In despair: Cover image from the Daily telegraph, December 29 2008 Photo: AP
The photograph on the front page of this newspaper yesterday captured the age-old tragedy of the Holy Land. At this time of year in particular, the sight of an anguished mother and fearful father fleeing with their young child in terror and despair echoes a similar story in the same benighted land more than 2,000 years ago. It is for these innocent victims that a solution must be found if a seemingly endless spiral of violence and bloodshed is to end.
The Israel Defence Force has been condemned around the world for a disproportionate use of force in Gaza, though it must be remembered that 8,000 rockets have been fired at their territory in recent years. Without these attacks by Hamas, the Israelis would not be bombarding Gaza. Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to London, asked yesterday what we would do if our sovereign territory were under daily attack. It is a good question; the answer must be that we would seek to protect our people.
A resolution to the calamity lies, therefore, principally in the hands of Hamas, whose anti-Semitic leaders seem to regard the family in our picture as expendable in pursuit of their bigger ambition, which is to break Israel. For as long as Hamas refuses to contemplate the only possible answer to this conundrum – a two-state solution – there is little chance of peace. It is clear that the Israelis are not going to negotiate while their security is constantly under threat, which means that even the restoration of a ceasefire that can easily be broken may not suffice. This is a view taken not just by Israel but by other Arab nations, notably Egypt, which have lost any patience with Hamas and see its aggressive Islamic fundamentalism as a threat to all the governments in the region.
The Israelis evidently calculate that an offensive in Gaza can isolate Hamas from the bulk of Palestinians, who will blame its leaders for the bombardment. But nothing is ever that simple. The air attacks and a possible ground offensive will act as a recruiting sergeant for Hamas and widen the rift with Mahmoud Abbas, the democratically elected Fatah leader whose writ no longer runs in Gaza. The Israelis seem to have decided on an all-out offensive against Hamas, because while the Iranian-backed militia holds sway in Gaza there is no hope of progress. They may be right, though a similar attempt to extirpate Hizbollah in Lebanon was an ignominious failure. This should not stop those with influence in the region trying to broker some sort of rapprochement, however unlikely. Otherwise, there will many more poignant pictures of bewildered families before this tragedy runs its course, if it ever does.
