Our Life and Times
By Kevin A. Barry and Mitch Weerth

In the last few months, Israel’s attempts to crush the Palestinians of Gaza have come up short. In late 2007, it intensified its economic blockade by cutting off or restricting supplies of gasoline and electricity, crucial for all basic services, including hospitals. This is all part of an attempt to crush the fundamentalist Hamas movement, which took control of Gaza last year. Such collective punishments of civilians violate international law, and this one is taking place on a massive scale.

All along, Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist, has offered a truce along the following terms: It will stop all attacks on Israel, including the largely symbolic rocket attacks launched by various groups from Gaza, if Israel ends the blockade and ceases military attacks on Gaza. Despite the fact that recent polls show that 64% of Israelis support negotiations with Hamas, the Israeli government, backed by the U.S., refuses to do so on the grounds that Hamas is a terrorist movement.

In February, events took another turn, as Hamas punched holes in the fence separating Gaza from Egypt. Tens of thousands of desperate Gazans flooded across the border, where they purchased needed food or other consumer goods, accessed otherwise unavailable medical care, or used their passports to leave the region. This human drama moved most of the world, with the exception, as usual, of the unstintingly pro-Israel U.S. media. Nor was a peep heard about Palestinian suffering from Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John McCain.

By the end of February, a few of the rockets from Gaza managed to hit their targets, killing two Israeli civilians. Thereupon, the Israeli military swooped down on Gaza, killing 150 people, half of them civilians and many of them children. This did not stop the rocket attacks, however. Soon after, an enraged Palestinian gunman killed 8 Jewish seminary students in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israel announced that it would construct hundreds of homes in Givat Zeev, a Jewish settlement in the heart of the West Bank, this in clear violation of even U.S. wishes. Israel thus stabbed in the back Mahmoud Abbas, the elected leader who controls the West Bank, person who has recognized Israel and who is far more open to negotiations than Hamas.

The Israeli government remains under the illusion that it can indefinitely postpone serious negotiations with the Palestinians over the core issues of giving up the whole of the West Bank, really pulling out of Gaza, and allowing a real Palestinian state to be established with East Jerusalem as its capital. The most recent attacks from Gaza, some of which have involved more potent Katyusha-style rockets, give the lie to this illusion. At the same time, some Palestinian militants are falling into the illusion that they can militarily drive the Israelis not only out of Gaza but also out of southern Israel with more of those Katyusha-style rockets, just as Hezbollah fought Israel to a standstill in Lebanon in 2006.