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Heed the call, Rice
US must realise peace in the Mideast is not possible if Palestinians remain divided.
- By George S. Hishmeh, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:53 March 6, 2008
To err is human, we are told. But to commit the same disastrous mistake within a short period is unpardonable.
Less than two summers ago, Israel launched a 34-day war on Lebanon to retaliate for the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by elements of the Islamic resistance group, Hezbollah. This Israeli incursion ended in a fiasco and the resignation of the Israeli defence minister and the army chief of staff.
An investigation by an Israeli commission, which was disclosed partially, accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of "severe failure" in exercising judgment, responsibility and caution during the outset of the war. It added that Olmert acted hastily in leading the country to war in July 2006 without having a comprehensive plan.
More than 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, were killed in that war and nearly a million displaced. In turn, over 160 Israeli soldiers and civilians lost their lives and about 2,000 wounded and anywhere between 300,00-500,000 were displaced.
Undeterred, Olmert has done it once again and also without much success when he and his wily Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who aspires to replace Olmert one day, ordered last week a military incursion into the northern region of Gaza, where over 1.5 million Palestinians have been living under an Israeli siege since last June. The Israeli action was said to be in retaliation for the frequent shelling of the southern Israeli town of Sderot, hardly amounting to more than pin-pricking by the wayward rockets from Gaza.
This area, ruled by Hamas, which won the last national election, suffered heavy losses in the incursion. Nearly 120 were killed, about half of them children and women, a situation that has received international - but not US - condemnation because it was seen as "excessive" and "disproportionate".
Nipped in the bud
If nothing else, this invasion has virtually nipped in the bud the launching in Annapolis of Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations following an impressive turnout of representatives from some 50 countries in support of this belated effort shepherded by the Bush administration. More than 100 days have passed since the meeting without any significant movement in the talks.
In fact, Israel has not lived up to any of it commitments under the so-called Roadmap, particularly the elimination of roadblocks or dismantling of colonies in the Occupied Territories. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayed has recently complained publicly about the lethargic pace of the negotiations.
Just as happened in Lebanon two years ago when Hezbollah withstood the Israeli invasion and was hailed in the country and elsewhere in the Arab world as victorious, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas was equally confident that it too was instrumental in resisting the Israeli incursion. For its part, Israel cannot actually brag about any military or political achievement after its Gaza adventure. Hamas and the Gazans won wide Arab sympathy and support.
In walked Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, who must not have expected this unhelpful turn of events when she planned to make this follow-up trip to the region a little over a month before President George W. Bush is scheduled to go there as well. Her early remarks in Cairo and Ramallah were only critical of Hamas thereby underlined her failure to grasp the problem that she and the Israelis have created in failing to keep the Palestinian house united.
What is bound to add to her woes an extensive and damaging Vanity Fair report, now circulated widely, based on "confidential documents", since corroborated by sources in the US and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Rice and Deputy National Security adviser Elliot Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war.
Americans for Peace Now joined the growing chorus of criticism when it declared in a statement on the eve of Rice's Mideast trip that the Gaza crisis "is symptomatic of failed policies, irresponsible actions, and a lack of strategic thinking".
It is high time that the Bush administration heed the calls from many, including many prominent Americans like Brent Scowcroft and Lee Hamilton, that a Palestinian-Israeli settlement cannot be reached if the Palestinians remain divided.
George Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com.
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