As the prospect of Middle East peace phases in and out, one must keep in mind that it's been a long and nasty 13 years since Hamas ruthlessly took over Gaza in a coup disguised as an election.
The ups and downs experienced by Gaza's residents have netted two wars and one economic problem after another. As complaints have risen, a variety of spokespeople have stepped forward. They include two specific types of representations: The first comes from the governments of states such as Jordan, Qatar, and others, that in all cases are ruled by kings, dictators, or both. The second comes from groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas.
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What ties these groups together is a series of anomalies that raise two important questions: How can they speak for Palestinians? And if they can't, who can?
The king of Jordan claims to speak for Palestinians, but how can he when he represents the needs and interests of his own country? He openly states that he is the sole "moderate" negotiator between the Palestinians and Israel and the West, but under Abdullah's 20-year reign, what has he negotiated?
The Muslim Brotherhood claims to represent Palestinians, but how? This terrorist organization is so destructive that most Islamic countries do not allow it to operate and classify it as a terrorist organization.
The Palestinian Authority – the recognized governing body – represents no one except President Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies, who live in luxury both in and out of the country. They are impudent, and frankly, no one pays much attention to them. For example, Gaza is being strangled by Hamas, which is supposed to take orders from the PA, yet it doesn't.
Hamas is a political party that thrives on dictatorship, crushing the people and lying to the world.
The leaders of both the governments and the organizations support censorship, illegal detainment, and Islamic law that opposes secular concepts such as gay rights and peace with Israel. And regardless of which leadership is up and which is down, Gazans themselves have always been the losers and no one in this world seems to care what they think.
Now is the perfect time for the Palestinian populace to stand up and follow new leaders. We propose the creation of a new organization that can provide that leadership: the Palestinian Opposition Coalition.
We, the writers of these lines, are two Gazans who have fled Hamas' hell to Europe. Both of us are computer geeks with good jobs in the EU. We have made it.
Why would Gazans choose to run an article in an Israeli newspaper? The answer is simple: No one but Israel cares what Gazans think and what Gazans want.
When UN officials open their mouths before the world's media to speak about Gazans' suffering, they don't know what they are talking about nor do they know what we are striving for as human beings.
When Arab dictators bleat about our rights and how Israel is allegedly crushing us, they don't care for us. In fact, those very Arab rulers have played the greater part in creating suffering for Gaza.
When European officials talk about the need to help Gazans, it is, in most cases, a sugarcoating of their deep-seated anti-Semitism.
We will tell you what we Gazans want.
We want Hamas out. We voted for Hamas almost 14 years ago because we had enough of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. Even Christians in Gaza voted for Hamas as the lesser of two evils. Gazans have been historically more liberal and less religious than other Palestinians. This has been known since the British Mandate for Palestine was created.
We thought our lives could improve a little under Hamas. And what did we get? Hamas is more corrupt than the Palestinian Authority thugs. Even worse, Hamas labels anyone who opposes it an "infidel." At least the PLO would not do that.
And Hamas itself is not self-governed. It is common knowledge in Gaza is that Hamas is the Palestine chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan.
We find it puzzling that very few people outside of Gaza seem to know this. But the British doctoral dissertation of Jordanian scholar Osama Bank Ershied confirms our claim.
During the 2014 war [Operation Protective Edge], word on the Gaza street was that Hamas was rejecting Israel's offers of a ceasefire "because they don't have permission from Amman."
Hamas is a puppet managed by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is controlled by the Jordanian monarch and financed by Qatar with money and weapons from Iran.
And that is not the most interesting or important part of this article. Our main message: Hamas has impoverished us and enriched its leaders. Hamas oppresses, beats, tortures, and occasionally kills us. With Hamas, it seems that jihad begins at home.
We are Hamas' biggest victims. The parades you see in support of Hamas are staged. Schoolchildren are threatened: If they don't attend, their parents will be arrested.
Except for the 5,000 people who comprise Hamas' leadership and their children, we Gazans would love to see Israel taking over Gaza again and running it under the Civil Administration, as it did before the Oslo Accords.
We do not want the corrupt Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza again. And as much as we love Egypt and its president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, we don't want Egyptian rule, either. We want things to return to the days before Oslo.
For those who wonder what our identity and citizenship will be: Most Gazans are educated and well-read. We know Jordan's regime stands on shaky ground. A change in Jordan would result in an extension of Jordanian citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and then, we would have peace based on facts and reality on the ground as US President Donald Trump said when he addressed the UN in September of last year. We are willing to hold Jordanian citizenship and connect administratively to Jordan, but that will require a change of the status quo in Jordan first.
This is the truth that could set all of us free.
