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Israel ignores peace
Despite offers of a ceasefire from Hamas, Israel looks set on a full-blown attack on Gaza that could seriously backfire, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
Hamas has been sending definitive signals of its willingness to sign a dignified truce with Israel in return for its lifting its harsh blockade on the Gaza Strip as well as ending bloody and unrelenting Israeli attacks which wreak death and havoc on the coastal territory's civilian inhabitants.
Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said this week that the Islamic movement was "willing and ready to examine any serious proposal that would put an end to Israeli aggression." Similarly, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told reporters in Gaza earlier this week that Hamas welcomed third-party intervention to bring about a ceasefire.
"The ball has always been in the Israeli court, not in our court. The resistance is not the cause, but the effect, of Israeli aggression. If Israel stops its crimes and lifts this oppressive blockade on our people, the resistance would stop," Taha said.
Taha was responding to remarks made by visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner during a meeting in West Jerusalem with Israeli politician and Meretz leader Yossi Beilin. Kouchner reportedly said that France was willing to play the role of "mediator" or "facilitator" between Hamas and Israel for the purpose of reaching a ceasefire.
Kouchner's statements represented something of a departure from usual EU policy against making contact with Hamas until it recognises the legitimacy of Zionism (the Jewish character of Israel) and abandon violent resistance to the Israeli occupation. Taha challenged Kouchner to act on his remarks, saying that the French official should visit Gaza to see how things are on the ground.
Hamas has been reluctant to appear publicly as seeking a ceasefire with Israel for fear that this would undermine the movement's image as a resistance group as well as harm relations with allies in the region. Hamas was also concerned that a ceasefire with Israel would provide Fatah, its arch foe, with valuable propaganda ammunition to discredit the movement.
More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/885/re72.htm
Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said this week that the Islamic movement was "willing and ready to examine any serious proposal that would put an end to Israeli aggression." Similarly, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told reporters in Gaza earlier this week that Hamas welcomed third-party intervention to bring about a ceasefire.
"The ball has always been in the Israeli court, not in our court. The resistance is not the cause, but the effect, of Israeli aggression. If Israel stops its crimes and lifts this oppressive blockade on our people, the resistance would stop," Taha said.
Taha was responding to remarks made by visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner during a meeting in West Jerusalem with Israeli politician and Meretz leader Yossi Beilin. Kouchner reportedly said that France was willing to play the role of "mediator" or "facilitator" between Hamas and Israel for the purpose of reaching a ceasefire.
Kouchner's statements represented something of a departure from usual EU policy against making contact with Hamas until it recognises the legitimacy of Zionism (the Jewish character of Israel) and abandon violent resistance to the Israeli occupation. Taha challenged Kouchner to act on his remarks, saying that the French official should visit Gaza to see how things are on the ground.
Hamas has been reluctant to appear publicly as seeking a ceasefire with Israel for fear that this would undermine the movement's image as a resistance group as well as harm relations with allies in the region. Hamas was also concerned that a ceasefire with Israel would provide Fatah, its arch foe, with valuable propaganda ammunition to discredit the movement.
More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/885/re72.htm
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It was a moment that Mohamed Youssef, 44, had never experienced throughout his career of 20 years. Youssef is in charge of the emergency section in the health department of Rafah city, the furthest point south in the Gaza Strip. The unprecedented moment came when his cell phone rang at dawn 15 February. He learned that people had been killed and others left injured and bleeding in the area near the Gaza international airport east of Rafah after the occupation army raided the area and opened fire randomly.
Youssef was placed in an extremely difficult situation, as for the first time he and his staff were unable to reach the area with ambulances because there was simply not enough fuel to run them. After an extremely short moment of hesitation, Youssef and his staff headed out on motorcycles offered by people to help the first aid team perform their duties, even if in a humble manner. When they arrived and began to perform first aid, they found that two of the injured had died and that of the 10 others three were in critical condition. Youssef ordered that the dead and those with light injuries be transported on donkey carts belonging to residents in the area, while those in critical condition be transported to the nearest hospital in private gas-fuelled vehicles belonging to area residents.
Maawiya Hassanein, director of the emergency department in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "90 per cent of the Health Ministry's 57 ambulances are out of order because of the severe lack of fuel and diesel." Hassanein warns that this situation threatens the lives of thousands of the sick since these vehicles play an essential role in saving their lives. He points out that from now on it won't be possible for ambulances to transfer those wounded in Israeli attacks in Gaza due to the lack of fuel. "The life of thousands of cardiac and kidney patients and women giving birth are in danger because the ambulances have stopped running," he said, calling the situation "a catastrophe". "The critical lack of medicine and the malfunctioning of medical equipment is enough without adding this to the list of major problems the health sector in Gaza suffers from," he said in a bitter tone.
More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/885/re71.htm
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Former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin used to wish that he would wake up one morning and Gaza would be gone, sunk in the sea along with its inhabitants. Many Israelis now share the same thought, with only one difference. They want to make it happen.
The Israeli government assumes that it has no further obligations towards Gaza, not since Ariel Sharon's plan of withdrawing from the Strip and evacuating Jewish settlements was carried out in September 2005. Quite a strange assumption, if you ask me, considering that Israel still controls Gaza's shores and airspace as well as most of its borders. Its army keeps launching incursions, and it is the sole source of electricity, fuel, water and basic supplies for Gaza's 1.5 million people.
Israel's religious extremists suddenly discovered that Gaza is not part of Biblical Israel. They joined a chorus of Israelis who want Gaza to disappear from the map. Even peace activists seem to agree. A Peace Now leader recently wrote an article in Yediot Aharonot claiming that: "Israel has exhausted all possibilities for alleviating the fanaticism of Hamas through self-restrained action in Gaza. So now it is time to do what it takes to get rid of the Strip, even if that involves sending the Gaza population into shock through starvation, liquidation of political leaders, and even bombardment of residential areas... Perhaps hundreds will die... Perhaps a quarter of a neighbourhood in Gaza would do the trick."
Such is the extent to which the destruction of Gaza has become a public and government quest, even a military necessity. Israeli officers often describe Gaza as a "snake pit" not worth sacrificing the life of one Israeli soldier for. Israel has discovered lately that it cannot manipulate Gaza in whatever way suits it, not even through a brutal blockade that has turned Gaza into a beleaguered Palestinian ghetto.
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http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/885/op3.htm