Israel, Gaza, Hamas and a Look at Causes

I think it's time I wrote something a bit more fleshed out about the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza. At the beginning, I should make my view of the entire Israeli-Palestinian history clear. I view it as an essentially colonialist enterprise after the point at which Zionist philosophy enters the picture. I don't pretend to a balanced point of view, or to neutrality. I am anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist, and this means that I am pro-Palestinian. I should also state that I think Israel is here to stay, and the people of Israel should have a state within their pre-1967 borders. There won't be any functional reversal of the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948, and Israel isn't going anywhere. I don't go to the extremes of some who believe that there is an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians, but I do believe that Israel's policies toward the Palestinians are not functionally different than those of the white government of Apartheid South Africa. I also don't believe that all Israeli citizens, or all of Israel's Jewish population, support the actions of their government with regard to the Palestinians. There is a peace movement within Israel with both Jewish and Arab members, and I wish them the very best with their work.

To find the beginning of the current fighting in Gaza is an exercise in nearly infinite chicken-and-egg reasoning. Causes and effects can be traced back before the founding of Israel, and I don't have the time or the inclination to go into that. To find the immediate cause, I look to the ceasefire deal negotiated indirectly about seven months ago between Israel and Hamas, the legally elected governing party of the Palestinians. In this deal, there were a couple of essential points for each side. Essentially, Israel wanted an end to rockets into the south of Israel. Essentially Hamas wanted an end to bombings/missile strikes, and the opening of the borders of the Gaza Strip. Neither side seemed to have been making unrealistic demands.

Beginning in early November of 2008, Israel killed eleven Hamas personnel (militants or security personnel depending on who you ask) over eleven days, leading Hamas to fire rockets into Israel once again. This is an undisputed fact, as reported by the International Herald Tribune. The Israeli response to these rockets was to tighten the economic blockade of Gaza, which had never really been lifted, despite the deal, essentially placing Gaza under siege and cutting supplies of food and fuel. These events set off a spiral of violence that, over about two months, developed into the brutalization now taking place in Gaza.

In the light of those facts, it is clear that the cease-fire was never properly implemented, as Israel did not fulfil it's side of the bargain. This means that it is Israeli bad-faith negotiation that is the intermediate cause of the current violence, and Israeli breaches of other terms of the cease fire that is the immediate cause. Increased rocketing by Hamas was certainly unhelpful, and likely provoked a more extreme Israeli response, but it is clear that Israel expected complete compliance with the terms of the cease fire deal from Hamas without delivering the same itself.

That is an unfortunate pattern in Israeli dealings with the Palestinians, that has been repeated time and again. As an example, the Oslo Accords agreed to a right of passage between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but this was repeatedly infringed upon by Israel. The history of bad faith negotiation on the part of the Israelis makes it hard to believe that they will keep any new agreement that is reached to end this current attack on Gaza.

Israel's approach to Gaza in particular has been highly unethical and immoral. Beyond the bad faith negotiations, Israel has inflicted collective punishment on the people of Gaza both in the form of the blockade and in the form of bombing civilians. It has violated principles of international law protecting civilians. A civilian population does not lose its protected status at international law because an army's enemies are hiding amongst them, despite the claims of Israel, and of every other modern occupier from the United States in Iraq, Canada in Afghanistan, Russia in Chechnya and so forth. This is exemplified by the bombing yesterday of a United Nations school that was clearly marked as such, killing at least 39 people. Israel claimed that mortar shells were fired from that location, as if that excused knowingly killing civilians.

As Devin Johnston says, the only way to peace is for one side to let bumps in the road to peace pass, and not use them as an excuse for renewing or escalating the cycle of violence. As I see it, it must be Israel that does this. Israel is the occupier, and it faces no existential threat from the Palestinians. Israel has the capacity to destroy all society in the occupied territories. The Palestinians have no such capacity with regard to Israel. Despite the number of rockets fired into Israel in December (approximately 3,000) only five Israelis were killed. Contrast that with the first week of the Israeli bombing of Gaza in which 400+ people died, and that fact comes into focus. However, this is only one necessary condition. Israel must tear down the Apartheid walls it has built, and withdraw settlements from the West Bank. Israel is going to have to return East Jerusalem. Without these things, it is difficult to see how the Palestinians can consent to an agreement.

As an aside before I wrap up, Israel demands as a precondition of peace that Hamas recognize the right of Israel to exist. No state has the right to exist at international law. Israel is demanding something that no other state has, or can have at international law. What Israel can legitimately demand is that Hamas recognize the right of the people of Israel to live in peace - but Israel must recognize the same for the people of Palestine.

Ultimately, you cannot fight for peace. Peace must come through dialogue, and negotiation. Peace will not come from the barrel of a tank cannon or the explosion of a Quassam rocket. Peace will come when both sides are willing to make concessions, and to realize that each will have to give up some of what it wants in order to have peace. I believe it is possible and necessary. As John Lennon put it:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 12