For the past several days Israel has rained down rockets on Gaza, causing hundreds of deaths, including those of children. Israel justifies its actions as a response to continued rocket attacks on its civilians by armed members of Hamas, the party which rules Gaza. The stupidity and blindness of all the parties in this latest bout of the Israeli-Palestine conflict is painful to witness.
Why is Israel doing this? And why is it really doing this? The answer to the first question is: to put a stop to Hamas's actions of launching crude and indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilian areas of Israel. Which Hamas have undeniably been doing. The real reason however is to attempt to de-legitimise Hamas within Gaza and the wider Arab world. Both strategies are doomed to fail.
Morally, any government whose citizens suffer indiscriminate and murderous attacks is justified in attempting to destroy the aggresors. In fact they are duty-bound to do so. And this line has been put out by everyone from Tzipi Livni, Israel's current foreign minister, to internet commentators. The problem is that things are not quite as clear-cut as that.
Israel occupied Gaza in 1967 and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been crushed into that tiny area ever since. Following decades of uprisings and conflicts Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in late 2005. In 2006 Hamas defeated the ruling Fatah party in Gaza elections, garnering 42% or so of the vote and becoming the elected representatives of Gaza. They consolidated their role in a power-struggle with Fatah's armed wing. The reaction from Israel, the US and the west was to immediately attempt to overthrow this democratically elected party, by arming and training Fatah fighters and then by a crushing blockade of Gaza itself. This is the key to today's bloodshed - the attempt at regime change of a democratically-elected government. It doesn't sit easily with the 'Bush doctrine' of overthrowing dictators and dealing with democrats.
In its charter Hamas openly calls for the destruction of Israel, denying its right to exist. It is therefore condemned by Israel and the US as a 'terrorist' organisation. History has shown us, however, that this word is a pretty loaded one. Today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter, interlocutor or even statesman. Its happened countless times, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. So Hamas finds few friends in Western governments today. The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, condemns Hamas for creating this situation. But then he would - he is a Fatah leader, their rival, and is backed by the US as an alternative leader.
Here's the irony. When Israel had the chance to negotiate with Fatah, and its then leader Yasser Arafat, they did everything they could to undermine them and discredit him. Now the more secular, Arab nationalists of Fatah have been sidelined, Israel has to deal with the more Islamist Hamas. And now, of course, Israel wants Fatah back. Bit late now though, isn't it?
So Israel's devastating air attacks on Gaza aren't really about Hamas's rather puny rocket attacks, even allowing for the fear and casualties they cause amongst the Israeli civilians on the receiving end. It is about attempting to manipulate Palestinians' representatives. The theory is that Hamas will have been shown to have brought misery on the Palestinian people and so will be rejected by the Palestinian voters. It is a strategy absolutely guaranteed to fail. As indeed it will fail to bring security for Israelis.
Israel will have Palestinians, and Arabs, as their neighbours forever. Outside backers like the US will come and go, but the Palestinians will never go away. Hamas is indeed stupid and immoral for playing their part in the conflict, for deliberately murdering civilians and for marginalising pragmatic Palestinians. But Israel has also killed innocent civilians; they may have a slight moral edge in that it is clear Israeli jets to not deliberately target civilians, but there is no doubt whatsover that Israel's actions constitute 'collective punishment' on a civilian population, which is explicitly outlawed under international law, treaties and conventions. It is also perfectly obvious that air strikes in such as crowded area are absolutely guaranteed to produce civilian deaths.
Finally, Israel has left moderate Arab opinion swinging against them, and they're the ones they will eventually need to be able to strike any sort of deal. The short-termism of Israel's actions is so stupid and counter-productive it's unbelievable. Apparently there's an election coming up in Israel. I don't suppose the current attacks have anything to do with that, do they?
Why is Israel doing this? And why is it really doing this? The answer to the first question is: to put a stop to Hamas's actions of launching crude and indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilian areas of Israel. Which Hamas have undeniably been doing. The real reason however is to attempt to de-legitimise Hamas within Gaza and the wider Arab world. Both strategies are doomed to fail.
Morally, any government whose citizens suffer indiscriminate and murderous attacks is justified in attempting to destroy the aggresors. In fact they are duty-bound to do so. And this line has been put out by everyone from Tzipi Livni, Israel's current foreign minister, to internet commentators. The problem is that things are not quite as clear-cut as that.
Israel occupied Gaza in 1967 and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been crushed into that tiny area ever since. Following decades of uprisings and conflicts Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in late 2005. In 2006 Hamas defeated the ruling Fatah party in Gaza elections, garnering 42% or so of the vote and becoming the elected representatives of Gaza. They consolidated their role in a power-struggle with Fatah's armed wing. The reaction from Israel, the US and the west was to immediately attempt to overthrow this democratically elected party, by arming and training Fatah fighters and then by a crushing blockade of Gaza itself. This is the key to today's bloodshed - the attempt at regime change of a democratically-elected government. It doesn't sit easily with the 'Bush doctrine' of overthrowing dictators and dealing with democrats.
In its charter Hamas openly calls for the destruction of Israel, denying its right to exist. It is therefore condemned by Israel and the US as a 'terrorist' organisation. History has shown us, however, that this word is a pretty loaded one. Today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter, interlocutor or even statesman. Its happened countless times, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. So Hamas finds few friends in Western governments today. The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, condemns Hamas for creating this situation. But then he would - he is a Fatah leader, their rival, and is backed by the US as an alternative leader.
Here's the irony. When Israel had the chance to negotiate with Fatah, and its then leader Yasser Arafat, they did everything they could to undermine them and discredit him. Now the more secular, Arab nationalists of Fatah have been sidelined, Israel has to deal with the more Islamist Hamas. And now, of course, Israel wants Fatah back. Bit late now though, isn't it?
So Israel's devastating air attacks on Gaza aren't really about Hamas's rather puny rocket attacks, even allowing for the fear and casualties they cause amongst the Israeli civilians on the receiving end. It is about attempting to manipulate Palestinians' representatives. The theory is that Hamas will have been shown to have brought misery on the Palestinian people and so will be rejected by the Palestinian voters. It is a strategy absolutely guaranteed to fail. As indeed it will fail to bring security for Israelis.
Israel will have Palestinians, and Arabs, as their neighbours forever. Outside backers like the US will come and go, but the Palestinians will never go away. Hamas is indeed stupid and immoral for playing their part in the conflict, for deliberately murdering civilians and for marginalising pragmatic Palestinians. But Israel has also killed innocent civilians; they may have a slight moral edge in that it is clear Israeli jets to not deliberately target civilians, but there is no doubt whatsover that Israel's actions constitute 'collective punishment' on a civilian population, which is explicitly outlawed under international law, treaties and conventions. It is also perfectly obvious that air strikes in such as crowded area are absolutely guaranteed to produce civilian deaths.
Finally, Israel has left moderate Arab opinion swinging against them, and they're the ones they will eventually need to be able to strike any sort of deal. The short-termism of Israel's actions is so stupid and counter-productive it's unbelievable. Apparently there's an election coming up in Israel. I don't suppose the current attacks have anything to do with that, do they?
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