How Do We Make Israel Understand?

Saturday, April 03, 2010
Courtesy Of The Daily Star

It does not happen to us often, but we are at a loss for words. What can we say to Israel, which is threatening yet another war on Gaza and appears ready to pres on yet again with its policy of folly?

It nearly leaves us speechless: This massive military power – the largest in the region and one of the 10 greatest armies in the world – is unable to keep a lid on the ragtag band of Hamas, and yet Israel fails to draw any sort of political conclusion from this failure? Hamas cannot even control the Gaza Strip enough to stop tiny opposition groups from flinging rockets into Israel, which apparently has caused latest contretemps.

After Israel undertook its nearly monthlong assault on Gaza little more than one year ago, what can it possible be preparing now – the annihilation of Gaza?

When will Israel see that the cost of its obduracy has spiraled through the roof, with no end in sight? When will they understand that it is cheaper to make a political settlement; even now, despite all the Israeli fecklessness and belligerence, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey want to help achieve peace.

The Obama administration and its Western allies have also demonstrated a renewed commitment to the peace process, but the Israelis are continuing their view of Israeli-Palestinian dynamics as a zero-sum game. Israel is not at all trying to create the conditions that would allow for a Palestinian state; Israel merely continues to inflate the threat posed to Israeli existence by its enemies. Surely Israel must know that, despite incessant fiery rhetoric from Hamas and Hizbullah, neither group is really capable of doing more than inflicting scratches on Israel?

Did Israel not read that war is merely politics by other means? Obviously they have figured out the war part, but how can they be so ignorant of the politics part of the principle?

Has Israel not learned that it cannot annihilate the peace process? Has Israel not realized that it cannot eliminate the desire for Palestinian statehood? Did Israel not learn that the strategy of crushing its enemies did not work with the PLO and will not work now with Hamas? Even if the entity known as Hamas ceases to exist, others just like it will arise.

When the US, Israel’s only true friend, tries to tell the Jewish state even part of these truths, Israel responds not by listening but with a blustering, blanket rejection of all reality.

How do we begin to make Israel understand? How can we explain that using all its military might against Gaza – Gaza, little more than an enlarged rickety refugee camp – will get Israel nowhere? We are at a loss of words – what can we say to them? The march of folly goes on …