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More Violence in Palestine |
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After months of behind the scenes build up and public proclamations on peace, Israel has again gone on the offensive in Gaza:
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well.
J Street, a pro-peace, pro-Israel lobby group which both I and Alex Thurston admire has this statement:
While this morning’s air strikes by Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza can be understood and even justified in the wake of recent rocket attacks, we believe that real friends of Israel recognize that escalating the conflict will prove counterproductive, igniting further anger in the region and damaging long-term prospects for peace and stability.
Respecting Israel’s right to defend itself, we urge leaders there to recognize that there is no military solution to what is fundamentally a political conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
Today’s IDF strikes will deepen the cycle of violence in the region. Retaliation is inevitable, though we don’t know how far the violence will spread or how many more Israelis and Palestinians will die and suffer in the days and weeks to come.
We call for immediate, strong diplomatic intervention by the United States, the Quartet and allies in the region to negotiate a resumption of the ceasefire which dramatically reduced violence and preserved quiet for over five months.
I guess that’s about as far as any Jewish group can go in criticizing Israel, and it’s actually a pretty strong statement. But I’d like to go a bit farther.
As Ian Welsh at Firedoglake points out, there is no scenario under which bombing Hamas will stop rocket attacks or bring peace. This isn’t really self-defense in any kind of constructive way, as Israel’s actions do nothing to stop rocket attacks. It’s simply revenge.
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been going on for decades, and these patterns of revenge have so far done nothing to stop the violence. I’m not going to say Israel shouldn’t take steps to stop the rocket attacks, but they should take steps that actually, you know, stop the rocket attacks. After 60 years it’s clear revenge doesn’t work. It’s high time for Israel to at least learn a few lessons from its own history and try some new tactics.
Here’s to a saner Middle East in the New Year, though looking at the way elections in Israel are shaping up, I’m not too hopeful.
So I’m a Jewish blogger and I basically align my views with J Street. I’m just getting tired of bloggers writing in an expert voice, saying that why Israel does isn’t constructive. Duh, it’s not. What would work?
Of course, of course, the million dollar question.
Direct talks with Hamas would be a great start. They are the democratically elected government, after all. It should really be modeled on classic counter-terrorism tactics a la the IRA in Northern Ireland. Bring them into the political process and that slowly saps their violent tendencies. It’s a long process, sure, but certainly things like this set the ball backwards.