THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 3, January 5, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DIPLOMACY CANNOT QUELL GAZA VIOLENCE
By Dr. Michael Rubin
ISRAELI MILITARY ACTION AGAINST HAMAS IN GAZA & KNEE-JERK CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMANY TO
PRESSURE ISRAEL INTO ENDING ITS ATTACK: HAMAS POLICY AS THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE CURRENT MILITARY
CONFLICT IN GAZA -- THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN & UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AID TO PALESTINIANS ON HAMAS
ROCKET & MORTAR FIRE FROM GAZA INTO ISRAEL -- THE ROLE OF SYRIA & IRAN IN THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
-- THE ROAD TO A SUSTAINABLE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
FULL STORY:
As the crisis in Gaza enters its second week, international diplomats are seeking a cease-fire. UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon has called the situation "unacceptable" and demanded that "regional and international partners [do more] to
end the violence and encourage a political dialogue." Amnesty International has demanded that the United States
pressure Israel to stop its aerial bombardment. European and Arab diplomats hope that other states -- perhaps Syria
and Iran -- will pressure Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.
It won't work. Knee-jerk diplomacy -- demanding a truce regardless of the cause of the fighting -- does more to
accelerate conflict than to resolve it.
The root of the current crisis lies in Hamas policy. Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Gaza Strip in 2005, giving the
Palestinian Authority an unprecedented opportunity to govern. Hamas took 76 of 132 seats in the January, 2006,
elections -- and, while the group used the poll to claim democratic legitimacy, it eschewed the responsibility of
leadership. It had built popularity on violence, and found opposition easier than governance. It did little to improve
Palestinian life. Rather than develop industry, it destroyed the multimillion-dollar greenhouses which Israel left behind
to help build the Palestinian economy; rather than eliminate corruption, it diverted millions into Hamas coffers.
Here, the United Nations and donor countries have been unintentionally complicit. By subsidizing Palestinian schools,
health and welfare, donors removed the accountability upon which good governance depends. Hamas need not make
the improvement of Palestinian life a priority when it knows that donors will bail it out. And, because money is fungible,
aid furnishes Hamas with resources to expend on arms.
Hamas rocket attacks on Israel have increased in tandem with European and UN assistance. Rocket fire from Gaza into
Israel increased more than 500 percent in the year following Hamas' rise to power, and almost doubled again in 2008, as
1,730 rockets and twice as many mortar rounds struck Israel. Diplomats interceded to promote peace, but, during each
period of truce, Hamas rearmed with more sophisticated weaponry. In light of the escalating attacks on Israel, the
United States is understandably reluctant to demand Israel cease defending itself, especially after urging Israel's initial
withdraw from Gaza.
NO HELP FROM THE NEIGHBORS
To hope for Syrian or Iranian diplomatic intercession is inane. Syria hosts Hamas' most militant wing and provides transit
for Hizballah's resupply, and Israel's destruction is at the core of the Islamic Republic's ideology. Iranian President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's demise -- not by demographic change, but by military force -- on more than
30 occasions. As Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on January 1,
2009, to discuss a ceasefire, Iranian television reported that 20,000 Iranian students had signed up to become suicide
bombers in response to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's declaration that "anyone who dies in this holy
struggle against World Zionism [is] a martyr."
Nor are Iranian hardliners alone in their call for Israel's destruction. While reformist former President Mohammad Khatami
spoke of the dialogue of civilizations to Western diplomats, he told Iranian television, "If we abide by the Koran,
all of us should mobilize to kill."
Indeed, the Iranian regime has worked consistently to undermine any Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Seven years ago
this week, the Israeli navy intercepted the Karine-A, a Gaza-bound freighter carrying 50 tons of Iranian arms, supplied
during a fragile truce. Four-and-a-half years later, war erupted after Hizballah, an Iranian-sponsored group, attacked Israel.
The United States then pressured Israel to accede to a ceasefire, and Iran claimed victory. Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei's
top foreign policy advisor, declared that the war had shown Israel to be a "paper tiger."
Palestinians undoubtedly suffer under the Israeli assault. Israeli strikes have killed an estimated 500 people, one-fifth to
one-quarter of them civilians. While the civilian deaths are tragic, the low proportion of non-combatant casualties in a
densely populated area demonstrates Israel's desire to avoid collateral damage. Unlike Hamas rockets, Israeli strikes are
neither aimed at civilians nor designed to terrorize.
Hamas launched rockets for demagogic gain. Governments can pursue war, but, when they do so, they should recognize
that opponents fight back. Those who choose war must understand the likely cost of their decision to the economy and
their constituents. To exonerate an elected government from accountability undermines the foundation of democracy.
Diplomats mean well, but, to shield protagonists from peril, fuels conflict and condemns the Palestinians to misery, given
that a sustainable peace requires that both sides recognize the true cost of war. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat won a
Nobel Peace prize for his 1977 landmark visit to Israel and the subsequent 1978 Camp David Accords. He may be
remembered as a peacemaker today, but he made his pilgrimage to Jerusalem only after realizing in 1973 the futility of
seeking war.
Until the Palestinians and their elected government learn Sadat's lesson, diplomacy is doomed. The road to peace lies not
in a ceasefire, but jointly in Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist and in the international community's
understanding that Israel's right to live without terrorism and rocket attacks is no different than that of Germany, Japan,
or Canada. If Palestinians chose peace and education over war and hatred, Gaza could become a Singapore, Hong Kong,
or Dubai. Moral equivalency and mistimed diplomacy only delay such a reckoning, however, and so do far more harm
than good.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is Editor of the Middle East Quarterly, a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a resident
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical
Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson,
of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense
(2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref
Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale
University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew
University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, January 5, 2009,
and can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2042)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
January 5, 2009
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XI, 2009
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity