Israel can't win this or any future conflicts by bombing Gaza
When
a brother and a sister fight, you see the brother hitting her, but don't see the
girl pinching him. The following OpEd at LA Times has expressed this well,
" Israel cannot win this war, primarily because it is fighting only the
symptoms of the conflict with the Palestinians — rocket launching — not the
underlying causes, which are the Gaza blockade and the Israeli occupation of
the Palestinian territories."
Those who are biased towards Jews will condemn Israel to no end, and those who are
biased against Muslims love the killing, bombing and annihilation of
Palestinians. Shame on the men and women on both ends of the conflict for cherishing death and destruction. None of us should justify killings of any
kind and no one should rejoice this.We are not animals to lock in our horns or
tear apart each other with our fangs, we are humans blessed with the ability to
talk and find solutions.
I am deeply committed to security for Israelis and Justice for the Palestinians,
one will not happen without the other. I have written and published over 50
pieces on the issue, and have been involved with many peace initiatives
including Middle East Peace Initiative by Rev. Moon’s ministry. I have been to Israel and have traveled most
of the land. I am a board member of the Israeli Palestinian confederation, a
non-profit organization working to find solutions with membership from both
Palestine and Israel and a few non-Palestinians and non-Israelis like me.
Israel can't win this or any future conflicts by bombing Gaza http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-sharqieh-israel-gaza-20140716-story.html
Smoke is seen billowing from the Gaza Strip following an Israeli airstrike. (Jack Guez / AFP/Getty Images)
A popular colloquial definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Israel launched military campaigns in 2008 and 2012, purportedly to eliminate Hamas' rocket-launching capabilities from the Gaza Strip. Obviously, the campaigns failed: Hamas is again unleashing a barrage of rockets and Israel is again bombarding Gaza. Israel cannot win this war, primarily because it is fighting only the symptoms of the conflict with the Palestinians — rocket launching — not the underlying causes, which are the Gaza blockade and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The range of Hamas' rockets was about 50 miles in 2012, reaching cities such as Ashdod. Today, some rockets have traveled nearly 100 miles, targeting Tel Aviv and even Haifa. Hamas launched more than 800 rockets in the first six days — more than it did in 21 days in 2008. Israel has launched more than 1,300 airstrikes on Gaza in those first six days.
Seventeen members of the extended family of Tayseer Batsh, the Hamas police chief, were killed by one such airstrike — the largest number from one family in a single attack in the three conflicts. We don't know how long the current conflict will last, but it could prove more punishing this time.
A popular colloquial definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting different results. Israel launched military
campaigns in 2008 and 2012, purportedly to eliminate Hamas' rocket-launching
capabilities from the Gaza Strip. Obviously, the campaigns failed: Hamas is
again unleashing a barrage of rockets and Israel is again bombarding Gaza.
Israel cannot win this war, primarily because it is fighting only the symptoms
of the conflict with the Palestinians — rocket launching — not the underlying
causes, which are the Gaza blockade and the Israeli occupation of the
Palestinian territories..
The range of Hamas' rockets was about 50 miles in 2012, reaching cities
such as Ashdod. Today, some rockets have traveled nearly 100 miles, targeting
Tel Aviv and even Haifa. Hamas launched more than 800 rockets in the first six
days — more than it did in 21 days in 2008. Israel has launched more than 1,300
airstrikes on Gaza in those first six days.
Seventeen members of the extended family of Tayseer Batsh, the Hamas
police chief, were killed by one such airstrike — the largest number from one
family in a single attack in the three conflicts. We don't know how long the
current conflict will last, but it could prove more punishing this time.
The heavy bombardment of Gaza only deepens the Israelis' problem rather
than solving it. Over the last 47 years, Israel has systematically created one
of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world in the Gaza Strip. The more
targets Israel destroys, the more frustration grows among the Gazans. The
surviving relatives, neighbors and friends of those killed, and the rest of
Gazan society, are more exasperated than ever by the Israeli blockade. Increased
frustration within a besieged Gaza is what pushed things to the edge in the
first place.
It is delusional to assume that when the current battle ends, both parties
will return to their communities to resume normal lives. The Israeli-Palestinian
conflict has created two meanings of normality. The 40,000 Israeli reservists
who were called up this time will, for the most part, go back to their jobs and
homes when the fighting ends. But Gazans, 39% of whom are unemployed, will go
back to their "normal" lives under the brutal conditions of the Gaza blockade
and be at the mercy of Israel's rules about what type and quantity of food and
other basics are allowed into Gaza. The Palestinians in the West Bank will go
back to their daily humiliation of roadblocks and expanding Israeli settlements
at the expense of their livelihoods.
In fact, the two sides are more equal under the conditions of war than
those of peace; although the Israelis are much stronger militarily and inflict
more damage, both sides feel the effects of being under attack. But when the
fighting ends, the Palestinians' version of normality gives them every incentive
to defy Israeli roadblocks and blockades. When the choice for Gazans is either
accepting the blockade and life in what some have called the largest open-air
prison in the world or fighting back, no sane person would consider anything
other than the latter option.
To prevent another tragic war in the
future, things must change. Palestinians mainly need two things: dignity and
bread. Israel must end the occupation in general and the Gaza blockade in
particular. The mistake of the 2008 and 2012 mediation efforts was that they
produced cease-fires that allowed the Israelis to go back to business as usual —
but left the Gaza blockade intact and perpetuated untenable conditions, which
led to further and bloodier fighting.Israel cannot win this or any future conflicts by bombing Gaza. Without
addressing the root causes, even crippling Hamas — which was able to impose calm
after 2012 — would not be a victory. Instead, it would merely set the stage for
the next time, against whatever group or groups — perhaps even more radical than
Hamas — that would inevitably emerge to take up its mantle.
Ibrahim Sharqieh is a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings
Institution's Doha Center and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in
Qatar. Twitter: @sharqieh
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