As Israel intensifies its murderous onslaught on Gaza in its insane but futile attempt to eliminate Hamas, there are desperate efforts by Egypt and France to end the conflict. Exactly what their plan contains, other than an immediate cease-fire, is not wholly clear. It can be assumed, however, that it contains some sort of external force (maybe in the form of Egyptian Army patrols) to limit Hamas’ freedom of action in Gaza. Otherwise the Americans would not support it. Washington killed off Libya’s planned (and Arab League-backed) cease-fire resolution specifically because it did not meet their demands for border monitors or the destruction of tunnels through which Hamas is said to have smuggled weapons.
Whatever reservations people may, therefore, have about the Egyptian plan, it is the only one around — and it does have the backing of the Palestinian Authority as well as of the Arab League. There has to be a cease-fire now, and one adhered to by both sides. Otherwise, hundreds more innocent Palestinians will die, maybe thousands if the Israeli juggernaut of death continues another week or so. The body count rises hourly.
That is the single most important issue here — the brutal slaughter of hundreds upon hundreds of innocent Palestinians who have nothing to do with Hamas or its activities. Only a cease-fire will stop more dying. That said, a cease-fire is only a first stage. There has to be more than that — and that “more” must include an immediate end to the blockade.
Some of Israel’s friends blame Hamas for inviting the Jewish state’s wrath and lethal bombs by refusing to renew the cease-fire. They fail to acknowledge the fact that the blockade imposed by Israel on land, on sea and in the air against Gaza’s one-million-and-a-half human beings is an act of war, and as such one party to the conflict was continuously violating the terms of the truce even when Hamas adhered to the terms for six months. So those who talk of cease-fire without any reference to the blockade are in fact asking the Gazans to choose death by starvation or Israeli bombs.
Gaza is part of a broader dispute and should be part of an eventual settlement involving Gaza and West Bank. But right now the people of Gaza need to be provided with food, heating, medical supplies, and not just for three hours a day.
Unfortunately the signs are far from encouraging. Ever since this conflict started, it has been painfully apparent that Israelis were proceeding on the assumption that they can crush Hamas, which they cannot; indeed they have clearly underestimated Hamas’ ability to survive. Despite the Egyptian-French efforts, the Israeli Cabinet voted to extend military operations to phase three, while in Damascus yesterday, Hamas’ exiled political leadership attacked the Egyptian truce plan as “unviable”.
One last point: While Gaza burns, the UN has done nothing. Its impotence has been one of the most scandalous aspects of what will be an even bloodier conflict than the 2006 Lebanon War if it continues any longer — and there the Lebanese could at least flee the fighting. Blockaded, imprisoned, the people of Gaza have nowhere to run. UN impotence is not the doing of UN officials. It is the fault of the system. If the onslaught on Gaza had been elsewhere and not involved a close ally of the US, there would have been thundering Security Council condemnation and swift action. Gaza raises fundamental questions about the role of the UN. If it only works when it does not conflict with the interests of one of the veto powers, then what is the point? Where is its integrity? That, though, is an issue for later.
