Israel AquifersWhat is the real reason behind all these Israel-Palestinian conflicts? WATER!! As I asked a fellow Israeli blogger recently, does Israel still have an
open door policy? (
called the Law of Return)It used to be such that Israel allowed any Jew from anywhere in the world immigration even though the size of Israel can safely be considered too small to accomodate the many millions that might want to live in the "promised land". He answered
yes.
So how sustainable is having an open door policy when you live in a sliver of land in a dry arid region called Israel?!
There's always been that pesky problem of uncooperative Arabs who've lived there ever since the diaspora a few thousand years ago.
So in very short, (there are books and articles galore to elaborate), this has become Israel's policy for the Palestinians from day one and how it played out in this time's
"Operation Cast Lead".
Johann Hari from
the Independent explains this 'ever confusing' who-did-what-first-and-why in one perfectly laid out column. Something you will not likely find in any mainstream American treatment. Here goes:
"According to the Israeli press,
Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security service
Shin Bet, "told the Israeli cabinet [on 23 December] that
Hamas is interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms." Diskin explained that Hamas was requesting two things: an end to the blockade, and an Israeli ceasefire on the West Bank. The cabinet –
high with election fever and eager to appear tough–
rejected these terms.
The core of the situation has been starkly laid out by
Ephraim Halevy, the former head of
Mossad. He says that while Hamas militants – like much of the Israeli right-wing – dream of driving their opponents away,
"they have recognised this ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future." Instead,
"they are ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state in the temporary borders of 1967." They are aware that this means they
"will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original goals" – and towards a long-term peace based on compromise.
The rejectionists on both sides – from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to Bibi Netanyahu of Israel – would then be marginalised. It is the only path that could yet end in peace but it is the Israeli government that refuses to choose it. Halevy explains:
"Israel, for reasons of its own, did not want to turn the ceasefire into the start of a diplomatic process with Hamas."Why would Israel act this way? The Israeli government wants peace, but only one imposed on its own terms, based on the acceptance of defeat by the Palestinians. It means the Israelis can keep the slabs of the West Bank on "their" side of the wall.
It means they keep the largest settlements and control the WATER supply. And it means a divided Palestine, with responsibility for Gaza hived off to Egypt, and the broken-up West Bank standing alone. Negotiations threaten this vision:
they would require Israel to give up more than it wants to. But an imposed peace will be no peace at all: it will not stop the rockets or the rage. For real safety, Israel will have to talk to the people it is blockading and bombing today, and compromise with them."
and..
"To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other, jobless and hungry, in vast, sagging tower blocks. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean, and Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall – as they are doing now with more deadly force than at any time since 1967 – there is nowhere to hide."
and..
"The most detailed polling of Palestinians, by the
University of Maryland, found that
72 per cent want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, while fewer than 20 per cent want to reclaim the whole of historic Palestine. So, partly in response to this pressure,
Hamas offered Israel a long, long ceasefire and a de facto acceptance of two states, if only Israel would return to its legal borders.
Israel's pre-1967 borders and land distancesRather than seize this opportunity and test Hamas's sincerity, the Israeli government reacted by punishing the entire civilian population. It announced that it was blockading the Gaza Strip in order to "pressure" its people to reverse the democratic process. The Israelis surrounded the Strip and refused to let anyone or anything out. They let in a small trickle of food, fuel and medicine – but not enough for survival. Weisglass quipped that the Gazans were being "put on a diet". According to
Oxfam, only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza last month to feed 1.5 million people. The
United Nations says poverty has reached an "unprecedented level." When I was last in besieged Gaza, I saw hospitals turning away the sick because their machinery and medicine was running out. I met hungry children stumbling around the streets, scavenging for food.
It was in this context – under a collective punishment
designed to topple a democracy – that some forces within Gaza did something immoral: they fired Qassam rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities. These rockets have killed 16 Israeli citizens. This is abhorrent: targeting civilians is always murder. But it is
hypocritical for the Israeli government to claim now to speak out for the safety of civilians when
it has been terrorising civilians as a matter of state policy."emph and underlined and bold added as usual, by yours truly.
Read Johann Hari's story in whole;
The true story behind this war is not the one Israel is tellingLabels: Gaza war, Israel, Johann Hari's the true story behind thsi war is not the one Israel is telling, operation cast lead, oxfam report, university of Maryland polls Palestinians, water resources conflict
