No return

Those taking to the streets protesting the Israeli assault on the Hamas in Gaza have a strong point to make: children are dying in the thin and crowded strip of land. Those that have so far managed to remain unscathed from nearly two weeks of intensive bombardment and a ground assault are scrounging for food and water.

In this war, as in any other, the innocents bear the brunt of the suffering. That is a most unbearable cost.

But that is also an unavoidable cost. No weapon has yet been devised that is capable of sparing the innocent and injuring only the despicable.

If there was a way to conduct this war without incurring collateral damage, the Israelis would have surely found it. But Gaza happens to be one of the most densely populated places on earth. The murderous militants who launched hundreds of home-made rockets into Israeli cities, completely indiscriminate and crude weapons that have taken out children as well, use the civilian population as human shields. They launch from schoolyards and hide their weapons in mosques.

The most basic proposition that is often lost in the emotional reaction to the horrible pictures coming out of Gaza is that the assault has been made necessary by years of incessant rocket fire. No nation can sit idly by and allow its citizens to be bombarded all hours of the day by terrorist rockets.

Pained by the human toll this fresh outbreak of hostilities, it is easy to demand an immediate end to the assault and the prompt withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. That is too easy.

Should Israel withdraw now from the Gaza without a new negotiated mechanism that will prevent terrorists from firing missiles into Jewish settlements, this will mean nothing more than a return to the status quo ante. This status quo ante is inadmissible to the Israelis.

Should Israel simply withdraw its forces back into its territory, the Hamas will simply reconstitute itself, lick its wounds and begin preparing for a new round of rocket attacks. The Hamas will consolidate its reign of terror over the people of Gaza and nurture its old ideology of hate.

To date, no formula has yet been found to address Israel’s most basic concern: ensuring the safety of its citizens from rocket attacks.

The problem with a Hamas-controlled Gaza is that the territory has become unaccountable for the actions of the terrorist group. The Hamas does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. Months before, Hamas militants exterminated elements of the Fatah faction in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is controlled by the Hamas faction.

It is easy for the world’s powers to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority. But that Authority cannot control the actions of the Hamas. Because of that, no enforceable arrangement could be made.

Neither could Israel could not negotiate directly with the Hamas. This terrorist group does not recognize the existence of Israel as a state. It will refuse to sign anything that would imply de facto recognition of Israel.

The Hamas does not accept the two-state solution proposed by the major powers to resolve the problem in the Middle East. That proposed solution is based on the equal recognition of Israel and Palestine as nation-states.

Most of the Arab world is now ready to accept the two-state formula. Israel is willing to accept it too. It is only the radical terrorist groups Hamas and Hizbollah that refuse the formula. Otherwise there would be peace in that volatile region by this time.

Hamas has not only been a stubborn hindrance to peace, it actively provoked war by continuously bombarding Israeli cities with Kassam missiles. Other Arab leaders have openly criticized Hamas for pursuing an aggressive strategy it cannot win. A strategy that can only court the sort of devastation and human calamity that we now see in Gaza.

The peaceniks marching against the Israeli offensive around the world, and the militants who are trying to adopt this as their crusade as an excuse to march in the streets of Manila, have demanded only a unilateral withdrawal by Israel. But what about helping solve the problem with Hamas?

To put that more directly, nothing is solved by mere withdrawal.

 All of us watch painfully the scenes from Gaza. No one enjoys this. But the status quo ante is equally intolerable.

The humanitarian tragedy here is severe. But that should not be an excuse for worthless calls that solve nothing on the ground.

This is a time for creative diplomacy. A whole battalion of diplomats are shuttling between Tel Aviv, Ramallah and the other Arab capitals — with little results so far, except for Israel agreeing to open a corridor for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza residents.

The neighboring Arab governments need to step up to the plate and offer to guarantee good behavior on the part of anyone who ends up governing Gaza. Their assistance for the relief and rehabilitation of war-torn Gaza should be conditional on that.

Unless the Arab governments are willing to assume that responsibility, the western diplomats now trying to cause a cessation of hostilities will achieve nothing. We have all wasted two weeks assigning blame.

The task at hand is to assign responsibilities for a secure and peaceful future for the Middle East.