Wednesday, 7 January 2009
By Abdullah Iskandar
The current Israeli military campaign on the Gaza Strip and the nature of the air and ground military operations reveal that the political and security goals vary between ceasing Hamas' rocket attacks at the very least, and finishing off the movement as a Palestinian political force controlling the strip and as a part of the Palestinian leadership due to its parliamentary representation, at the most.
As the course of the offensive reveals, the Israeli forces started their campaign with intensive air strikes, in an attempt to depict a "clean war" that rests on "surgical strikes" hitting Hamas' military body. But the air strikes failed to deliver any fatal blows to the movement which continued - along with the rest of the factions - to fire rockets. The air strikes have only brought a holocaust upon the Palestinian civilians, in addition to genocide and wars against humanity. Then the Israeli forces moved to the "scorched earth" tactic, through ground, air, and sea assault. Israel intended to cause the largest number of Palestinian causalities through this tactic, in order to incite these victims against Hamas, with the assumption that Hamas is the reason behind the barbaric offensive that besets them, while the movement, its leadership, and fighters managed to find a safe haven and thus were not exposed to any attacks.
This tactic has also failed to turn the Palestinians on Hamas. Instead, it expanded the Arab and international solidarity, namely by the people, with the tragedy and grieves and sufferings of the Gazans. It also increased the voices calling for pressuring Israel to reach a ceasefire and open humanitarian crossings that would at least save the lives of those who survived the Israeli attacks. As such, the "scorched earth" tactic backfired and disappointed the Israeli leadership. Consequently, Israel had to move to a more advanced stage of operations through a deeper ground invasion towards the residential buildings in the strip, with the assumption that it will engage in an unbalanced confrontation with Palestinian fighters who hide in these buildings. Here, too, as the operations revealed yesterday, this tactic changed the nature of the attack, from a campaign to discipline Hamas and oblige it to cease its rocket attacks, to a war of attrition through which the invading forces pay a more costly price of victims which the Israeli leadership tries to avoid. These prices will increase over time, in light of Israel's intransigence, rejection of a ceasefire and attempts to manipulate the delay in issuing any international resolution.
In return, despite the exceptional price in terms of Palestinian causalities in the strip and the tragedies and fears they suffer from, Hamas heads to strengthen its political position, especially with the solidarity expressed with Gaza. Thus, Hamas turns from a political party that imposed its hegemony on Gaza by force, to a movement that defends the Palestinian people exposed to an Israeli genocide. Therefore, the movement will gain a recognition it has long sought as the substitute for the Palestinian Authority which is flanked by its duty to protect the Palestinians and its rivalry with Hamas. As such, Hamas, with its political approaches, affiliations, and relations, will become the destination everyone should resort to in addressing the Palestinian issue. Hamas will thus regain what the Arabs had refused to grant it when they clung to the presidency of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinian people.
This means that the military impasse Israel is facing in the strip parallels its political impasse as it refuses to engage Hamas in any coming solution. For such a solution to be viable, it has to enjoy Hamas' consent.
The success Hamas believes it has achieved in deterring the Israeli aggression is reflected on its political stance which now gives less importance to the Palestinian reconciliation, while the latter remains a priority for the Palestinian Authority. The differing priorities of Hamas and the Authority will obviously obstruct a solution to end the aggression, especially since the prospects of any solution, including the current initiatives and international draft resolutions, do not go beyond field arrangements such as ceasing the fire and opening the crossings and monitoring them…etc, without creating a political horizon for the Palestinian reconciliation and a permanent solution that grants the Palestinians their national rights.
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Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Al-Hayat
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