OPED | Saturday, January 10, 2009 | Email | Print | 
A war without a choice
Mark Sofer
Hamas seeks to condemn the Palestinian people to medieval misery and teaches its young to destroy Israel - hardly the peaceable neighbours they make themselves out to be.
Benjamin Franklin once wrote that there has never been a good war or a bad peace. There is no such thing as a good war. And nobody likes to go to war. In addition to the personal danger, the security of family and friends, the moral questions that are being raised, war is a tragedy anyway one looks at it. And yet, sometimes there is no choice.
Since World War II, democracy has prevailed. Europe, the Americas, increasing parts of Africa and Asia are ascribing to the notion of rule of law, freedom of the Press and the separation of authority. This new wind is blowing even in the most remote parts of the world, where people are increasingly able to realize their rights.
These winds of change also are a threat to the most conservative, orthodox and fanatical parts of the humankind. People who believe that there is only one way of praying to God, who believe women should stay at home and be illiterate, who are governed by the supreme leaders who are beyond the law and who justify any brutality for the sake of an idea. These fanatics fear the blowing of the breeze; they want to reverse the tide and to stop the advancement of pluralism, of social equality, of freedom of choice.
The extremity of their ideology has no limits. There are no constraints and no compromises. No price to pay is too high and any sacrifice is justified. It's hatred from start to finish.
Israel is on the forefront of the free world. And the war it fights now is the war of every free loving human being against the powers of darkness and tyranny. This war is cruel and people are killed. Each victim is a tragedy; every civilian lost is a disaster. And yet, this conflict has been imposed on Israel by precisely such forces of destruction. Hamas is a true representative of repression, hatred and fanatism.
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.
These are the tenets of the Hamas organisation. That is what the children of Gaza have been taught at their schools.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It has no interest in the Gaza Strip; there is no border conflict or territorial dispute. The people of Gaza are free to live their own lives and select any government they wish. But this government must accede to the rules of the games accepted by the international community. These certainly do not include Jihad, obliteration of your neighbours or creation of Islamic caliphate on your neighbour's territory. These are not of constant barraging of your neighbours with indiscriminate bombardment by rockets, targeting the civil population.
Israel has accepted the right of the Palestinian to their own state and the vast majority of the Palestinians now live under their own government. Many issues are still open and under negotiations. The issues of Jerusalem, settlements, Palestinian refugees, all are contentious, emotionally and politically charged and not easy to solve. But, provided the political will exists, these issues could be solved. However, under the aegis of extremism, militancy and adoption of terror as legitimate means to promote political aims there can be no compromise which is an essential part of any solution.
The struggle against the Hamas entails casualties that we wish would never have occurred. But at the same time it is important to remember that those could be avoided entirely had the Hamas viewed Israel as a neighbour, whom one does not necessarily has to like, but whose right to life one necessarily has to respect. Until this reality is foisted on, this human tragedy on both sides will continue.
-- The writer is an Israel's Ambassador to India
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