Israel has forced the issue in Gaza to the point that a solution must be found. UN resolutions for a ceasefire are pointless: they would only be used by Hamas to regroup. No peace treaty can be signed (as in a conventional war) because Gaza is a de facto rogue state run by Islamic terrorists. The only solution is that Hamas be removed. The likelihood is that the job will be done by Israel. But what then? If the UN is to be effective, it needs to move from words to (military) action. There should be a large UN peace force set up to take over control of Gaza from the IDF and govern it by way of military occupation for five years.
Unfortunately, all we can expect from the UN is Munich-style appeasement of the Islamicists. This means that Israel will have to govern Gaza on its own until it is fit to be handed back.
It is an unusual war: both sides have achieved their ends. Israel has (so far) made a successful assault upon Hamas whilst Hamas has used tactics which ensure that the Israelis are represented to the world as massacring children. Noted US Leftwing libertarian and Harvard Law Professor (and Jew) Alan Dershowitz puts it succinctly:
The reality is that the elected and de facto government of Gaza has declared war against Israel. Under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, they have committed an “armed attack” against the Jewish state. The Hamas charter calls for Israel’s total destruction. Under international law, Israel is entitled to take whatever military action is necessary to repel that attack and stop the rockets. It must seek to minimize civilian deaths consistent with the legitimate military goal, and it is doing precisely that, despite Hamas efforts to maximize civilian deaths on both sides.
There is no doubt that Hamas is winning the propaganda war: its continual rocket attacks eventually led to war and then it made sure that attacks were continued from schools. Such are their fanatical Islamicist beliefs that the Gazans are prepared to give up their children to martyrdom
Meanwhile, the silence of Obama is very troubling: he has made a number of economic policy statements but nothing on the Gazan War. A few days ago he said he would adopt “a new emphasis on respect and a new willingness on being willing to talk” to the Iranians.
Hamas are clients of Iran. It will be interesting to see if Obama “respects” Hamas and how he “respects” the Iranian leader Ahmadinejad both of whose stated positions are that Israel should be destroyed. American “respect” for Iran, its murderous leader and its national policy of killing all Israelis marks a U-turn in US foreign policy. The Israelis must now be very concerned for their survival. Obama’s policies may cause Israel to make a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
God only knows what will happen then.
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Nobody could be anything other than distraught about the loss of life involved in the Gaza action by Israel. To any decent person, the nightly images are appalling. To imagine that Israelis and Israeli soldiers react any differently is to dehumanise them. I know quite a few IDF soldiers and former soldiers, and know how they hate this kind of military action.
I also know how Hamas glories in such deaths and does nothing to minimise casualties. They see every death as another martyr to their cause. Their stated purpose is not to achieve a Palestinian state, but to pursue their Islamist agenda. No wonder they are the enemy of Egypt as much as Israel.
The brutal fact is that this tragically necessary action has the potential to lay the groundwork for a two state solution.
Israelis now know that their government will act definitively in the event of missile attacks on them from vacated territories, which will form the basis of a new Palestinian state.
Palestinians know that continued rocket attacks are not a viable strategy and will be treated as an act of war
Israel has simply acted in self defence. It is not a question of proportionate response. It is a question of necessary action to stop rocket attacks. There simly cannot be a two state solution if Israelis – Arabs and Jews – are subject to incessant rocket fire. No state in the world would or could accept it.
For demographic reasons alone, Israel must withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza. There is a clear acceptance of this by the Israeli government and the majority of Israeli voters. The curiosities of the proportional voting system in Israel which gives disproportionate sway to minority parties make it difficult for this view to hold, but it can and will happen.
The parties that support withdrawal have shown they simply will not accept ongoing attacks without striking back. But they will also withdraw from the territories. Obama needs to push it through.
“JamesK argues vehemently above that there was no ceasefire of rockets in the first 4 months of the truce” says Tom McLoughlin in comments today on yesterdays article.
I did no such thing Tom: “I suppled two addresses with pdf files giving figures that demonstrate that the ‘ceasefire’ was a relative one”
That opinion is not unique to me and too my knowledge has never been seriously questioned!
You said: “Hamas didn’t fire any rockets from July to October 2008” and that is false.
In the six months of the ‘ceasefire’ spanning June 19th – December 18, 215 Hamas rockets and 150 mortar shells land in southern Israel. Hamas ended the ceasefire and recommenced war not Israel. You are endeavouring to construct the quite remarkably imaginative argument that it was Israel who broke the ceasefire because of their border restrictions. Egypt had border restrictions as well. With your line of ‘reasoning’ Hamas should be bombing Egypt as well. But whether they Israeli or Egyptian ‘border restrictions’, they could not constitute an excuse to launch missiles at civilians of a neighbouring sovereign country.
It is sad to see otherwise intelligent people like Faris become biased by their excessive support for Israel.When will Australians who are fantical supporters of Israel realise it is ok to be critical of Israels actions just as many Israelis are?The Israeli invasion of Gaza is not supported by all Israelis and is no more justifiable than Hamas sending rockets into Israel.If we are really honest the Israeli invasion of Gaza has more to do with the upcoming Israeli election .Everyone,even PM Olmert, knows the invasion will not end Hamas but will just create another reason for more Arabs to fight Israel.
“the Iranian leader Ahmadinejad”
The time is 5:41 PM and Faris is still wrong about this simple fact.
It must seek to minimize civilian deaths consistent with the legitimate military goal, and it is doing precisely that . . .
Bollocks!