(Jerusalem Post) Hussein Solomon - South African Muslims have a very simplistic view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and do not seem to understand the complexity of tensions emanating from various factions inside Israeli and Palestinian society. Our simplistic understandings lead us to applaud when Iranian President Ahmadinejad says that Israel should be wiped off the map. The fact that this was tried in 1948, 1967, and 1973 and failed seems to have been ignored. In South African Muslim circles, Hamas often gets a lot of positive press whereas Mahmoud Abbas and the PA are seen as either ineffective in securing concessions from Israel, or worse, seen as collaborators. However, the destructive and counter-productive nature of violence as a strategy to secure territorial concessions is increasingly recognized by Palestinian society. The writer is Director of the Center for International Political Studies at the University of Pretoria.
2005-11-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive