A futile cycle of retribution
Israel has every right to defend itself from a hail of missiles fired from Palestinian territory in Gaza. But Palestinians need a state of their own, not a colony largely barricaded from the world. Both sides must find a way forward and retreat from this latest plunge into an endless cycle of retribution.
These ideas should be the starting point for a cease-fire in a 2week-old conflict that has left more than 500 dead, most of them Palestinian civilians. The number would likely be higher without Israel’s missile defense system that has shielded its citizenry from over a thousand rockets fired indiscriminately into the country.
After nervously watching the conflict grow, outside negotiators finally are stepping in. President Obama has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to note the soaring death toll. Talks are taking shape in Cairo, featuring U.N. head Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Egyptian figures who have guided past negotiations.
But there are impediments to ending the fighting. The devoutly anti-Israel group Hamas runs Gaza and shows no signs of lessening its grip. Israel’s hawkish leaders believe their country is strongly behind them, meaning the air and ground assault carries political strength.
These present-day features don’t erase history. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1986 and 2006 and Gaza in 2009, sweeping the landscape clear of military threats at great cost. But after withdrawals, weapons and fighters flooded back as though nothing happened. The Gaza invasion will likely produce the same result: a temporary pacification at great military expense and loss of life that will dwindle away when Israel retreats.
The battles end up serving as reminders of the past, but with no answer for the future. Hamas needs to stop its rocket attacks, launched from populated areas that draw deadly Israeli responses, and infiltrating Israel through tunnels. Gaza residents must wonder who the real enemy is: Israeli forces or Hamas strategists who use their own civilians as shields.
Israel needs a different approach. If it wants a peace that isolates Hamas fanatics, it needs to pull back from settlements in contested areas in the West Bank area and launch more serious negotiations with Hamas’ rivals in the Palestinian Authority led by the more moderate Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli leader Netanyahu has spurned this approach for several years, preferring an icy stalemate that has exploded into war.
Breaking with the past will take political courage, the kind that will alienate the loud voices that dominate leadership of both sides. But endless war is a hopeless course. Israel is right to go after the Gaza rockets, but now it’s time for a long-term plan that ends the need for more fighting.