[Peace-discuss] Radical paper on Israel/Palestine

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Only the US can force Israel to act in the proposed fashion, but of 
course it is unthinkable to the "top-tier" presidential candidates that 
that be done.  --CGE]

	Gaza's misery has to be stopped
	01.24.2008 | The Financial Times
	Editorial

The tens of thousands of Palestinians who burst out of Gaza into Egypt 
this week in search of food, fuel and medicine have temporarily broken 
the siege that had tightened like a noose around this teeming territory 
ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last June.

Like the lid coming off a pressure cooker, the blown-up border fence has 
avoided a bigger explosion – for now. But Gaza's humanitarian disaster 
and conflict shows every sign it could escalate into war if it is not 
brought under control.

That would put paid to any chance current efforts to resurrect peace 
negotiations might succeed.

The breach in the Rafah crossing may well be the work of Hamas, the 
Islamist party that now controls Gaza, to dramatise the plight of the 
population and put pressure on Egypt to intercede with Israel and the 
US. It follows Israel's tightening of the blockade, in response to the 
continuing barrage of primitive rockets aimed at the Negev town of 
Sderot from north-west Gaza. Last weekend Gaza's power went off after 
Israel suspended fuel supplies.

This siege is not only wrong; it is almost wholly counterproductive.

First, Israel's tactic of “collective punishment” is illegal. Targeting 
a civilian population is prohibited by international law: there is no 
debate to be had about it.

Second, however, two decades of using this tactic, in the occupied ter- 
ritories and in Lebanon, should have taught Israel that it does not 
work. It actually strengthens organisations such as Hamas and Hizbollah.

Indeed, this siege is visibly increasing Gazans' dependence on Hamas as 
the only source of the means of subsistence.

It is time that Israel, its Arab neighbours such as Jordan and Egypt, 
the US and the Fatah nationalists they are all backing against Hamas 
rethought their position.

Their attempt to isolate and topple Hamas after its 2006 election 
victory – which included arming Fatah warlords in Gaza – has failed.

Arab and international mediators should immediately seek an armistice 
from Hamas and an end to the Gaza blockade from Israel.

They should then seek to revive the year-old Hamas and Fatah unity 
agreement and set up a joint caretaker government prior to eventual new 
elections. The Islamists should be brought into talks – on condition 
they are ready to work for a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza 
with east Jerusalem as its capital. Only when that is achieved should 
Hamas, and all Arab countries, be required to recognise Israel – an 
Israel with fixed borders, not the moving frontiers it keeps pushing 
into occupied Palestinian land.

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