Thinking Aloud: Yes, Palestinians Have Domestic Politics Too
August 5, 2014 by Darius
Today, a 72-hour ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, went into effect between Israel and Hamas. Without knowing what the future might bring, it has the best chance of holding of any ceasefire proposed thus far. Yet the actual terms of the ceasefire are very similar to those Egypt proposed at the beginning of the conflict and again on the eve of Israel’s ground invasion. I’ve seen a number of people express their confusion and even irritation at why those ceasefires weren’t accepted by Hamas. It seems that Palestinians aren’t allowed to have “domestic political considerations.”
When the US or Japan or Israel or any number of other countries conduct their foreign policy, it is assumed to be against a backdrop of domestic political considerations. Specific things are said or done to send a message to a domestic audience, not necessarily a foreign audience – and sometimes…
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