Real ceasefire

At the end of the day on Saturday, thousands of Gaza residents received SMS messages on their mobile phones from the Israeli military with an appeal to leave houses in which militants could hide weapons.

Associated Press, December 27.

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Some geopolitical conflicts have a moral component that complicates them. But the war of Israel in Gaza is not one of them. Its moral evidence is not only exceptional, but also painful.

Israel is so scrupulous regarding everything regarding human lives, which, risking an element of surprise, he contacted civilians who are not related to the militants, but nevertheless perceived as enemies, in order to warn them about the approach of danger. Hamas, who initiated the current conflict with cruel missile and mortar attacks directed against unarmed Israelis (6464 launch from the Gaza territory over the past three years), deliberately put his weapons in and next to the houses of his own members.

This had two goals. First. Having bet on the moral scrupulousness of Israel, Hamas believes that the proximity of civilians can help protect at least part of the arsenal. The second. Knowing that even the new high -precision weapon of Israel does not allow him to strike, from which civilians would not suffer from, Hamas hopes that the inevitable "concomitant" losses or, in case of good luck, getting out of the Israeli shell, which will kill a huge number of civilians, will lead the world to the campaign against Israel.

For Hamas, more value than the death of the Israelis has the death of the Palestinians. The religion of the murder of Jews and the sacrifice of the ubiquitous in Palestine. And she takes deeply perverted forms, like Hamas’s television program, in which the adored Palestinian Mickey Mouse is beaten to death by the Israelis (then his more aggressive cousin, nahul, who calls for the continuing path of Mickey’s martyrdom).

In the war, which is now burning in gas, one military is obliged to hurt as many civilians as possible and cause as much harm as possible to both sides. Another military is obliged to save as many lives as possible - also on both sides. This is an eternal topic. Israel sent a similar warning to the village residents of South Livan before he began surgery against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. The Israelis did this, knowing that they would lose an element of surprise and endanger the life of their own soldiers.

This is the asymmetry of the values ​​of Hamas and Israel. But the asymmetry of the goals of both sides is equally obvious. In Gaza, Israel pursues one goal - peace: calm, openness, normal relations that he offered Gaza back in 2005, when he withdrew his troops. Doing what the Turkish, British, Egyptian or Jordanian rulers of Palestine never did, the Israelis provided the Palestinians with the first sovereign territory in Gaza.

What is the result? This is not an ancient story. Palestinians began to build a state, which is supposedly their greatest national goal? No. There are no roads, no industry, there are no ships, in the end, there is no civil society. The flowering kibbuts, which the Israelis left when they left, were destroyed and abandoned. Gaza rulers, funded by the Iranians, used all their resources to create a base for terror - importing weapons, preparing terrorists, building tunnels, with the help of which Israeli citizens were stolen. And, of course, the missiles endlessly launched.

Resentment? This could not be occupation, control by the military or placing them in the territory of the Gaza. All Israeli military were bred in September 2005. The only resentment to which Hamas is open is the very existence of Israel.

Hamas did not hide his strategy. Provocation of the conflict. The expectation of inevitable losses among civilians. World condemnation of Israel. To force Israel to cease the fire - just like it happened in Lebanon. Then, as in Lebanon, re -refract, rebuild and prepare for the next round. Eternal war. Since Raison d'Etre all this is the disappearance of Israel, there are two possible outcomes: Hamas defeat or the destruction of Israel.

The only answer of Israel is to try to do what could not be done after his troops left Gaza. An unforgivable strategic mistake of the architect of the plan on peaceful settlement, Ariel Sharon, was not withdrawing the troops in itself, but the failure in the immediate establishment of the political regime that was intolerant of any forms of violence after the Israeli troops leave-a ostentatious preposition for previous Palestinians to Israel. Instead, Israel allowed to commit endless attacks with the help of missiles, an internal justification for the position of active war and random terror.

The refusal of Hamas to extend the often violated six -month agreement on the ceasefire (during which the launches of missiles never stopped, as they did not become less frequent) gave Israel a rare opportunity to insist on a norm, which was based on the agreement reached three years ago: there were no missiles, no abduction, no acts of war. As the US government officially noticed: a permanent ceasefire agreement.

If the current clash ends with the achievement of other agreements than this, Israel will lose again. But he can hardly afford to lose another war.

Translation of Arshin Konstantin