Last exit for Gaza

[Fozzledick]

The best option for Palestinians in the Strip is now to disarm and depose Hamas, whose rockets provoked Israel's attack

Denis MacEoin guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 January 2009 13.30 GMT

Gaza lives. There has been no genocide, as so often claimed. Hamas, badly wounded, limps on and claims an overwhelming victory. The recent assault, it appears, was "just a scratch". When Hamas claims that, out of over 1,000 deaths, a mere 48 were their own fighters, it is hard to tell if they have any link to reality at all.

Gaza lives, but, as IDF troops pull back from the Strip, who will regain control? Hamas? Fatah? If I were a Palestinian, I would be praying for the latter. Hamas has betrayed the Palestinians as much as Yasser Arafat ever did. Even during the recent war, they were pulling Fatah members from their homes and shooting them. They committed a series of war crimes by fighting from inside the civilian population, coercing children to act as physical shields for their fighters, and by hiding in schools and hospitals. Can anyone doubt that, if Hamas get back into the driving seat, there are more years of misery ahead for the Palestinians?

Did Israel achieve all its goals during the war? Manifestly not. Given more time, they could have eliminated the Islamic Resistance Movement for good. A permanent peace will not come from this, because Hamas is dedicated to fighting a jihad to the bitter end. Without a pragmatic partner, a long-term peace will have to wait. Those who speak of Hamas as "legitimate actors" or "responsible interlocutors" are living in cloud-cuckoo-land. It's clear they have never read Hamas's 1988 Charter (the Mithaq), where it is spelled out in detail how the "only solution" is jihad, how the Jews must be killed to the last one, and how international conferences and other peace-making measures are "a waste of time". None of that offers Gazans a future.

But Israel has given Hamas a bloody nose and restored her own prestige, so damaged in Lebanon in 2006. Despite what Ben White argues, if this deters further violence, it will have been worthwhile – for both sides. Many Palestinians today can see that Hamas is powerless to protect them. Will there be an end to the rocket firing that started this? For a little time, if this lull lasts, and perhaps permanently if Fatah takes control, and after that, if the British and others can prevent Iran from smuggling more long-range Katyusha missiles into Gaza.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/gaza-hamas-israel-ceasefire

[Arrowhead2k1]

1. How the fuck does he figure Israel 'restored her own prestige' by bombing the shit out of a tiny

strip of land?!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. A lot of people believe that Israel lost face in Lebanon

Those that say it forget that the Sabras are practical people and not into machismo. However, it may be perceived that way in some of the local nations, so there may be some merit to that. Remember that some Syrians consider the 1973 war as a victory since for a short while they almost got back to the 67 borders before they were forced back almost to Damascus.

[iconicgnom]

3. Israel lost face in Lebanon not because the Sabras are practical and not into machismo.

It's absurd to suppose that Israel did!

Those who lost face "in Lebanon" did so only because they acted like perfect assholes. Nothing else "loses face". Too bad Israel couldn't recognize that fact, thinking instead that their failure was somehow militarily strategic - rather than moral. Or, failing that, that if one could somehow control the message, what one did would go unnoticed, and so be made legitimate by precedent and collusion.