israeli strategy is totally unreasonable, page-20

diligent,

I try really hard not to hate. Hatred is a poisonous and unproductive emotion. It certainly will detract from any workable solution to Israel/Palestine conflict.

Hamas was wrong to launch explosive missiles into Israel, to send suicide bombers on random acts of murder and to espouse a policy of destruction of Israel. Israel was wrong to steal land from Palestinians, to compile murder lists, to target crowded roadways, to impose a starvation blockade, to launch missiles, bombs and high explosive shells into Gaza and to refuse to recognise the democratic election of Hamas.

Both sides have done wrong diligent, but Israel is exploiting its dominant position by inflicting orders of magnitude more pain on Hamas than Hamas inflicts on Israel. What all of this pain is doing, diligent, is inspiring more hatred. As I have already stated, hatred is a poisonous and unproductive emotion and it certainly will detract from any workable solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

In a related thread on HC a few days ago I read someone suggesting that this problem will only be solved by the arrival of the "Big Man". The only big man I see coming is president Obama. Right now Israel is using US supplied arms in direct attacks on Gaza. These attacks go far beyond what any reasonable and unbiased person would call self defence. By using US arms to attack Gaza, Israel is breaking US law unless they can establish that they are acting in self defence. I would like to see this matter tested in US courts. Where does reasonable defence stop and aggression start?

I wonder if Israel is exploiting an opportunity to attack Gaza right now. Political opposition is likely to be subdued in Israel itself in the runup to elections due on Feb 10 2009. The US is in its usual state of paralysis in the lame duck interregnum. However Obama is in an extraordinarily powerful position. With just a few words he could put enormous pressure on Israel to adopt a unilateral cease fire. If Obama were to announce some kind of judicial review of Israel's aggressive use of US supplied arms, it would be in Israel's interests to discontinue its attacks on Gaza. Hamas would then have two very clear choices. They could continue firing their rockets and add weight to Israel's claim of self defence or they could accept an interim ceasefire.

Hamas would be well served if they made very public overtures towards opening a dialogue with Israel. They have already made some very sensible but so far off the record noises about abandoning their policy regarding the destruction of Israel. A public announcement to this effect, tied to the insistence of UN brokered peace talks, would put Hamas into a strong position. Peace with Hamas would become a dominant issue in the coming Israeli elections. The pressure would then be on the Israeli politicians to make positive responses. There is no doubt that the population of Israel is very tired of war.