In a bitterly ironic repetition of history, battle rages again along the Gaza strip. Barely eleven months after the Israeli army expelled every Jew from Gaza, Israeli tanks are rolling in to take positions used by Palestinians to launch rockets from the abandoned agricultural communities. Most of the greenhouses are no longer functional; valuable components were appropriated by Gaza residents for other purposes. Many of the expelled Israeli families still live as refugees in makeshift housing, their horticultural skills lay fallow.
The Israeli offensive is a general response to over 1000 rockets fired from Gaza since the expulsion, and specifically the abduction of Gilat Shalit, an Israeli corporal whose unit was attacked from Gaza by terrorists who tunneled 300 feet to accomplish their odious mission. Israeli air strikes, tanks, and troops have demonstrated Israel’s resolve to free the captured soldier, and never to negotiate with terrorists. The group claiming responsibility, Popular Resistance Committees, is one of many terrorist gangs in Gaza. Their ransom demands include the release of 500-1000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Any concession would send a clear message to the terrorists that kidnapping is an effective tactic worth repeating. Recently an 18 year-old hitchhiker was abducted and murdered by terrorists who trumpeted their crime, and three schoolgirls narrowly escaped capture at gunpoint -- Israeli soldiers happened to drive by while the girls were struggling with the terrorists.
Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas political leader currently residing in Syria, stated Monday Hamas will never make concessions to Israel; the recently elected Hamas is dedicated by charter to the destruction of Israel. Fatah, the party created by Yaser Arafat, is led by the man with two names: Mahmoud Abbas or (nom de guerre) Abu Mazen. Abbas is considered by Israeli and US officials as a potential partner, by default, in the peace process.
Astonishingly, 3000 M-16 rifles and a million rounds of ammunition were recently transferred to Fatah by Israel in an attempt to help Abbas' secular forces fend off attacks from radical Islamist Hamas. Skirmishes between Palestinian factions have turned Gaza into an armed camp. A recent interview by Tovia Singer on Israel National Radio quotes a top Al-Aksa Brigades and Fatah leader, Abu Yousuf: "These weapons will not be used in an internal war...The weapons will not be used against our brothers, only Israelis." This same Fatah party recently created a female suicide bomber platoon, described proudly in Middle Eastern media outlets.
When Ariel Sharon enacted his unilateral disengagement policy with the expulsion of 8000 Jews from Gaza, critics warned that Palestinian terrorists would claim victory and continue their decades-long war of attrition against the Jewish state. The critics warned that rockets would continue to fall on Israel, their launchpads extended closer to Israeli towns Sderot and Ashkelon. They warned that Gaza would devolve into anarchy -- that Palestinians have never established a legitimate government apparatus. Competing armed factions now vie for turf, power, and humanitarian funds donated by the United States, European Union, Arab nations, and Israel itself.
The irony is that a decades-long policy of land-for-peace never succeeded, yet continues to be the operative principal in Arab-Israeli relations. The tragedy is that Palestinian Arabs, given many opportunities by the international community to live in peace and manage their own affairs, continue to wage war against their Israeli neighbors. Prime Minister Olmert continues the strategy initiated by his predecessor Ariel Sharon: to separate the Israeli population from Arabs with fences and unilateral withdrawal.
A world away, Americans debate the issue from comfortable air-conditioned studios, unable to understand Arab hatred for 5 million Jews living in Israel. There is no way to make peace with a people who claim your tiny nation has no "right to exist." On a globe populated with 1.3 billion Muslims, one might think a sliver of ancestral Jewish land has an inherent right to exist. Fat chance.
