|
“We know that the Gaza Strip is a small area.
It is open for Israel—they can kill most of the Palestinian people and
destroy everything. The job of the international community is to stop
the Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip.”
This was the response of Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas
representative in Gaza, to questions from a reporter for al-Jazeera,
the main Arab nationalist TV station and news website, to threats of a
"holocaust" from the Israeli deputy secretary of defense Matan
Vilnai The Israeli minister had used the word "shoah," which
is a Hebrew term used for the Nazi genocide of Jews in the 1940s. Sami
Abu Zuhri, another Hamas representative, said, "We are facing new
Nazis who want to kill and burn the Palestinian people" (cf. the Al
Jazeera English website for Feb. 29).
The Israeli government is threatening a
military reoccupation of the Gaza Strip. Such an operation would likely
mean a major war and possibly drive a large part of the Gaza population
across the border into Egypt. In any case, it would certainly involve
an attempt to destroy Hamas' organization and base in Gaza, as well as
those of other Palestinian resistance groups. That would mean mass
repression and a slaughter of Palestinian fighters and many bystanders.
These threats come in the wake of a series of
Israeli strikes and raids that cost the lives of 32 Palestinians in two
days (Feb. 27 and 28), nine of whom, according to al-Jazeera, were
children. In the last year, Israeli forces have killed 300 Palestinians
in Gaza.
The Israeli saber rattling, which has been
accompanied by diplomatic and apparently military preparations for a
large-scale ground operation in Gaza, were ostensibly a response to the
continuing barrage of small home-made missiles on the Israeli border
town of Sderot and the beginning of firing larger and longer-range
missiles at the southern Israeli port of Ashkelon.
In recent days, the Qassams have caused a few
Israeli casualties. (The missiles are not aimed at any specific target
and mostly explode harmlessly.) The Israeli army has been staging
air-to-ground missile strikes and raids into Gaza for a long time,
supposedly to stop the firing of missiles. However, although it has
killed many Palestinian fighters, it has had no demonstrable success in
stopping or even reducing the barrages.
For some time, key Israeli military analysts
have been arguing that the only way to stop the Qassams is to reoccupy
the Gaza Strip. Recently, in fact, the leading Israeli daily, Haaretz,
carried an article maintaining that the U.S. was dissatisfied with
Israel because it was delaying the launch of such an operation. In
fact, polls show that the great majority of Israelis prefer
negotiations with Hamas to an inevitably costly military assault. Even
the government and the military command are divided over the
advisability of such a war, according to rumors reported in Haaretz.
The Hamas political leadership has repeatedly
said that it is prepared to accept an indefinite truce with Israel,
even though it is not prepared to accept in principle the legitimacy of
the Zionist state.
It seems that Israel has come to a
crossroads. Its policy of trying to break the Hamas government by an
economic siege of Gaza and killings of fighters by pinpoint strikes and
raids has been failing. And the international outcry against the
collective punishments inflicted on the Gaza people has been growing.
In late February, for example, the European
Union adopted a resolution condemning the Israeli siege of Gaza:
"The European Parliament calls on Israel to cease military actions
killing and endangering civilians, and extra-judicial targeted
killings" (quoted in Haaretz of Feb. 22).
The danger now is that the Zionist rulers may
try to escape their dilemma by greatly raising the stakes. It is urgent
that all possible pressure be brought to bear on Israel and its allies
to forestall major attacks on Gaza.
An attempt to reoccupy the territory would
not in fact stop the Qassams or the firing of missiles at Askelon. Such
attacks could be launched even under Israeli military occupation. But
an all-out assault on Gaza could lead to a regional war, including a
possible confrontation with Syria and Iran. This would cause heavy
losses of life and infrastructure for the peoples of the Middle East.
|