5 January 2009
Dominique Eddé
Gaza: where to go after hell?
What benefit can Israel expect with operation like Cast Lead ?To secure the safety of Israelis citizens ?. To eradicate Hamas ?. Is there any evidence from the past, proving that this method works?
Grapes of wrath, which ended with the massacre at Qana, in Lebanon, in 1996 ? It has reinforced Hezbollah, leading to the withdrawal of the Israeli's troops from south Lebanon in year 2000. Defensive Shield, in Jenin, during the spring of 2002? In fact, 2002 and 2003 were the bloodiest years for the Israelis population with 293 dead.
Rainbow, in May 2004 ? Days of penitence, and its sinister toll, four months later, in north Gaza? The assassination of Hamas leaders, targeted and executed without hesitation by the Israeli power ? Suicide bombings reached their peak in 2005. And, at the beginning of the following year, Hamas obtained an absolute majority in national legislative elections. Legitimate Retribution, the Lebanese war in 2006 that resulted in the devastion of a country with a death toll mount of 1000 civilians dead, 30% of which were children ? There again, Israel has wreaked havoc to no avail. Its loot? The exchange, last July, of two Israeli's soldiers' remains for five Lebanese prisonners and the remains of a dozen of Lebanese and Palestinians' fighters.
What are the Hamas leaders gaining by continuing to fire rockets on Israel ?
What are they aiming at when each of their blows is returned a hundred-fold? One can understand that a resistance movement, under occupation, must be willing to sacrifice casualties. But, what is the point when the balance of power is what it is ? When each rocket fired brings about an inferno in retaliation, when each action is so costly in terms of human lives, so unproductive politically, so unpopular internationally? What is the logic of such an obstinance ? It is true that Hamas has been robbed of its electoral victory. True, that the quasi unanimous negation of their right to rule has isolated them dangerously. And certainly we will never know what would have happened had they been allowed to remain honest interlocutors. Nevertheless, when adversity is so strong and means so poor, a political struggle needs to be all the more innovative and vigilant. Both have been cruelly missing. Why are Hamas leaders constantly escalating, forfeiting their credibility and their people's odds of survival ? Why do they insist on remaining impervious to Israelian's' fear of the future? What is the point in postponing the recognition of Israel ? Is it a trump card kept aside for future negotiations? On the opposite, is'nt it by putting that card on the table that they could better handle their master cards and tackle the main issue – palestinian's rights - at the centre of the debate ?
What did Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, obtain in return for his total submission to the American-Israeli power ?
Concession after concession, handshake after handshake, he has gained nothing but the perpetuation of his own power. He confused open-mindedness with capitulation. He endangered the cohesion of his people. Spokesmen for the fairest possible cause, Abbas and his henchmen did not succeed any more than Hamas in maintaining a coherent speech. Dignified. Articulated. A rhetoric that strikes the imagination, creates momentum, meets the Israelis with heads held high. They under cut the achievements of the intifada, got used to collaboration, to fruitless talks, to what caused, the political ruin of the Arab world, for almost a century.
What is the outcome of America's unconditional support to Israel ? The preservation, of course, of an ultra-priviledged relationship with a strategical partner who is also the "known possessor" of the atomic bomb in the Middle-East. Still, a major question remains : what are, for the last fourty years, the gains which confirm the validity of Israeli-American policy choices ? Three of its fundamental options proved to be dysfunctional and dangerous. :
1) The quest for political domination based on the recurrent use of military superpower. In Iraq, as well as in the occupied territories, that equation has not worked. It did not, in 1991, with the first Gulf War, nor, year after year, in the West Bank and Gaza ; it failed in 2006, in Lebanon and also, for the last five years now, with the second Gulf War. 2) To master and control the region through sectarian divisionsBesides its systematical policy of land parcelling and disintegration in theoccupied territories, the Israeli power seems to nourish, more than ever, thedream of expelling, from Israel, its non- Jewish population. Advocatingseparation everywhere. Slicing up the region, into as many piecesas existing communities. Gaza being the piece of the piece of the piece.By supporting this policy of fragmentation, fundamentally basedon religious grounds, with its risks of ethnic purification, the US is exposingitself and the whole world to the worst possible scenario : the incitementof all populations to join the ranks. Each community locked up in its town,district, street, ghetto. Do we need ewamples to prove that the end of diversityand difference paves the way for death?.
3) Establishing all kinds of interim arrangements and strategies instead of the implementation of international law This is notably how the Oslo agreement undermined the peace it was supposed to implement. In which way ? By maintaining all the settlements in the occupied territories. What does the stronger party gain by continuing to treat the Palestinians, indeed Arabs in general, with contempt? By insisting in dealing only with those who kowtow to it, by extorting concession on top of concession, by trying to outsmart them, by choosing to constantly seek more ground , a piece of Jerusalem here, a new settlement there ? What is the benefit ? The weaker's rage ? Its defeat ? It is not so simple. For what we are now witnessing with a frightening predictability is the progressive transformation of a negotiable situation into one that is getting out of hand. If Israel and the United States persist in negating the unspeakable humiliation , the mad despair, dangerous for all, that is generated by their policy, then, despair will keep on spreading from country to country, like a gunpowder trail. And in this escalation, each day will be a new step towards war. If they insist on refusing to question why a young stone thrower, in 1987 , became a human bomb seven years later, then the young people, forgotten by life, will apply for death in an ever increasing number.
Let us put it more simply. If the United States and Israel, together, have been unable until now to protect Israel's future, it means that their method is wrong. Unless they adopt a new one, Gaza, the infernal prison, will be the precursor of our future as well as theirs.
Dominique Eddé. Lebanese writer. Published in "Le Monde" on 5. 1. 2009.
