Israel concedes to Hamas, allows materials into Gaza
JERUSALEM — In a major concession to Gaza’s Hamas leaders Monday, Israel dropped its fiveyear ban on construction materials crossing into the territory and raised hopes there that rebuilding could begin after a damaging eightday Israeli air campaign.
The easing of restrictions is an outgrowth of the cease-fire that ended the airstrikes and months of daily rocket fire from Gaza at Israel. Contacts mediated by Egypt to follow up the truce produced the concession, and Israel promised to keep easing the lives of Gaza’s 1.6 million residents, as long as Israelis were no longer targeted by rocket fire by Gaza militants.
How long the new arrangement holds could serve as a test case for the brittle truce between the bitter enemies. It also reflects a new power equation, with neigh- boring Egypt under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent group of Hamas.
Israel, together with Egypt, imposed a land and naval embargo on Gaza after Hamas violently overtook the territory in 2007. Although Israel eased the restrictions in 2010, building materials such as cement, gravel and metal rods were still largely banned because Israel claimed militants could use them to make fortifications and weapons.
Hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the GazaEgypt border gave Gaza a conduit for all manner of goods as well as weapons, though the blockade remained intact.
During eight days of violence in November, the Israeli military said 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. The rocket attacks killed six Israelis and wounded dozens. Israeli airstrikes killed 169 Palestinians, many of them militants, and caused considerable damage. Israel said it targeted Hamas installations and government buildings.
As part of a cease-fire agreement brokered by Egypt’s new Islamist leaders, Israel agreed to consider new border arrangements in return for a complete cessation of rocket fire.
“Now we’re talking about a permanent easing,” said Maj. Guy Inbar, a military spokesman. “The longer the calm persists, the more we’ll weigh additional easing of restrictions that will benefit the private sector.”
Hamas called the move inadequate. Gaza economists said it would take years of shipments to make a dent left by the five-year blockade.
Inbar said 20 truckloads a day could enter Gaza, and other concessions may follow “depending on the continuation of the calm.”
Last week, Israel authorized the entry of 60 trucks and buses.
— The struggle to head off a national fiscal crisis has highlighted one thing: The era of the big deal is over.
Despite repeated, intense efforts by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner as well as bipartisan coalitions, supercommittees, special commissions and wonky outsiders, the grand bargain remains elusive and seems destined to stay that way for now.
“We don’t seem to be able to do grand bargains very well,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has long been a force for compromise.
Although some groups have produced the framework for smaller deals and even gained some bipartisan support — particularly the 2010 Simpson-Bowles plan that fell just short of a 14-vote threshold required to get before Congress — the alchemy of Obama and the current Republicancontrolled House, not to mention the ideologically diverse Senate, appears hopelessly inhospitable to bring something huge to the finish line.
As Obama all but acknowledged Monday, big bipartisan legislative dreams seem all but certain to be miniaturized as incremental policy visions.
“My preference would have been to solve all these problems in the context of a larger agreement, a bigger deal, a grand bargain, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “Maybe we can do it in stages. We’re going to solve this problem instead in several steps.”
Republicans appear to agree.
“We’ll continue to work on smart ways to