The conflict in Gaza

Following up on Tankwoman's post yesterday, I wanted to point out that Juan Cole has an article on the Israeli-Palestinian situation in Salon:
Israel's failed-state strategy: Olmert's smashing of Gaza reveals his greatest fear: A viable Palestinian government he'd have to negotiate with 07/07/06.

The day's battles continued the cycle of violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians that has simmered for months but exploded during the past two weeks. Israel's grossly disproportionate response to a tit-for-tat Palestinian guerrilla raid during which two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third abducted has pushed the impoverished Gaza Strip to the edge of a humanitarian crisis, smashed the barely functioning Palestinian Authority, and threatened the Middle East's fragile peace. The actions of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seem intended to create a failed state in Gaza and the West Bank, thus rendering the Israeli claim that "we have no one to talk to" a self-fulfilling prophecy and allowing Israel to continue with its unilateral, annexationist policies, free of the need to even pretend to negotiate.

This shortsighted "strategy," which both the United States and, to a slightly lesser degree, the strangely docile Europeans have signed off on, is a recipe for continued hatred, extremism, bloodshed, injustice and festering grievances. Unless Israel and its patron summon the wisdom to take the long view and hammer out an agreement that will give the Palestinians a viable state, rather than simply trying to smash them into submission, the world's most dangerous conflict will continue to rage, with dangerous consequences for all.

Since Bush invaded Iraq to find the nonexistent nuclear program and "weapons of mass destruction", the United States has become more than ever a part of the neighborhood in the Middle East. What happens between Israel and the Palestinians can affect the US more immediately than ever. We should pay attention. Not that it's a pleasant story or one that follows a logical plot. Cole writes:

Then, this past Wednesday, the Israelis struck at the offices of the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior in Gaza for the second time, wounding three persons. Why? The strike on the Interior Ministry building offers eloquent testimony to Kadima's goals, since that organization oversees police and security. At a time when Israeli spokesmen decry lawlessness in the Palestinian territories, which they say threatens Israel itself, they are actually destroying the only infrastructure - Palestinian policing - that has any hope of establishing law and order there.

As usual with outbursts of violence between Palestinians and Israelis, tracing the logic of attack and counterattack is like chasing the paradox of the chicken and the egg.

In the current Israeli conflict with Hamas and the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, it's worth remembering that Israel for several years actively promoted Hamas, hoping to create divisions among the Palestinians and draw support from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). They succeeded. We might learn something from that. Chances are, we won't.

| +Save/Share | |