Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Sarkozy and the Attempt to Put Out the Fire
Randa Takieddine Al-Hayat - 07/01/09//
"The violence should stop and Israel should facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza." This is how the French president addressed the Israeli leadership, while at the same time holding Hamas responsible for the plight of the Palestinian people, as it halted the truce and resumed firing its rockets at Israeli cities.
The French president should be thanked for promptly heading to the Middle East and urging his friends in Israel to implement a cease-fire and accept a humanitarian truce. However, the French initiative came late, since Israel is not listening and will not carry out what friendly states like France are asking, since it realizes that no one in the West is going to pressure it. For 40 years, Israel has experienced no real pressure from its friends to carry out what it has agreed to, whether in the framework of the Oslo Accords, the Road Map, or the efforts of the International Quartet.
The pressure has all come in the form of verbal stances; no Western leader has ever dared punish Israel for failing to carry out what has been requested of it. How many French presidents, the most recent being Nicholas Sarkozy, have reiterated that Israel must stop settlement activities and lift the siege on the Palestinian people? Even Sarkozy dared to say before the Israeli Knesset that Jerusalem should be the capital of two states and two peoples, Israeli and Palestinian. However, as long as the Israeli leadership fails to implement all of these demands and as long as the Europeans and the international community continue with their verbal stances, a pressure mechanism remains unlikely: on the contrary, during France's presidency of the European Union, Israel has obtained an upgrading of its EU relations to a level of distinguished partnership.
Today, as the Israeli leadership wages war against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, claims innocent lives and carries out shelling with tanks and airplanes, where will all of this destruction lead, once again in the history of the Jewish state?
Just as it did in 2006 in Lebanon, Israel is turning Hamas into a Palestinian resistance that enjoys popularity in all Arab countries, which feel solidarity with the Islamist movement. The international community, which has fought and punished Hamas, and Europe, which has put the group on its terrorist list, might find themselves after this war obliged to turn Hamas into an interlocutor with the international community, which is seeking a cease-fire.
The international community offered assistance to the Palestinian Authority during the Paris Conference and thanks to the effectiveness, transparency and honesty of its prime minister, Salam Fayyad, the PA was able to fund the development of Palestinian regions and use this money, but this is insufficient. The financial assistance should have been linked to real pressure on Israel to lift the closure of crossing-points, dismantle settlements, and ease the daily suffering of the Palestinian people. This was essential to help the moderate political groups in the Palestinian territories, but the closures remained, settlements increased, poverty and despair in Gaza grew, and the threat of extremism was boosted. Unfortunately, the attempt to halt the Israeli war against Gaza came late because Israel has realized that its rights are protected in the West, which will never punish it, no matter what it does.
The fear today is that this war will lead to more extremism in the Middle East and strengthen Hamas, while ending the role of moderate forces, as represented by the PA. Israel today is waging a barbaric attack against the Palestinian people and the consequences of such an action are guaranteed, with the killing of innocent Palestinians and the rendering of Hamas and other extremist groups more popular in the Arab world. Meanwhile, this does not secure protection for the Israeli people, as Israel is claiming. The Israeli people will never have peace and security without real concessions by their side and the implementation of international agreements that Israel has endorsed yet failed to live up to.
Today, the French president repeats during every stop on his Middle East trip that he has come to discuss a solution and cannot wait at his desk as he sees what is taking place without acting. These efforts deserve our thanks. However, the Middle East conflict and the suffering of the Palestinians require a stance based on real pressure on Israel so that it will carry out what is being requested of it by the French leadership and what it has agreed to yet failed to implement simply because it is aware that its friends will never punish it.
