Gaza (Part I) ~ DEFCON 3

Christmas kept me busy. So it was for Israel. In the last two weeks, the IAF has been bombing Gaza causing near 500 casualties -of them, at least a 25 per cent civilians according to the UN- and more than 2000 wounded. It’s a bigger quantity in eight days of campaign than all the victims of Hamas’ terrorist attacks in the past eight years.

A couple of nights ago, the Ground invasion began as well. It’s expected more casualties. In both sides. What it’s for sure is that Israel Hill be very careful to avoid a disaster similar to that on Lebanon. There are two things that could sink the Jew moral: the kidnapping of any of their soldiers -and Hamas claims that already has done it- and more Israeli civilian victims. For now they are only three and, although Hamas is not Hizbullah, it’s enough with a rocket impacting on a crowded place (like a train or bus station, as it happened in 2006) to kill a few in an only attack. And the Palestinian rockets are reaching longer than ever.

The offensive chronology comes quite clearly explained here , so I won’t waste my time explaining it again. It seems a well prepared operation, fruit of long thinking and with no room for improvisation. There are a few reasons for it. In a country where is impossible to be president without having being general before and with an election process round the corner, a war was imminent. Specially counting the demands for blood of the Gaza’s nearby villages, tired of the constant firing of rockets from the Palestinian territories.

And they got it. Hamas gave a golden opportunity to Israel and they didn’t miss it. A couple of Qassam rockets fired and Israel had the excuse they were looking for. From here, it’s the well known story. The IAF and the IDF attacks Gaza, people running covered in blood and with children in their arms through the Palestinian hospitals, the Jews hiding from more rockets launches, the world -specially the Arab world- asking them to stop -but not doing too much more about it-, the USA defending Israel’s right to defend themselves... and again back to the beginning.

It’s a labyrinth with no clear exit. For that it’s need a firmly willing from both sides to find that exit. And there is any will. If they want peace, and not only temporary ceasefires, it’s necessary a commission from both sides in an effort on giving some concessions to the other. That’s the only way to solve the problems, as even a five years old child knows.

From the Palestinian side it’s vital to recognize the state of Israel. The Jews are there for good and to stay. It doesn’t matter now how they moved in. It’s true that when important times came to date, Hamas accepted -whispering and in a foot note- that there is no problem with a Hebrew state if that guarantees the creation of a Palestinian state. Now, what is needed is that Hamas also recognizes Israel out from the negotiation table. But for those they have to change their foundational principles.

However, two different states means exactly that, and the deal works both ways. That means that the Palestinians must resign the right to return. If now hundreds of thousands (or more) Palestinians were to go back to their previous settlements, there wouldn’t be two different separate states, but two Palestinian states. Or one and a half. In the past it appeared the possibility of a maximum of 3000 people returning, as a compensation symbol for the offense of 1948.

Hamas must renounce as well to the use of the violence as a weapon against the Israeli occupation. If the Jews are there for good, that means that the old willing of send them “back to the sea” is out of date. And the fact that they were democratically elected doesn’t change anything if they don’t follow later the rules of the democratic game. Hitler was as well elected democratically. [We should ask ourselves what the Jews make to make other people so angry at them to elect people who want to exterminate them]

From the Israeli side there is also some homework to do. First is the deal about the settlements. Israel must decide: settlements or peace, but both things are impossible. It’s also important the conditions they leave. If Israel dismantle the settlements but applies a blockade to the Palestinians (as happens in Gaza) it will end to asphyxiate the population and provoking another Intifada.

Israel must recognize Hamas too as a valid interlocutor -once the Islamists refuse to use the violence against the Jews. Ignore them is ignore a great amount of Palestinians. The big support behind them, majority in Gaza and in crescendo in the West Bank, makes Hamas a big player on the conflict that shouldn’t be ignored. It’s a mistake to fall in the dynamic of demonize the terrorists, specially when the terms you use against them could be use against yourself too.

Terrorism is a normative term and not a descriptive concept. An empty word that means everything and nothing, it is used to describe what the Other does, not what we do. The powerful – whether Israel, America, Russia or China – will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism, but the destruction of Chechnya, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the slow slaughter of the remaining Palestinians, the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan – with the tens of thousands of civilians it has killed … these will never earn the title of terrorism, though civilians were the target and terrorising them was the purpose.

Another delicate issue is Jerusalem. The only solution to this lies in a sharing of the city. But the many holy places for both sides -some of them are even holy for more than one faith-makes it difficult to find an equal partition. Maybe the right thing to do would be to leave the city under the UN administration. Not Arab nor Jew, but an international free space.

Anyway, the solution looks distant. Hamas won’t resign his core principles easily and Israel won’t give an inch on this matter after having left Gaza and ended wary. Once bitten, twice shy; and Israel has been bitten 6300 times since they left Gaza. Without and efficient mediation, it seems condemned.

PS. To the heads of ones and the others, they suit quite well to the “War pigs” definition of Black Sabbath’s song. For religious reasons, specially.

PS2. Funny to see how Israel adapts itself to the new times of the Web 2.0 environment. First was a channel in Youtube. Now here it comes the press conferences in twitter, with messages like this: