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Incursion Into Gaza

Israel must try to end this conflict as soon as possible and in a way that increases the chances
for negotiating a broad regional peace.

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40. of 348. comments

January 06, 2009 2:54 am
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It is impossible for Israelis and Palestinians to solve their conflict alone. It is a
conflict/war/terror/agression (pick your choise) of hate and honour. It si a Global
Arena, Palestinians and Israelis are gladiators, world is spectator and heads of
states are emperors, pointing their thumb up and down. Noe it is down and
people, including children are killed.
Present conflict will have lasting consequences, death of hundreds, but it will
mean nothing in relationship between Israel and Palestinians.
Peace in the Middle East is Universal Global Responsibility. Treating it as a
conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, resembles the thirties when world
observed persecution of Jews as conflict between Germans and Jews. Present
ineffective diplomacy is shameful, sadistic.
World Court has ruled that States have responsibility to prevent genocide. We are
involved in one already and most probably moving towards one much greater.
Newelect President Obama should call United Nations World Summit. Plans for
solution should be developed along the lines of the new „Preventing Genocide“
proposal by Albright and Cohen. Responsibilities should be distributed to all.
Rights are not enough, duties are needed as well. Prevention of Genocide shoud
be the beginning of the Universal Declaration of Human Duties.

— Prof Slobodan Lang, MD, FRCH, Zagreb, Croatia

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/opinion/06tue1.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

January 6, 2009
Editorial

Incursion Into Gaza

With its ground incursion into Gaza, Israel has gambled that it can finally silence the Hamas
rockets that have terrorized its people for years. We sympathize with that goal. But we are
concerned that short-term success on the battlefield might encourage the Israelis to keep
pressing further and longer in an attempt to decimate Hamas and wrest Gaza from its grip.

That is also a goal we can sympathize with — there is no justification for Hamas’s attacks or
its virulent rejectionism. But it is highly unlikely, and there is a point of diminishing returns
that could be easy to miscalculate.

The longer the Israeli incursion, the more casualties mount (550 Palestinians and 5 Israelis
have died so far); the more Hamas’s popularity grows among its supporters; the more
moderate Arab states, which have correctly blamed Hamas for ending a six-month cease-fire,
are alienated; and the more regional instability is fueled.

It will also make it harder for President-elect Barack Obama to pick up the pieces of
peacemaking when he takes office on Jan. 20.

Israel, aided by the United States, Europe and moderate Arab states, must try to end this
conflict as soon as possible and in a way that increases the chances for negotiating a broad
regional peace.

That means ensuring at a minimum that Hamas — a proxy of Iran — is not seen as gaining
from the war, that the rocket fire is halted permanently and that the terrorist group can no
longer restock its arsenal with more deadly weapons via hundreds of tunnels dug under the
Egypt-Gaza border.

Israel has made it clear that it is in no rush for a diplomatic solution, but there will have to be
one. That will require compromises from Israel, including acceptance of international
monitoring of a cease-fire and an increased flow of goods and people between Israel and
Gaza. Accepting those conditions would help persuade skeptics that Israel’s goals are as
narrowly defined as it says they are.

Israel must immediately allow foreign journalists access to Gaza, as the Israeli high court
ruled on Dec. 31. As in every war zone, reporting by journalists — and human rights monitors
as well — can discourage abuse and is essential to full public understanding of the conflict.

We applaud European and Arab officials for intensifying efforts to try to achieve a
meaningful cease-fire. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in Washington
telephoning foreign leaders (wasn’t Middle East peace supposed to be her legacy?), it is
Europeans like President Nicolas Sarkozy of France who have traveled to the region for face-
to-face talks.

We understand Mr. Obama’s decision to leave the current crisis to President Bush. But we
hope he and his team are prepared for whatever faces them in this immediate crisis, and that
they are working on a broader strategy for the region.

There is little chance of restraining Hamas without dealing with its patrons in Syria and Iran.
Mr. Obama will also have to move quickly to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza need to see that there is another way out of their
misery and that Hamas and its rockets are not the answer.