Rami G. Khouri: Moving Toward Gaza-Israel Diplomacy

Moving Toward Gaza-Israel Diplomacy

by Rami G. Khouri Released: 10 Jan 2009
BEIRUT -- We now have the interplay between warfare and diplomacy in Gaza, which is a better situation to be in than witnessing only warfare. Yet one of the telling things about the complexity of the current fighting in Gaza is that one does not quite know what to call it. Is it the Israel-Hamas war? The Israel-Gaza war? The Israel-Palestine war?

This matters, because knowing the exact nature of the protagonists doing the fighting and the real underlying issues improves our chances of coming to grips with the full nature of the conflict -- an essential first step to resolving it permanently. Military action by both sides will never resolve the core of the conflict, but diplomacy could if it tackled the most important issues for each side. The UN resolution approved Thursday does not seem to cover all the important issues.

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Here is where the name of this little war becomes more relevant. Calling it the Israel-Hamas war is not fully accurate, because Hamas is only one of several important groups that represent the political struggle and national sentiments of the Palestinian people. Hamas is doing most of the fighting, but the political battle with Israel reflects the concerns, rights and aspirations of all Palestinians. That struggle has two main dimensions: the immediate one is ending the siege, starvation and assault on Gaza by Israel, and the longer term one is negotiating a fair and definitive resolution of the problem of the Palestinian refugees of 1948, who were evicted from the land that now forms the state of Israel.

Israel has used such barbaric tactics against Hamas and the civilians of Gaza because it wants to wipe out forever any Palestinian insistence on dealing with the core national and human issues that emerged from the 1948 war and the creation of Israel. Hamas is a troubling reminder for Israel that the state of the Jewish people was created on the ashes of the indigenous Palestinian Arab community -- the community that is now the refugee population of Gaza and other regions in the Arab world. Israel is not just bombing Hamas facilities; it is trying to bomb into oblivion the idea that any single Palestinian man, woman or child can stand up and demand the end of their national dismemberment and exile.