Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 14, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/149834/Blame-Hamas-for-this-terrible-war.html
Here's the latest news from Gaza, as monitored
from wire services: Israeli Defence Forces on Tuesday pushed deeper into Gaza
City, overcoming resistance from Hamas fighters, and by nightfall were a short
distance from the heavily crowded city centre. As on the other days of the
armed campaign launched by Israel on December 27 to destroy the terror apparatus
of Harkat al-Muqawamat al-Islamiyyah, better known as Hamas, several buildings
were destroyed, Palestinians were rendered homeless and many lives were lost
on Tuesday. An Associated Press report, filed from Gaza, evocatively described
how the intense fighting on the streets and the shelling sent "terrified
residents running for cover". According to hospital officials, "more
than 900 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed" in the
18-day-old war. That's a huge death toll, given the fact Gaza is only a strip
of land, less than a dot on the disputed map of West Asia.
It is no doubt distressing to watch television
footage and photographs of dead Palestinians half-buried in the rubble of
what were their homes. But it is equally distressing to watch Israelis cowering
in bomb shelters in Sderot and Ashkelon as Kassam rockets are fired by defiant
Hamas jihadis from Gaza, undeterred by the collective punishment that is being
meted out to Palestinians. Before we accuse the Israelis of indulging in wanton
killings, as is the fashion of the moment, we should pause and consider some
harsh truths.
It is by now clear that true to the tradition
of Islamist jihad, Hamas fighters have been callously using Palestinian women
and children as human shields. For instance, a senior Hamas commander, Nizar
Rayan, rather than come out of his home and boldly confront the Israeli soldiers
in the streets of Gaza, locked himself in his bedroom with his four wives
and 12 children. In the event, he was killed along with his wives and 10 children.
There is also incontrovertible evidence to prove that Hamas gunmen have taken
shelter in UN-run schools from where they have been firing at Israeli soldiers,
daring them to shell the compounds teeming with refugees.
The civilian casualties would not have been
so high had Hamas been less cynical and half as brave as jihadis claim to
be. Surely Israel cannot be blamed for Hamas's cowardly deed of using civilians,
especially children, as human shields to protect their own miserable lives.
That apart, this is a war which Hamas has invited upon itself; so long as
it did not force an end to the six-month ceasefire negotiated by Egypt and
which came into effect on June 19, 2008, Israel did not respond despite repeated
provocations by way of a daily barrage of Kassam rockets fired at Israeli
towns like Sderot and Ashkelon.
Even at this stage, when Hamas's terror infrastructure
has been crippled and Arab countries have refused to up the ante against Israel
as they do not wish to be seen as supporting an organisation of Islamic fanatics
who have caused immeasurable damage to the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine
issue and virtually undone the tremendous progress that had been made since
the Annapolis peace conference of November 2007, Mr Ismail Haniya and his
cohorts refuse to agree to a UN-brokered ceasefire. Given the belligerence
of Hamas's shadowy Damascus-based supreme leader, Mr Khaled Mashal, it would
be unrealistic to expect Israel to pull back and pull out of Gaza.
Hizbullah's intransigence and unrestricted
growth have shown that UN Security Council resolutions are not worth the paper
they are printed on for those who refuse to be reconciled to the existence
of Israel. The Charter which guides the terrorists of Hamas remains unamended
and calls for the total destruction of the Jewish state. And so shall it remain
till such time Hamas ceases to exist. Mr Mashal has made this point more than
once, asserting, "Anyone who thinks Hamas will change is wrong."
It is, therefore, not surprising that Hamas
should have rejected the January 8 UN Security Council resolution calling
for an "immediate, durable, fully respected ceasefire in Gaza leading
to full withdrawal of Israeli forces". Nor does it make sense to berate
Israel for ignoring the Security Council's pious words since that would amount
to conceding Hamas the right to behave in any manner it pleases without fear
of retribution, collective or otherwise.
This has, however, not prevented UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-Moon from embarking upon a peace-making tour of West Asia (he is scheduled
to be in Israel on Thursday) to tell both Hamas and Israel that the Security
Council resolution should be "respected fully". Mr Ban Ki-Moon,
faced with the first serious crisis after he assumed office, would do well
to go through Hamas's record of violating every possible agreement and breaking
all promises it has made to Arab Governments, especially the Government of
Egypt, to which it owes an enormous debt of gratitude but has not hesitated
to let down repeatedly. The elaborate network of tunnels that has been set
up by Hamas and its collaborators in Syria to smuggle Iranian arms and explosives
from Sinai into Gaza has left President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt looking increasingly
less in command. Yet, had it not been for Mr Mubarak's restraining hand, Israel
would have snuffed out Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's dreams along with the paraplegic
mullah in March 2004.
It is anybody's guess as to how the war against
Hamas - it is not a war against Palestinians just as the war against terror
is not a war against Muslims - will play out in the coming days. If Egypt
is able to convince Israel of its ability to tame Hamas and put an end to
the smuggling of arms and explosives from Sinai into Gaza, and Saudi Arabia
underwrites the next hudna, then Mr Ban Ki-Moon may well succeed in his mission.
But it will at best be a temporary pause in hostilities as Hamas has repeatedly
demonstrated its ability, thanks to Iran's patronage, to recover from severe
military and political setbacks. For anything more permanent, the Palestinians
must come to a decision on the future of the state they crave for but are
unable to hold together.
There are three possibilities now that Annapolis
is history. Jordan can resume charge of West Bank and Egypt can look after
Gaza, thus effectively converting the two-state solution to a three-'state'
arrangement with Palestine as a moth-eaten entity. Second, Palestinians can
restore the supremacy of Fatah and let Abu Mazen arrive at an honourable final
settlement with Israel, thus breaking free of their cursed past. Third, Palestinians
can condemn themselves to a never-ending war which will fetch them nothing
but death and destruction. At the end of the day, it is their choice, not
Israel's.
