Dodging peace
An Israeli ground and air assault struck the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, taking out several bridges and a power plant as troops searched for a kidnapped comrade. The operation came as Palestinian factions neared agreement on an approach to peace talks that could commit Hamas to an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist.
So writes the Council on Foreign Relations in their weekly newsletter.
Read it carefully. To search for a hostage, bridges and the power plant were bombed. Well, that follows doesn’t it? The operation was started just as Hamas was moving decisively towards recognition of Israel. Nothing worth keeping there, was there?
Man, that attack was just in time – peace might have broken out if they’d waited. The excuse for the attack is the hostage taking of one Israeli solder. Taking hostages is a bad thing; the move by a Hamas faction stupid and evil – subjecting that soldier, his family and friends to much pain and suffering.
And the non-Hamas part of the Palestinian leadership as well as half the Hamas leadership was inching around to finding the soldier and negotiating to have him released. If successful, it would have confirmed the power and prestige of the moderates, created momentum for a settlement and made it easier for Hamas to recognize Israel. Instead we have this.
Who gained? The bitter-enders on the Palestinian side who didn’t want Hamas to recognize Israel. And the Israeli government won as well. They can go back to brave talk, threats, and stirring the masses with their heroic dreams of greater Israeli. But more Israelis will die because of this invasion and more Palestinians will as well. The people on the ground lost.
So the bitter-enders on both sides, Arab and Jew, seized a moment when things were moving forward and sabotaged it from both sides. And now more will be killed.