Personally I think that the outcome of this mini-war in Gaza should be one that benefits both Gaza (and all of Palestine) and Israel. That means that the basic needs of Gaza must be met and Israel must gain real security. The strengthening of the Palestinian reconciliation government is a good thing because it increases the chances of moving towards new Palestinian elections sooner. It also means that Palestinian Authority troops can be involved in arrangements that would lift the economic siege on Gaza. The agreement must include the engagement by regional partners such as Egypt and Jordan. The Arab League should be the framework under which disarming Hamas is discussed and real implementable proposals are created and turned into reality. The international fund for Gaza must be created and launched through the Palestinian National Reconciliation government with proper international oversight. There should be some kind of international monitoring group established to deal with breaches and accusations of breaches by the parties with on the ground abilities to resolve disputes quickly. Israel will have to release the Schalit deal prisoners who are not in substantive breach of their parole - meaning that they did not return to violence against Israel - which is almost all of those who were arrested. Israel will also probably have to release most of the prisoners it arrested while searching for the killers of the three teens - most of them, almost all of them, clearly had nothing to do with their abduction and murder. It is important that life in Gaza changes for the better quickly and that Hamas is not the benefactor of the rewards of change. They have acted criminally against their own people and the Palestinian people, once healing from the immediate wounds of Israeli bombings should take stock of their situation and put the primary blame on the shoulders of the Hamas leadership. This is a Palestinian matter and I hope that this is the conclusion that they come to after they get beyond blaming Israel for all of their problems. They will help themselves far more by getting rid of Hamas as their leaders. Lastly, it is essential, as I wrote earlier that we all move on to ending this tragic conflict with ending the occupation and creating a peaceful democratic sovereign Palestinian state next to Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders with two capitals in Jerusalem. Amen.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 15:37:40 +0000
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