Gaza: Roadmap to Peace Must Be 'Imposed' on Combatants (Le
Figaro, France)
"The logic of war has radicalized the Israeli public. ... Hope
of eradicating the Islamist militants by force makes no sense. Other, even more
extremist fighters, would take their place. ... The accumulation of
victims since July 8 renders a ceasefire urgent. The failure of efforts up to
now show that a truce can only be achieved if it opens the way to a sustainable
solution. For that, a roadmap should be established and imposed on the combatants
by a coordinated diplomatic effort. ... It is essential for Western diplomats to
take that decision, impose it on Israel, and stop playing the game of the
Islamists and their allies in the Arab world."
Israel
will not resolve the Hamas problem by relentlessly bombarding the Gaza strip.
The combination of artillery, airstrikes, ground incursions and the creation of
a buffer zone may undermine the capacity of the militants to launch rockets
into Israel, but Hamas will always be able to claim victory: it suffices for
them to withstand such an overwhelmingly superior military force. The appalling
accumulation of civilian victims from Israeli raids will not deter Palestinians
from supporting the fundamentalist militants. On the contrary, it will only
radicalize them.
This
same scenario has happened twice in recent years, during similar conflicts from
2008-2009 and in 2012. In the end, the violence only increases, the outcome is increasingly
bloody, but the root of the problem remains. Hamas has adapted by increasing the
range of its rockets, using drones, and expanding its network of tunnels, which
lie at the heart of its strategy. The underground network enables supplies the
procurement of weapons from neighboring Egypt, the avoidance of Israeli
surveillance, shelter from the bombing, and the launching of incursions into
Israel.
The
only response Israel has been able to come up with is to intervene every two or
three years to destroy the Islamist arsenal. In the short term, it aims to
achieve the specific military objective of reducing the offensive capacity of
the Islamists. In the long term, though, it serves the interests of Hamas. The
Islamist movement emerged because every time a battle claims human lives, it puts
Israel in the dock. Once the dust settles, the enemy has no trouble rearming and
rebuilding its network of tunnels. This year, Hamas was weakened to the point
of having to support a government of national unity with the moderate Palestine
Authority. With the Israeli offensive, the most extreme have turned the
situation to their advantage.
As
it was in 2008 and 2012, Israel is caught in the Gaza trap. The logic of war has
radicalized the Israeli public, which was surprised at the continued firing of
rockets and demands still more from its army. Even if it wishes, Israel cannot permanently
reoccupy the territory like it did before the Oslo Accords of 1993. The
armed wing of Hamas has had all the time it needs to organize and would cause unbearable
losses to occupying troops. Hope of eradicating the Islamist militants by force
makes no sense. Other, even more extremist fighters, would take the place of
Hamas. They already exist in the Salafi movement, which is well-established in
Gaza.
How then,
to escape this vicious cycle? The accumulation of victims since July 8 renders
a ceasefire urgent. The failure of efforts up to now show that a truce can only
be achieved if it opens the way to a sustainable solution. For that, a roadmap should
be established and imposed on the combatants by a coordinated diplomatic effort,
which is supported as widely as possible.
The
evolution of the international milieu within which the bloody isolation
of Gaza fits does provide a glimmer of hope. To end the rocket launches, Benjamin
Netanyahu can this time count on a sizable objective ally: Egypt.
Until
the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, Hamas was supported
by the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Cairo. Since July 2013, the Palestinian movement
has become a priority target in the Egyptian regime's anti-Islamist struggle. General
Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, elected president last May,
has extended the “war on terror” against Egypt's Muslim
Brotherhood to Hamas. Egypt hasn't waited for the launch of the current Israeli
operation to restrict remittances and dismantle tunnels running under the
border between Gaza and Sinai that kept Hamas supplied with arms,
and obliging the Islamic resistance movement to engage in a “reconciliation” with
the Palestinian Authority.
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
From
the point of view of Israel, the continuation of the status quo is untenable.
Hamas has managed to turn the parameters of the conflict in its favor. The
overwhelming military superiority on which the Hebrew state has since its inception based its
defense upon, took the fight far from its border and achieved
lightning victories before giving in to pressure for a ceasefire. In an
asymmetric conflict like that in Gaza, military superiority cannot achieve an
imposition of Israeli terms. This even becomes counterproductive when Israel must
kill hundreds of civilians, including women and children, to destroy a few
tunnels and eliminate some rockets. In the long term, Israel’s security depend not
only on firepower, but the global image its projects. Every offensive in Gaza
lasts longer and longer, and has a disastrous impact on the support Israel can
hope to garner from the international community.
A
sustainable cessation of hostilities cannot be accepted by Israel unless it
includes the effective demilitarization of the armed wing of Hamas. This is an
objective that Egypt should subscribe to, in coordination with the Palestinian Authority
under Mahmoud Abbas. In return for concrete steps in
this direction, under international supervision, Israel ought to allow a gradual
and controlled lifting of the blockade of Gaza, and facilitate financing for
the reconstruction of the territory through the Palestinian Authority.
Brokered by the United States, the
2012 ceasefire settled nothing due to a lack of
will on the part of Egypt, then under the influence of Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, to enforce it.
This time, the new international circumstances may help counter Hamas by putting
the moderate Palestine Authority back in the saddle. Furthermore, it is
essential for Western diplomats to take that decision, impose it on Israel, and
stop playing the game of the Islamists and their allies in the Arab world.
