of Mexico today could well be studied in the history books tomorrow.