[Peace-discuss] Restoring the fear of Israel

[C. G. Estabrook]

"...If Israel agrees to lift the blockade along with a ceasefire, then it will 
in effect have given in to the conditions that it refused last week..."

	Finkelstein: Israel seeking Arab obeisance
	Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:06:12 GMT

[Norman Gary Finkelstein, American political scientist and author
The following is a full-length exclusive text interview with lecturer, author 
and renowned Palestine-Israel scholar Gary Norman Finkelstein in New York.]

Press TV: Nearly a week of violence in Gaza. What do you make of the situation 
there?

Finkelstein: It is hard to make any definite judgments about the military 
situation. The goals of the Israeli government it seems to me are pretty clear. 
Number one Israel wants to reestablish what it calls its deterrence capacity. 
That is a technical term that the Israelis use. It basically means to restore 
the fear of Israel among the Arab states in the region.

After the defeat inflicted by Hezbollah and the inability of Israel to launch an 
attack on Iran it was almost inevitable that they would attack Hamas, because 
Hamas is defying the Israeli will. According to the Israeli papers, Israeli 
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was planning the attack before the last ceasefire 
and they were just waiting for a provocation from the Palestinians.

On November 4, the Israelis broke the ceasefire with Hamas knowing full well -- 
and if you review the Israeli papers, they say so -- knowing full well that when 
they killed six militants in Gaza the Palestinians would retaliate and then 
Israel would have the pretext to invade. Therefore, the first goal was to 
restore the fear of Israel among Arabs by inflicting a bloodbath in Gaza.

Press TV: Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that Israel has affected 
almost what it called the infrastructure of terrorism presumably meaning Hamas. 
This while apparently heavy civilian casualties have been incurred inside Gaza. 
How do you see the imbalance in the loss of life in Gaza? How successful do you 
think that Israel has been in wiping out Hamas or the resistance if you will?

Finkelstein: Well the purpose was to inflict massive casualties immediately. The 
Israelis, after their attack on Lebanon in 2006, realized that their error was 
that they did not unleash the full might of their air force in the first few 
days. In in the first two days of Lebanon war, they killed about 55 Lebanese and 
then they targeted the Dahia suburb of Beirut. After the war, they began talking 
about the Dahia strategy which meant to obliterate anything which went against 
their rule. And what you saw in the first couple of days in Gaza was the 
application of the Dahia strategy to commit a bloodbath and slaughter of such 
huge dimensions that they thought it would deter the Arabs in the future from 
defying Israeli rule.

Press TV: Speaking of deterrence, Hamas said that it would retaliate. How great 
a response do you think Hamas can give Israel? Could one expect something like 
the one Israel received from Hezbollah in 2006?

Finkelstein: I think it is impossible to predict those things. But, it is clear 
that Israel is faced with a dilemma. In the case of Lebanon during the first few 
days they apparently destroyed (Hezbollah's) long-range and medium-range 
missiles, but they couldn't destroy the short-range rockets being used against 
the Israel unless they invaded. They tried to invade, but they couldn't and the 
rocket attacks continued. And now they have the same problem in Gaza.

In order to end the rocket attacks they have to invade and clear all the areas 
where the rocket launchers are located one by one. But, if they invade there is 
the possibility of them being caught in a guerrilla war which they plainly 
cannot win in Gaza. So they are not sure at this moment how to proceed.

Press TV: Israeli foreign minister (Tzipi Livni) also says that Israel wants to 
negotiate peace with what she calls moderate Palestinians. On the other hand, we 
see Mahmoud Abbas saying that peace talks are meaningless under the current 
situation wherein Israel is targeting all Palestinians, so where does that leave 
Israel?

Finkelstein: Well we have to be clear what Israel means by moderate 
Palestinians. The Hamas leadership in recent years has signaled that it is 
willing to negotiate a two-state settlement according to the June 1967 border 
and also the resolution of the refugee question. That means that Hamas has 
signaled to do what the international community has wanted Israel to do over the 
past 30 years.

Israel rejects such a two-state settlement because it wants to continue its 
control of the West Bank. So for Israel a moderate Palestinian means the one who 
rejects all the terms proposed by the international community, a Palestinian who 
rejects the position of Hamas. For Israel a moderate Palestinian is a 
Palestinian who is willing to do whatever Israel wants: is a Palestinian who is 
willing follow Israeli orders.

Press TV: Observers say that a ceasefire is the best Israel can achieve from 
this. How is the war affecting Israel?

Finkelstein: It is hard to say that whether Israel is in a position for a 
ceasefire. If Israel accepts the ceasefire I don't think Hamas would accept it 
if the Gaza blockage continues. It was due to the continuation of the Gaza 
blockade that Hamas rejected renewal of the truce with Israel. If the blockade 
is not lifted it is just a slow death for the Palestinians. If Israel agrees to 
lift this blockade along with a ceasefire then it will in effect have given in 
to the conditions that it refused last week. So it's really unclear that Israel 
would propose a ceasefire that Hamas would accept and vice versa.

Press TV: Israel says that its war is with Hamas, but it has prevented the flow 
of international aid into Gaza and prevented journalists from covering what is 
going on there. There is a saying Persian if you cannot help then don't prevent 
help from others.

Finkelstein: Well we have to be clear that Israel's war is not with Hamas but 
with the international community, including Iran. Israel is defying the 
international community, including Iran on the two-state settlement.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=80218&sectionid=3510302