These are indeed “Days of Reckoning”, the code-name Israel has aptly given to its siege of Gaza. To avenge the death of two Israeli schoolchildren last week, Israel has since killed 60 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in one of the largest and bloodiest offensives since the intifada began four years ago. And Ariel Sharon says there will be more, vowing the rocket strikes will continue “for as long as necessary.” Just as the United States will not stay in Iraq “a day longer than is necessary,” so, too, Sharon’s timetable is completely open-ended, vague and liable to many different interpretations.
The attack on the Israeli border town of Sderot last Wednesday should have galvanized Sharon into quickening the pace of his planned withdrawal from Gaza, which is set for next year. Instead, he went in the exact opposite direction, pushing relentlessly further into Gaza. Despite repeated protests from the right, Sharon still wants to leave the strip; in that sense a withdrawal represents a victory for armed resistance. Throughout Israel, voices demanding disengagement from the Palestinians and the dismantling of settlements are getting louder and becoming more forceful. According to the latest opinion poll conducted in Israel, 69 percent of the Israeli public supports the plan to vacate all Jewish settlements in Gaza.
If, however, there is to be a pullout it will come at a terribly high price for it is obvious by now that Sharon does not want to leave anything behind. He seeks to torch everything, to leave the area barren. For that to happen, Sharon must do what he is doing now — invade, occupy, crush and kill.
Remarkably, though, there is no sign of surrender. The intifada has an unflagging ability to sustain itself against overwhelming odds in its confrontation with an Israeli occupation that has thrown its substantial military might into an attempt to break the will of the Palestinians. Had Palestinians been people of lesser fortitude, Israel might have had its way. Since the eruption of the intifada, Israel has killed 3,500 Palestinians. In the same four-year period, Palestinians have killed 919 Israelis.
The Palestinians are declaring a state of emergency. They need international help — and quickly. France and Russia are expressing deep concern about the Gaza incursion but that is about all. London has conceded that there is no greater challenge to international order than the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians but again, Britain simply does not have enough influence over Israel. The country that has the influence, the United States, is calling on Israel to limit its offensive and not to use disproportionate force because these are, after all, an almost defenseless people with limited weapons.
Israel is running roughshod over northern Gaza but Israeli practices are not described as crimes against civilians, as Palestinian practices are, but rather as “use of excessive force.” And of course, Palestinian military retaliation against Israel is defined as terrorism.
