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Thread: :icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

  1. #21
    A Palestinian militant has been killed in an Israeli strike on the Gaza strip.

    The death comes a day after the Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, ended its six-month-long ceasefire with Israel.

    The Israeli military said it had targeted a group of men after two rockets were fired at southern Israel.

    Meanwhile, a ship carrying international activists delivering medical aid has docked in the Gaza Strip, despite an Israeli blockade.

    It the fifth such shipment since last August.

    Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire, saying it had not respected the truce and had failed to ease its blockade of Gaza. Three other people are reported to have been injured in the air strike, including two militants.

    Israel says the man killed was member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

    Israeli officials insist that there was no commitment to ease the siege, under which Israel has allowed little more than basic humanitarian aid into Gaza.

    Appeal for calm

    Israel says the blockade - in place since Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007 - is needed to isolate Hamas and stop it and other militants from firing rockets across the border at Israeli towns.
    A Palestinian waves a Qatari flag as the Digjnity arrives in Gaza
    Pro-Palestinian activists brought Qatari aid to Gaza by boat

    The Egyptian-brokered deal began on 19 June but has been tested regularly by Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli operations in Gaza.

    United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said a "major escalation of violence would have grave consequences for the protection of civilians in Israel and Gaza, the welfare of the Gazan civilian population, and the sustainability of political efforts".

    He called for an immediate end to rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza and all other violence.

    Both Hamas and Israel say they will do whatever it takes to protect their people but neither has said they will go on the offensive.

    The BBC's Katya Adler, in Jerusalem, says Israeli politicians are mindful of a looming general election. Hamas is also embroiled in a bitter internal struggle with its rivals in the Fatah movement, which governs the Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

  2. #22
    CAIRO- With basics are hard to find in the overcrowded sliver of land, Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip are eking out living in rubbish dumps to survive Israel's chocking siege.

    CAIRO — With basics are hard to find in the overcrowded sliver of land, Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip are eking out living in rubbish dumps to survive Israel's chocking siege, reported The Observer on Sunday, December 21. "It is the first time we have been seeing people picking through the rubbish like this looking for things to eat," said Chris Gunness of the UN relief agency UNRWA.

    "Things are particularly bad in Gaza City where the population is most dense."

    Israel has closed Gaza's exits to the outside world since Hamas took control of the strip last year, banning food and fuel shipments to the 1.6 million Palestinians there.

    The closures left 51.8 percent of Gaza population live below the poverty line, according to UNRWA estimates.

    The people in the seaside strip also live without electricity, water and sewage services for up to 16 hours a day.

    "Things have been getting worse and worse," said Gunnes.

    "Because Gaza is now operating as a 'tunnel economy' and there is so little coming through via Israeli crossings, it is hitting the most disadvantaged worst."

    The UN official warned that the Israeli siege was also causing the spread of communicable diseases as the water and sewerage systems have not been maintained properly because of lack of spare parts.

    "This is not a humanitarian crisis," Gunnes said.

    "This is a political crisis of choice with dire humanitarian consequences."

    Lifeless

    Ameera Ahmed, like many Gazans, feel her dreams and hopes have been dashed over the crippling siege.

    "During the months of the blockade, everything in my life has changed," said the 25-year-old.

    "Before, I would wake up and hope that tomorrow would be better than today. But it never happened. The reason is simple. It is because I live in Gaza, where all dreams and hope vanish because of the situation we live in."

    Ahmed's tears roll down her cheeks when she remembers that she can't find milk for her six-month baby girl.

    "Things are so tough here that even when I needed to buy baby formula for her, I can't find it.

    "Everything here that you need to survive is hard to find. There can be no electricity for hours and hours. Some days we only have power for six hours a day. Recently we had a period when we had no power at all for two whole days."

    Like many Gazan families, Ahmed's can not even find bread in the besieged strip.

    "Sometimes we go for days on end without having any bread," said Ahmed.

    "And meat is an even bigger problem. It is so expensive. Recently there have been times when we have gone without meat for long periods because of the cost and because what money my husband does receive, when he gets it, is needed for the most important things of all - like finding baby formula for Layan.

    "I never imagined that my children would grow up like this, in this awful predicament. Poor and always threatened."

    Source: IslamOnline

  3. #23
    RAMALLAH: Jewish extremists vandalized the Sea Mosque in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Jaffa on Saturday night. Officials of the Islamic Movement - Northern Branch said that worshippers who arrived for Fajr prayer yesterday discovered that the perpetrators scrawled extremely derogatory words against Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Arabs on its doors.

    Source: Arab News




    This things the media and the world does not see... they go blind when it happens to muslims... why?

  4. #24
    BBC: 25th December, 2008:
    An Israeli air strike on the southern Gaza Strip has killed a member of the Islamist group Hamas, hours after rockets hit Israeli territory.

    At least two other Palestinians were wounded in the attack which, Israel's military said, was aimed at Hamas rocket and mortar crews.

    More than 50 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip since Hamas ended a six-month ceasefire last week.

    Israel's defence chief said Hamas was to blame and would "pay a big price".

    "We will not allow this situation to last," Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Israeli television on Wednesday night.

    No-one was hurt in the rocket and mortar bombardment.

    Hamas said it had been retaliating for the killing of three of its men by Israeli forces on Tuesday.

    In a statement, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence and appealed for calm and "an urgent easing of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip".

    Conflicting accounts

    Israel said two crossings in Gaza that were due to re-open on Wednesday would remain closed because of the attacks.

    A man in Gaza City looks at a hole in a wall hit accidentally by a militant rocket
    A man in Gaza City looks at a hole in a wall hit accidentally by a militant rocket
    According to the Israelis, 30 rockets and 30 mortars have been fired since Tuesday night alone.

    One landed close to a children's playground but did not result in injuries.

    However there are reports of injuries in Gaza, where some of the rockets fell short of their target.

    There are also conflicting accounts over whether the three men who died last night were shot by the Israeli army or were killed when a bomb they were planting blew up.

    Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire on Friday, saying it had not respected its terms, including the lifting of the blockade under which little more than humanitarian aid has been allowed in.

    The Israeli government said it had begun a staged easing of the blockade, but this was halted when Hamas failed to fulfil agreed conditions, including the ending of all rocket fire and halting weapons smuggling.

    Earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on a visit to Cairo that Egypt would press for the truce to be renewed.

  5. #25
    GAZA STRIP — Israeli warplanes mounted on Saturday, December 27, a series of strikes against scores of targets in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 210 people and wounding hundreds others. Television footage showed dead bodies scattered on the ground and wounded and dead being carried away by distraught rescuers.

    Thick black smoke billowed over Gaza city, where the port and security buildings were badly damaged.

    Uniformed bodies lay in a pile and the wounded writhed in pain.

    Click to Watch In Face of the Gaza Holocaust Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan said a police compound in Gaza City had been hosting a graduation ceremony for new personnel when bombed.

    Police chief Tawfiq Jabber was among the dead.

    Rescuers carried those showing signs of life to cars and ambulances, while others tried to revive the unconscious.

    One badly wounded man quietly recited verses from the Qur`an.

    Witnesses said the attacks were carried out by warplanes and gunship helicopters.

    The Israeli military confirmed the strikes and threatened this was just the beginning of a bigger onslaught.

    Tension between Israel and Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza has been running high since the expiry of six-month truce a week ago.

    Israeli leaders have vowed to launched a massive offensive to end Hamas rule in Gaza, sealed off by Israel since last June.

    Holocaust

    In their first reaction, Palestinian groups denounced the Israeli aggression and vowed to avenge the slain Palestinians.

    "This is the holocaust which Israel Foreign Minister Tizipi Livni has marketed to the international community this week," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Brahoum told Aljazeera TV channel.

    He said score of Palestinian civilians were killed by Israel.

    "This is a massacre committed against all the Palestinian people not Hamas alone."

    The Hamas official also accused the international community of complicity in the Israeli aggression.

    "Such an offensive would not have been mounted without the deafening Arab silence, US backing and European complicity."

    Brahoum insisted that the Israeli onslaught would not break the people of Gaza or Hamas.

    "This will neither weaken Hamas nor topple its government."

    Hamas vowed to avenge the dead.

    "All options are on the table to response to the Israeli aggression."

    Hamas later confirmed firing rockets into Israel in retaliation, killing one Israeli in the southern town of Netivot.

  6. #26
    Israel continued its bloody offensive against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for the second successive day on Sunday, the worst since 1948, rising the number of martyrs so far to more than 300 people and the number of injured to well over 700. The death toll is likely to increase dramatically given the number of serious injuries and the lack of medicaments and first aid means. "Palestine has never seen an uglier massacre," said Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh. In Damascus, Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal called for a third Palestinian Intifada against Israel. Hamas has vowed revenge including martyrdom operations deep inside the Zionist entity.

    BARAK WILLIING TO EXPAND OPERATION; CALLS IN THOUSANDS OF RESERVISTS
    Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that his forces could launch a ground operation in the Strip as part of the offensive dubbed 'Operation Cast Lead'. "We are ready for anything. If it's necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so," Barak's spokesman quoted him as saying.
    An Israeli government official said the Israeli army has called in thousands of reservists including combat units and home front units.


    HAMAS: EGYPTIAN LEADERS DECEIVED US
    The Palestinian and Arab public opinion expressed deep disappointment over the failure of the Arab and Islamic governments to exert pressure on Israel to halt its bloody offensive that has been described as a war crime and genocide.

    A Hamas official told The Jerusalem Post that the reason why security installations in the Gaza Strip had not been evacuated before the attack was because the Egyptians had assured his movement that there would be no Israeli attack in the coming days.

    "Only hours before the attack, the Egyptians told our representatives that they were under the impression that Israel would not launch an operation," the Hamas official said. "We believe the Egyptians deliberately deceived us because they had given Israel a green light to attack."

    Israeli Foreign Minister Tsibi Livni announced Israel’s will to launch an offensive against Gaza from the office of Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, hours before the operation started.

    The Hamas official pointed out that both President Mahmoud Abbas and the Egyptian leaders had announced shortly before the Israeli attack that they were engaged in attempts to resume "national dialogue" between Fatah and Hamas.

    Taher a-Nunu, spokesman for the Hamas government, accused "third parties" of involvement in the Israeli effort to overthrow Hamas. However, he refused to name the third parties.
    The Jerusalem Post quoted a top Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah as saying that the PA was prepared to assume control over the Gaza Strip if Israel succeeds in overthrowing the Hamas government. However, he denied the PA had urged Israel to launch a massive attack to overthrow the Hamas government.

    ¬

  7. #27
    The Palestinian story: Remember us
    Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:55:08 GMT
    By Anna Denise Aldis and Dex A. Eastman, Press TV
    Remember us in Gaza on December 27, 2008 when at least 230 of us were slain as if we were the filth of the land.
    When the passage of time finally brings the men of many lands to the tables of judgment, politicians from countries that have emboldened Israel with their silence will gaze into the eyes of delegations from around the world only to see the same eyes gazing back. Remember us for we may not be at that table.

    There are reasons for this.

    We were once free to roam the lands of our fathers, to feel happiness and to cry when in despair. From the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River was our realm, but how were we to know what they intended to do to our nation.

    They provoked wars and committed the most terrible of sins against the Jewish population, but when it was time to compensate, they put the burden of their own wrongdoings on our shoulders. One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.

    Everyone had a say, the then president of the United States Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the leaders of the Zionist movement and even the representatives of Anglo-Jewry opposed to Zionism. There was no need to canvass Arab opinion.

    They sat at round tables, signed agreements, sent the text to other powers for approval but no one consulted us. Remember us the native people of the ancient land of Canaan, Palestine it was called.

    We protested, signed petitions, held rallies but to no avail; the process of nullification had already begun. They had decided to create a 100% Jewish state for the Jews of the West who had suffered under anti-Semitism in Europe. Nobody asked whether we were even responsible for the anti-Jewish propaganda in Germany. Remember us who sought your helping hand when they threatened us with annihilation.

    Why were we for decades the main victims of the horrific massacre of the Jews by the Germans, Rumanians and Hungarians?

    United under the Zionist slogan of 'A land without a people for a people without a land', certain powers opened the floodgates by telling Jews that our land is one that lacks inhabitants and must belong to a nation with no land.

    They helped the 1948 creation of Israel based on the 'Judenstaat' which had been envisaged in 1896 by the founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl.

    Then the flood suddenly hit us. We were no longer welcome in our own homes, our own towns and villages and on our own lands. They tried to bribe us into leaving the land of our ancestors. They promised to pay for all our expenses for us to leave Palestine and settle in neighboring Arab states.

    But how could we leave? How could we leave our homes, our lands, the graves of our fathers and the hopes of our children? How were we supposed to forget and make our children forget that we had roots in Palestine? We objected.

    We knew our resistance would cost us dearly, but we were ready to save our lands from the foreign invaders. Those oppressed in the Holocaust were transformed into the tormenter of the Arab population in Palestine.

    Remember us in 1948 in the unarmed village Deir Yassin where 254 of us men, women and children were awakened from our sleep with the sound of bombs ripping through neighboring houses. Irgun and Lehi terrorist groups had received orders to uproot us, the Arab population of the village.

    They threw bombs into our houses and slaughtered all of us they could find. About twenty-five of us were brought out of our houses on a 'victory tour' and then to a stone quarry where they shot us in cold blood.

    The Red Cross came to understand our fate when they looked into our lifeless eyes and at nearly 150 of our maimed bodies abandoned in a well.

    Several of us survived to tell the story of this indelible blemish carved in the pages of Zionist history.

    "I saw a soldier grabbing my sister, Saliha al-Halabi, who was nine months pregnant. He pointed a machine gun at her neck, then emptied its contents into her body. Then he turned into a butcher, and grabbed a knife and ripped open her stomach to take out the slaughtered child with his iniquitous Nazi knife," Halima Id, a survivor of the attack, told her sister later.

    They failed to plant fear in our hearts for what is home if it is not to be cherished?

    Remember us in 1953 in Qibya when our women were preparing meals for the men and children and nearly 600 Israeli soldiers moved toward our village. We heard explosions, screaming and artillery fire, but the collapse of our roofs and the following darkness was the last we saw.

    The then commander of the "101" unit, Ariel Sharon, later said that his leaders' orders had been clear on how to deal with the village. "The orders were utterly clear: Qibya was to be an example to everyone."

    Original documents of the time showed that Sharon personally ordered his troops to achieve "maximal killing and damage to property".

    UN observers say they saw our bullet-riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of our demolished houses and that we had been forced to remain inside until our homes were blown up over us.

    They then wished to deny us presence in neighboring Lebanon, which had allowed us refuge from the anti-Semitism victims turned against us.

    Remember us in 1982 in Sabra and Shatila. The Israeli army watched as the murderers they had provoked against us entered our two Palestinian refugee camps in the southern outskirts of West Beirut.

    Us women were lying in houses with our skirts torn up to our waists, our children with cut throats, rows of us young men were shot in the back after being lined up at an execution wall.

    Our babies were lying like discarded dolls on the streets, blackened because they had been slaughtered more than 24 hours earlier and their small bodies were already in a state of decomposition.

    We were tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded US army ration tins, Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of whiskey.

    3,500 of us were slaughtered; some of us men as young as 12 or 13 were killed with our arms and legs wrapped around each other, picturing the agony of our death. All of us had been shot at point-blank range through the cheek, the bullet tearing away a line of flesh up to our ears and entering our brains.

    Award-winning Middle East correspondent Robert Frisk recalls that "On one blackened wrist a Swiss watch recorded the correct time, the second hand still ticking round uselessly, expending the last energies of its dead owner."

    Remember us in 2002 in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin where hundreds of us were buried alive in our homes. Our bodies were crushed and smoldered by buildings when the heavily-armored Caterpillar D-9 tore down our homes, our shelters and all of our belongings.

    The IDF was fulfilling the orders of the then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon who in 1956 vowed to "burn every Palestinian Child that will be born" in Palestine. "I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him".

    They struggled for a fortnight to bury our bodies and the evidence of the atrocity. They piled us in houses and when the pile was complete, they bulldozed the building to bring its ruins down on our corpses. Then they flattened the area with a tank.

    Remember us in 2008 in the Gaza Strip where the bombs of hatred rained down on us to prove that world New Year celebrations have no meaning. They called into action F16 bombers and apache helicopters to put fear into the very hearts of our nation even though we had long been left with no real method of defense.

    Over 230 of us were killed and 800 of us were wounded. Remember us!

    Let world leaders hold imprecise debates about what constitutes a massacre. Let Israel and its allies cover up their crimes. You can even call the state built upon the ruins of our homeland 'the de facto democracy of the Middle East'.

    But as our bodies lie in mass graves in our backyards, know that we are the children of Palestine -- a nation of people who as our last words utter the Muslim declaration of faith (Shahadatain) and pass on our mantle of resistance to the next forgotten person.

  8. #28
    Falk: Israel’s Attacks on Gaza Illegal Date : 30/12/2008 Time : 14:29

    GENEVA, December 30, 2008 (WAFA)- United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Professor Richard Falk said that the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip represent “severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war.”



    In his statement, Prof. Falk said that Israeli has committed multiple violations which include collective punishment; the entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the illegal actions of a few militants.



    He added that Israel is targeting civilians; the air strikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East .



    Falk explained that the Israeli military action in the strip is “disproportionate,” the air strikes have not only destroyed security compounds, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians. He specified that at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.



    Earlier Israeli actions, Falk continued, specifically the complete sealing off of entry and exit to and from the Gaza Strip, have led to severe shortages of medicine and fuel, as well as food, resulting in the inability of ambulances to respond to the injured, the inability of hospitals to adequately provide medicine or necessary equipment for the injured, and the inability of Gaza's besieged doctors and other medical workers to sufficiently treat the victims.



    Falk said that home-made rockets launched at Israeli are unlawful, but that illegality does not give rise to any Israeli right, neither as the Occupying Power nor as a sovereign state, to violate international humanitarian law and commit war crimes or crimes against humanity in its response. He noted that “ Israel 's escalating military assaults have not made Israeli civilians safer.”



    Falk finally reminded all member states of the United Nations that the UN continues to be bound to an independent obligation to protect any civilian population facing massive violations of international humanitarian law, regardless of what country may be responsible for those violations.



    He called on all Member States , as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations system, to move on an emergency basis not only to condemn Israel 's serious violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for the Palestinian people

  9. #29
    THE world isn’t just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.

    There will now be a war over the story of this war. The Israeli government says, “We withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and in return we got Hamas and Qassam rockets being rained on our cities. Sixteen civilians have been murdered. How many more are we supposed to sacrifice?” It is a plausible narrative, and there are shards of truth in it, but it is also filled with holes. If we want to understand the reality and really stop the rockets, we need to rewind a few years and view the run-up to this war dispassionately.

    The Israeli government did indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005 — in order to be able to intensify control of the West Bank. Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, was unequivocal about this, explaining: “The disengagement [from Gaza] is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians... this whole package that is called the Palestinian state has been removed from our agenda indefinitely.” Ordinary Palestinians were horrified by this, and by the fetid corruption of their own Fatah leaders, so they voted for Hamas. It certainly wouldn’t have been my choice, but we have to be honest. It was a free and democratic election, and it was not a rejection of a two-state solution. The most detailed polling of Palestinians, by the University of Maryland, found that 72 percent want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, while fewer than 20 percent want to reclaim the whole of historic Palestine. So, partly in response to this pressure, Hamas offered Israel a long, long cease-fire and a de facto acceptance of two states, if only Israel would return to its legal borders.

    Rather than seize this opportunity and test Hamas’ sincerity, the Israeli government reacted by punishing the entire civilian population. It announced that it was blockading the Gaza Strip in order to “pressure” its people to reverse the democratic process. The Israelis surrounded the Strip and refused to let anyone or anything out. They let in a small trickle of food, fuel and medicine — but not enough for survival. Weisglass quipped that the Gazans were being “put on a diet”. According to Oxfam, only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza last month to feed 1.5 million people. The United Nations says poverty has reached an “unprecedented level.” When I was last in besieged Gaza, I saw hospitals turning away the sick because their machinery and medicine was running out. I met hungry children stumbling around the streets, scavenging for food.

    It was in this context — under a collective punishment designed to topple a democracy — that some forces within Gaza did something immoral: They fired Qassam rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities. These rockets have killed 16 Israeli citizens. This is abhorrent: Targeting civilians is always murder. But it is hypocritical for the Israeli government to claim now to speak out for the safety of civilians when it has been terrorizing civilians as a matter of state policy.

    The American and European governments are responding with a lop-sidedness that ignores these realities. They say that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate while under rocket fire, but they demand that the Palestinians do so under siege in Gaza and violent military occupation in the West Bank.

    Before it falls down the memory hole, we should remember that last week, Hamas offered a cease-fire in return for basic and achievable compromises. Don’t take my word for it. According to the Israeli press, Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service Shin Bet, “told the Israeli Cabinet [on Dec. 23] that Hamas is interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms.” Diskin explained that Hamas was requesting two things: An end to the blockade, and an Israeli cease-fire on the West Bank. The Cabinet — high with election fever and eager to appear tough — rejected these terms.

    Why would Israel act this way? The Israeli government wants peace, but only one imposed on its own terms, based on the acceptance of defeat by the Palestinians. It means the Israelis can keep the slabs of the West Bank on “their” side of the wall. It means they keep the largest settlements and control the water supply. And it means a divided Palestine, with responsibility for Gaza hived off to Egypt, and the broken-up West Bank standing alone. Negotiations threaten this vision: They would require Israel to give up more than it wants to. But an imposed peace will be no peace at all: It will not stop the rockets or the rage.

    For real safety, Israel will have to talk to the people it is blockading and bombing today, and compromise with them. ¬
    Source: Arab News

  10. #30
    THE world isn’t just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.

    There will now be a war over the story of this war. The Israeli government says, “We withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and in return we got Hamas and Qassam rockets being rained on our cities. Sixteen civilians have been murdered. How many more are we supposed to sacrifice?” It is a plausible narrative, and there are shards of truth in it, but it is also filled with holes. If we want to understand the reality and really stop the rockets, we need to rewind a few years and view the run-up to this war dispassionately.

    The Israeli government did indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005 — in order to be able to intensify control of the West Bank. Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, was unequivocal about this, explaining: “The disengagement [from Gaza] is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians... this whole package that is called the Palestinian state has been removed from our agenda indefinitely.” Ordinary Palestinians were horrified by this, and by the fetid corruption of their own Fatah leaders, so they voted for Hamas. It certainly wouldn’t have been my choice, but we have to be honest. It was a free and democratic election, and it was not a rejection of a two-state solution. The most detailed polling of Palestinians, by the University of Maryland, found that 72 percent want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, while fewer than 20 percent want to reclaim the whole of historic Palestine. So, partly in response to this pressure, Hamas offered Israel a long, long cease-fire and a de facto acceptance of two states, if only Israel would return to its legal borders.

    Rather than seize this opportunity and test Hamas’ sincerity, the Israeli government reacted by punishing the entire civilian population. It announced that it was blockading the Gaza Strip in order to “pressure” its people to reverse the democratic process. The Israelis surrounded the Strip and refused to let anyone or anything out. They let in a small trickle of food, fuel and medicine — but not enough for survival. Weisglass quipped that the Gazans were being “put on a diet”. According to Oxfam, only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza last month to feed 1.5 million people. The United Nations says poverty has reached an “unprecedented level.” When I was last in besieged Gaza, I saw hospitals turning away the sick because their machinery and medicine was running out. I met hungry children stumbling around the streets, scavenging for food.

    It was in this context — under a collective punishment designed to topple a democracy — that some forces within Gaza did something immoral: They fired Qassam rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities. These rockets have killed 16 Israeli citizens. This is abhorrent: Targeting civilians is always murder. But it is hypocritical for the Israeli government to claim now to speak out for the safety of civilians when it has been terrorizing civilians as a matter of state policy.

    The American and European governments are responding with a lop-sidedness that ignores these realities. They say that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate while under rocket fire, but they demand that the Palestinians do so under siege in Gaza and violent military occupation in the West Bank.

    Before it falls down the memory hole, we should remember that last week, Hamas offered a cease-fire in return for basic and achievable compromises. Don’t take my word for it. According to the Israeli press, Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service Shin Bet, “told the Israeli Cabinet [on Dec. 23] that Hamas is interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms.” Diskin explained that Hamas was requesting two things: An end to the blockade, and an Israeli cease-fire on the West Bank. The Cabinet — high with election fever and eager to appear tough — rejected these terms.

    Why would Israel act this way? The Israeli government wants peace, but only one imposed on its own terms, based on the acceptance of defeat by the Palestinians. It means the Israelis can keep the slabs of the West Bank on “their” side of the wall. It means they keep the largest settlements and control the water supply. And it means a divided Palestine, with responsibility for Gaza hived off to Egypt, and the broken-up West Bank standing alone. Negotiations threaten this vision: They would require Israel to give up more than it wants to. But an imposed peace will be no peace at all: It will not stop the rockets or the rage.

    For real safety, Israel will have to talk to the people it is blockading and bombing today, and compromise with them. ¬
    Source: Arab News

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