Don’t expect Israel to bow before Hamas
The ongoing violent conflict between the Gaza-based Hamas and Israel has claimed more than 170 lives and left several others injured in less than a week. While world leaders have been scrambling to bring an end to the mayhem, their attempts have been hobbled by their misplaced tendency to place the strikes from both the sides on an equal footing. Israel has responded to rocket and artillery attacks from Gaza on its soil. Those attacks are being carried out by a terror organisation. From available reports, there could be more militant outfits in the act — rockets have landed in Israel from lebanon as well, giving rise to the possibility that Hezbollah too may be involved. The United Nations has called for a ceasefire, and US President Barack Obama has offered to mediate between the Palestinians and the Israelis to end the current conflict. While these are well-intentioned appeals, no self-respecting country will deal with terror outfits on equal terms. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that no amount of international pressure will make his country bow before the militants. It is curious that the world community, including Israel's staunchest ally, the US, believes the present crisis can be resolved between the Palestinian regime and Jerusalem. It must be underlined that the issue at hand is not really between Palestine and Israel; it is between terror outfit Hamas and the sovereign nation of Israel. While it is true that Gaza is managed through an understanding between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas leadership, Mr Abbas is not very much in the picture in the present crisis. Yet, if Mr Abbas can use his good offices to resolve the matter — at least for now, since we have seen how fragile peace between the two neighbours has been — it would be welcome.
Meanwhile, Israel faces condemnation for inflicting civilian deaths in the conflict. It is true that many dozens of civilians have lost their lives in Gaza, with several of them being women and children. In one unfortunate incident, Israeli forces bombed a home for the disabled, killing a few of its inmates. But Jerusalem has been quick to express regret for such incidents. Earlier, Mr Netanyahu himself had stated his anguish over the ‘revenge killing' of a Palestinian youth — in response to the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers, which incidentally became the immediate cause of the current conflict. But one should not forget Hamas's tendency to use the civilian population as human shields in its fight. This has been well-documented on many occasions. So, while Israeli authorities have provided shelters to their citizens in the conflict zones, residents of Gaza have been given no such protection. This contributes to the large number of civilian deaths in Gaza. Nevertheless, Israel will do well to exercise caution and not allow its fight against terrorism to be overwhelmed by the large number of civilian deaths its actions tend to inflict.