Daniel Levy writes with extreme lucidity about the current disaster unfolding in Gaza. Many may see the current fighting as more of the same from a Palestinian society that seems to eat its young on a daily basis. But I assure you that what is happening now is a new and even more frightening development in the downward spiral of Palestinian society to civil war.
And the worst thing about this is it didn’t have to be this way. If Israel and the U.S. had adopted a softer line after Hamas won the last legislative elections and hadn’t imposed a highly punitive economic strangulation of Gaza; if the world community hadn’t gone along with this ill-conceived “strategy” to topple the duly elected Palestinian government; if the U.S. had embraced the Palestinian unity government brokered by the Saudis; if Israel had immediately embraced the Saudi-sponsored Arab League initiative instead of dickering over the Right of Return–then things needn’t have come to this pass.
All this proves is that if you drive a nation to the brink you mustn’t be surprised at the chaos and anarchy you unleash. Think of what happened to Germany as a result of the financially punitive peace settlement imposed on it after World War I. France was so eager to extract its pound of flesh from Germany that it never stopped to realize that if it drove German society to the economic brink, a monster like Hitler and National Socialism might be the result. If the Allies hadn’t been so deadset on punishing Germany, then the Weimar Republic might have actually had a chance of creating a stable, democratic Germany that could withstand the siren call of fascism.
Gaza is now in the depths of an economic crisis that may be justifiably compared to the economic Depression that de-stabilized and ultimately helped topple the Weimar Republic. We have to ask ourselves: are we prepared to stand on ceremony and continue to insist that Hamas and the national unity government have to do back flips before we recognize and talk to them. Or are we prepared to put out the fire that rages out of control in Gaza while Nero is fiddling in Jerusalem and Washington?
Let me be perfectly clear: the Gaza reoccupation that Israel is contemplating is an utter disaster in the making. The mission will be to come in on the side of Fatah and put down the burgeoning Hamas rebellion:
Does Israel want to play the role of Ethiopia in Gaza, re-crowning Fatah leaders atop IDF tanks?
The allusion to Somalia is quite apt. Just as neither the U.S. in 1993 or Ethiopia now can stabilize that failed state by brute force, Israel’s takeover of Gaza will only delay the inevitable. Fatah has trashed its legacy as steward of Palestinian national identity. It is bankrupt–kaput. Hamas is currently wiping the floor with it.
No one is claiming that Hamas is a desirable interlocutor. But what is the alternative? If we shut out Hamas as the Algerian army tried to do after Islamists won a decisive election victory there, are we prepared to reap the whirlwind? Are we prepared to face the Gaza version of Al Qaeda?
If Hamas is kicked out of the government, the alternative is unlikely to be…tame Hamas quiescence, but rather the emergence of an al Qaeda foothold inside the Palestinian territories.
End punitive economic sanctions which are strangling Gaza. Reopen the Gaza border crossings. Allow transportation links between Gaza and the West Bank. Recognize the national unity government. Begin immediate talks with the Arab League with a view to embracing the Saudi peace initiative. Begin final status talks with the Palestinians. Do this and Gaza has a chance. Don’t do this and civil war will come as sure as I’m writing this:
Israel and her international allies have to swallow hard and recognize that the route to possible enhanced security and a renewed peace process runs via a Palestinian unity government and the ongoing incorporation of the political Islamists into the governing equation.
…Europeans and others should be encouraged to engage; and their money, together with promised Arab donations, and Palestinian tax money being withheld by Israel should all flow back to the PA.
…A serious effort must be made to get a unity government to work. The policy of regime change in Palestine, as elsewhere, has failed.
Levy talks sense. Is anyone listening in Washington or Jerusalem??
Aid to PA Nearly Tripled in ’06, Despite International Boycott , but lets not let the facts get in the way of our blind faith in people who refuse to renounce violence.
In an ideal world Daniel Levy’s comments would make for a great deal of sense.
But it can’t have escaped everyone’s notice that we don’t live in an ideal world. Far from it. If we did, then this whole subject would be little more than ‘academic.’ In fact, the expectation is it wouldn’t exist at all.
But the world is as it is and we can make of it only what we can. Although an ‘ideal’ world seems far beyond our grasp or understanding, we’re not entirely helpless in our dealings with the one we have now.
While reinventing the wheel isn’t always the best of methods, there are times when that particular exercise can seriously be worth the effort.
http://yorketowers.blogspot.com
I find that the general American discourse on the Palestinians depicts them like their animals. The deep-seated racism and Otherization directed at the Palestinians is so embedded in our discourse that I think a lot of people don’t even recognize it. We cordon them off, restrict their movement, cut off their economic lines, demonize and isolate their elected government, shoot them down on their streets and in their homes, and then watch with smug glee as order and stability break down. Gee, who would guess? You severely brutalize and de-humanize a people for so many years, treat them like their sub-human savages, and then, wow, they don’t act like the Queen, all nice with tea and crumpets and pound-cake (probably a bad example). From the outside, one could almost see the whole thing as some kind of vast, sadistic psychological-sociological experiment. How often do you beat someone ’til they turn into a brute.
I predict that the treatment of the Palestinians will go down in future history books as one of the major dark chapters of Western history of the latter half of the 20th century/early 21st century and the clock is still ticking, the Occupation is still going on. Most all of the world actually gets this; it’s just that here in America we’re stuck inside this ideological bubble. Our stunted news media doesn’t help…
Are you claiming that even a tripling of aid would make up for the fact that Gaza, which once had an economy, jobs, infratructure, trade, etc. has none of that now thanks to Israel’s strangulation? Let’s look at a few facts. Has that tripling of aid led to fewer or more jobs existing in Gaza? Has it led to greater or lesser trade bet. Gaza & the outside world? Has it led to lower or higher levels of malnutrition among children & privation among the general population? Has it led to greater or lesser security as people fight for the few crumbs that remain?
It is typical of progandists to focus on a single factoid like the tripling of aid while ignoring the entire context of Gaza’s predicament.
And finally, do you feel it is justified to starve an entire civilian population into submission because it “refuses to renounce violence?”
Richard,
Have I heard you mentioning the interference of the Iranian Junta in Gaza, South Lebanon, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Venezuela….
Of course, Israel is culpable delegating the management of the Palestinian problem to unqualified Israelis -mostly Arab speaking Israelis.
But the main problem is the interference of the indecent forces, from Germany via Soviet Union to Iran’s Junta.
Our hope can be rested in the sanity of the Palestinians in Jordan.
Their stability may rescue us from the next catastrophe.
We need an urgent Israeli-Jordanian-Iraqi alliance to stop the Junta in Tehran.
After that, the Palestinians must enjoy a life free of discrimination in Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Syria, and Lebanon.
These crossing points were open. There was a time when Israel would import any and all excess produce, and other products (such as cement) that Gaza could produce.
Then they smuggled people and equipment to perform terrorist attacks through the crossing terminals. So security got tighter, took longer, prices went up. Then they BOMBED the terminal. So security got tighter, took longer, prices went up. Then they smuggled suicide bombers through, and then they bombed the terminal 2 more times.
Then security became maximized, time and cost became very high, and Israel found other sources for those products.
Some self responsibility must be taken, Israel can’t be expected to just suck it all up.
BTW, the other side of the Rafah crossing is EGYPT. It’s not any more open. Why not? (And, how’s that Israel’s problem?)
Now they’re shooting at Israel, heavily, causing 12,000 Jews to flee their homes. Why? Do they expect to get more commerce that way? Or lower security by proving they’re using the Rafah terminal to smuggle in heavy weapons?
When the Jews left Gaza, quite a bit of equipment and infrastructure was left behind, especially the farming hothouses. The Arabs looted and destroyed them. That’s Israel’s fault?
You cannot absolve the Arabs of their significant part in the current situation. Nor can you name practical positive steps, actions, that they’ve actually taken.
“Security became maximized” really means they closed the crossings entirely. Thier is simply no excuse for completely sealing off Gaza. Because terrorists attack the crossing justifies strangling the entire population of Gaza? Is all of Gaza collectively guilty of such attacks?
It is as much Israel’s fault as anyone else’s. Sharon left Gaza unilaterally w. no negotiation w. the Palestinians. Unfortunately, the hothouses were seen as a hated product of the Israeli Occupation & thus destroyed. I don’t condone that any more than I condone desecrating synagogues.
If Sharon had negotiated his withdrawal & made clear that the Gaza withdrawal would be part of a broader negotiation & resolution of the conflict, then things would’ve been much different. What undermined the Gaza withdrawal was that it was a unilateral half-measure that solved nothing & persuaded no one.
If that is what you take away from this blog then you’re either not reading carefully or distorting my views. The Palestinians have done much damage to their cause over the years, about as much as the Israelis have done to it. I don’t condone or support the current Hamas-Fatah civil war or Qassam rocket firings. But let’s be clear about who has virtually all the firepower, who has the dominating military force, who inflicts the lion’s share of damage, who (Israel) has whom (Gaza) in a death vise: that would be Israel.