Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, is a psychiatrist, founder and president of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and a commissioner of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights. His years of work in the heart of the nightmare that has been Gaza has brought him recognition and respect from a distinguished list of westerners familiar with the difficulties endured by the people of Gaza for decades.
In a recent op-ed carried by several newspapers, including the Boston Globe and the International Herold Tribune (http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/15/opinion/edsarraj.php) Dr. Sarraj shares with us his concerns for his 14 year old stepdaughter. She has been an outstanding student at the American School in Gaza, speaking both Arabic and English. He tells us proudly that she was intending to continue her studies in the United States.
However as a result of the current hostilities the American School was bombed and destroyed. In addition her best friend was killed.Of course, these incidents proved disturbing and traumatic.
Dr. Sarraj shared with his readers his attempt to respond to her statement/question: “She criticized Hamas because they should have considered that Israel would use the rocket launching as a pretext to invade Gaza and destroy it” Dr. Sarraj explains, “by confiding to her that Hamas will survive this test by merely holding on. I relayed a conversation I had with Dr. Zahhar, long time member of the “collective leadership” of Hamas, in which he was predicting, almost precisely, what Israel is doing now.”
In other words, Hamas with malice, purpose and forethought launched rockets at Israel knowing that the result would be widespread physical destruction and the deaths of hundreds of innocent Gazans in order to pass a test that would confirm Hamas as leader of the Palestinians. From the point of view of the organization all the blood and misery was worth the ego building effect of “holding on” in the face of an Israeli attack.
I have since learned of an even more pedestrian motivation from interviews conducted with Hamas leaders in the past, and shared in the New York Times op-ed page; sibling rivalry; (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/opinion/14goldberg-1.html?_r=1)
Hamas and Hizbollah children of the same Iranian parent are in competition for the approval of the parent as well as of the larger (Muslim) family. Which one of them can withstand the assault of the Israeli army longer. Hizbollah did it for over a month. Can Hamas allow itself to display weakness and stop in less than six weeks? If it weren’t so deadly we could also enjoy rooting for our favorite in this cross-town rivalry like,competition.
So, its on this basis that hundreds of innocent men woman and children must suffer, for the glory of Hamas and its standing as number one on the Top Ten survivors list of Arab/Muslim origin fighting Israel.
