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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Talking, not force, is the only solution in Gaza | |
| 2008-12-28 | |
Air strikes were duly launched on Hamas targets in Gaza yesterday and scores have been killed. An operation by Israeli ground forces could be imminent. It is a depressingly familiar scenario, a cycle of provocation and reprisal that periodically escalates into full-blown war. There is no simple account of events leading up to the current confrontation that does justice to the amassed sense of grievance on both sides. But two specific events have played a decisive role: the decision earlier this month by Hamas to end a six-month ceasefire and elections in Israel due in February. In reality, the "ceasefire" was a tempering of aggression on both sides rather than a cessation of hostilities. Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni has declared the rocket attacks "unbearable" and asserted that the Hamas administration in Gaza must be "toppled". Ms Livni's hawkish stance is conditioned in part by the aspiration to become prime minister. Her Kadima party is trailing in opinion polls, behind Likud, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, a determined hardliner. The standing of incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert never recovered from the disastrous war he waged against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. Then, too, Israeli civilians came under attack from rocket fire and the army was sent in to rout militants over the border. But it did so with such indiscriminate force that, despite tactical gains, international outrage forced a prompt withdrawal. For Israel, it was a moral and strategic defeat. Mr Olmert wants strikes against Hamas to be more effective, which in theory means they would be forensically targeted. But that is not easy. Besides, as a six-month economic blockade on Gaza demonstrates, the welfare of ordinary Palestinians is always subordinate to Israeli security objectives. The blockade has accelerated the decline of Gaza's population into hunger and poverty. Israel insists Hamas is to blame, saying sanctions will be lifted when the rocket fire stops. But the blockade suits Hamas, which "taxes" money and goods smuggled in and provides welfare services to the population. Under siege, its monopoly is secure. There is, meanwhile, no mechanism to negotiate a way out of this impasse. It is not just Israel that does not talk to Hamas. The EU and US also refuse contact. That is because Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Its founding charter claims the Holy Land exclusively for Islam and calls for the complete annihilation of Israel. For all that the international community might wish for Israeli restraint, no government in the world would tolerate an enclave on its border run by an organisation ideologically motivated and heavily armed to kill its citizens. From the Israeli perspective, painful compromises already made - pulling down Jewish settlements in Gaza - resulted in less, not more security. That feels like a betrayal. But an equivalent betrayal is felt on the Palestinian side. Compared with Gaza, there have been modest improvements in conditions in the West Bank under Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But there is nothing like the progress towards statehood that would allow Mr Abbas to claim his more moderate approach works better than the militant line taken by Hamas. Even those Israeli and Palestinian politicians who are minded to negotiate are boxed into uncompromising stances, and for both the main reason is Hamas. But attempting to remove the problem with military power will not work. Hamas craves confrontation because its support increases when ordinary Palestinians are collectively punished, as has happened under the blockade. There are compelling reasons why Israeli politicians do not try to talk Hamas out of its militancy. But the near certainty of failure is also a more compelling reason not to try force instead. | |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #1 Years of talking have produced nothing. Talking only kills more people but over a longer period of time. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-12-28 14:26 |