Peace will cease to have any meaning

January 20, 2008

Peace will cease to have any meaning


IT would seem that the Israeli political establishment is being nudged towards launching an all-out offensive against Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups in the Gaza Strip. Reports and commentaries have appeared in the Israeli press suggesting that the ongoing Israeli air strikes and other forms of attacks against the Gaza Strip — which is under a total Israeli lockdown — would not lead to an end to Gaza-based Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli targets. If anything, the reports and commentaries say, the current Israeli policy of "only nibbling at the fringes" of the Gaza Strip is helping Palestinian resistance to "hone their fighting skills "and would not eliminate their missile-launching capabilities.
It is clear that the extremists in the Israeli political establishment and military are pressuring the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to launch what they call the "long-delayed" land offensive against the Gaza Strip with all that it would entail, including heavy Palestinian civilian casualties in the coastal strip, which is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
On the other side, John Dugard, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, has called the Israeli attacks war crimes and has called for punishment for those responsible.
Dugard specifically referred to an Israeli attack on Friday targeted against a Hamas government office which caused serious casualties at a nearby wedding party. His comment left no doubt about how the world body viewed the Israeli actions. "The killing of some 40 Palestinians in Gaza in the past week, the targeting of a government office near a wedding party venue with what must have been foreseen loss of life and injury to many civilians, and the closure of all crossings into Gaza raise very serious questions about Israel's respect for international law and its commitment to the peace process," he said.
Well, Dugard is wasting his breath. There was never any Israeli respect for international law; nor is it committed to making peace with the Palestinians. As Olmert himself made it clear last week, he does not expect to be able to work out a peace agreement with the Palestinians — at least not the Israeli version of an agreement — but that he has no choice but to continue negotiations because the status quo would not serve Israel's interests.
It is against that backdrop that Olmert is being pushed into embarking on a military operation to invade and occupy areas of the Gaza Strip in order to end Palestinian missile attacks. It is even suggested that those areas be handed over to the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Whatever the objective, such an Israeli military operation would result in unprecedented casualties among the civilians of Gaza, making the present suffering of the Gazans pale in comparison.
Surely, Washington is aware of the Israeli plans.
As the key sponsor of the Annapolis process launched in November, the US as well as others in the Quartet cannot escape from their legal and a moral obligation to compel Israel to cease its military assault against the Gaza Strip and lift its stranglehold on the territory.
If they do not live up to their responsibility, there is little sense in talking about their commitment to bringing about Israeli-Palestinian peace because peace would cease to have any meaning for the people of Gaza under the present course of events.