The Need to Confront and Not to Appease

Shalom All,

Many of us will encounter those charging Israel will worsen the situation between the Palestinians and Israel by attacking Hamas. They will demand an immediate halt and condemn Israel for its use of "violence against civilians." Please look at the previous article on this blog for comments on the use of violence and civilian casualties specifically.

I look at it this way : Hamas is , functionally , a tumor on the peace process. It is growing in size and strength and has done extreme damage to both sides of the process. Attempts have been made to reduce its size and ability to do harm through various forms of therapy: political isolation, economic isolation, closing of borders... None have worked and the tumor threatens to kill both sides of the process, causing extreme pain to both. It seems to me that surgery is the option that makes the most sense, especially if the patient would certainly die anyway without it. Is there surgery without pain? Not when surgery is done on the battlefield. There is no easy way for this to be done.

The argument that Israel's use of force will only increase the hatred is simply misguided and naive. Why? That is like saying that a bully who has been beating you for months and whom you finally get up the courage to hit won't like you after you hit him. Except in this case , the bully has been trying to KILL you. Please let me know who among the Arab and Muslim world calling for "Death to Israel" and "Death to the Zionists" were friends of Israel prior to these strikes?

The response below was sent to someone who was arguing that Israel needs to cease the violence immediately and negotiate.

-David

Shalom,

First, Hamas is willing to fight to the death to accomplish their goals which means that negotiation is impossible since they will never compromise.

Second, Hamas has vowed never to make peace with Israel, but only to occasionally agree to cease - fires, during which they increase their arms capabilities, bringing in new and more deadly rockets from Iran, such as the Grad rockets they fired during this event. Israel has said that it knew the locations of other longer - range rockets and targeted those locations during the initial phase of the attack, which is why there has not been more use of them.

Third, the Arab world is being bullied and threatened by their own militants. Several Arab governments have blamed Hamas for these events which , considering their anti-Israel stance is tantamount to jumping for joy. They cannot possibly come out in favor of Israel because militants would wreak havoc in their nations.

Peace and Justice cannot come by allowing an anti-peace military dictatorship to threaten violence and use violence rather than negotiate. They cannot come from exploitation of those desiring peace in which every overture is meant with an handshake in which one side pulls the other in and stabs them. They cannot come through insisting on concessions that will destroy your negotiating partner and they cannot originate from a position of "We'll only talk peace when we're on the losing end," unless the other side is more than willing to help them reach that place.

Violence between Israel and Gaza has increased multi-fold since Israel withdrew from Gaza, you can offer your reasons for that, but the reality is that violence has increased. Life for Palestinians in Gaza has dramatically worsened since Oslo in 1993. Clearly the current Palestinian leadership cannot lead, neither Hamas nor Fatah. Israel is far less secure than it was pre-1993 with the exception of the invaluable security wall.

From what I can tell right now, the interim step toward a functioning Palestinian state, if there ever is to be one, is for Gaza to return to the control of Egypt and for the West Bank, excluding part that will remain under Israeli control to return to Jordanian control. That would end any question of humanitarian issues and allow the reality on the ground, namely parties hostile to peace with Israel at any cost, to be addressed. I believe that , were Palestinians willing to have a nation-state in the West Bank alone with secure borders for Israel, that peace could be possible soon.

I believe that the problematic borders of Gaza and the West Bank are their Eastern and Western borders, but with those in reverse of their normal conception. Gaza's Western border needs to be open into Egypt, not its Eastern border into Israel. On Egypt's refusal to open its border with Gaza please see http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3647299,00.html .

The Eastern border of the West Bank needs to be open into Jordan, not its Western border into Israel, at least not more than it currently is. This will bring humanitarian aid and freedom, while providing security for Israel. The one thing that it would not do is allow Israel to be blamed for the failings of either territory, nor would it put pressure on the existence of Israel.

I believe that the peace movement's continuing blame of Israel for the suffering of the Palestinian people is not remotely accurate, nor helpful, and that placing responsibility upon the Palestinians for refusing to agree to any reasonable peace, something that includes Fatah, needs to become a much greater part of the aims of peace groups. Telling Israel to give in and make peace with murderous extremists simply because Israel has morals and ethics that prevent it from utterly destroying them, rather than demanding that the murderous extremists stop being murderous extremists first, is wrong-headed.

If you saw someone standing at your door holding weapons and threatening to kill you, your wife, your daughter, and demanded to be let in, how would you respond? If others said, "You need to let that person in?" Would you react differently? If that person started throwing bombs into your house, what would you do? Eventually you have to either call for help from the police (in this case the police = UN and the UN would help the prospective intruder in his efforts to harm you) or you can yourself strike out at the one threatening you. If they have a knife and you have a gun, the solution is very simple. Israel can act no differently.

-David