An analytic view

Middle East Peace Process: An analytic view

    Lt Col (Retd) AFM Khairul Basher

 The new Middle East peace process gets off to a rocky start as international pressure rises in an effort to bring peace to the region. Israel and Hamas had agreed an indefinite ceasefire after almost two months of IDF airstrikes on Gaza and Hamas rockets into southern Israel. The onslaught led to the deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians, who the United Nations claims have mostly been civilians. Soldiers made up most of the casualties on the Israeli side, where 70 lives were lost. In spite of the worst rift between America and Israel in years, the long-awaited dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians, suspended since December 2008, finally gets underway in “indirect proximity. The Israeli government approved plans to build 1,600 new homes in a Jewish suburb located in East Jerusalem, which is an area Palestinians want for their capital. The cooling and shifting U.S.-Israeli relationship coincides with an apparent deepening of Israel’s international isolation. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) gave its President Mahmoud Abbas to go ahead and take part in the indirect talks but warned they would pull out after four months if progress is not made. The Arab League, an organization of 22 Arab states, also provided an “umbrella” of support under which the PLO President can proceed. The Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, has agreed to reducing violence and allowing Israel to hand over some security duties and to remove some road blocks. The West Bank is experiencing improved economic activity and building some institutions needed for self government. Also, for the first time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed to Palestinian statehood. Today the deep division continues between Hamas and Fatah making a united agreement with Israel that is much more difficult. Fatah was founded in 1954 by Palestinians who had been refugees in the Gaza Strip. Their founders included Yasser Arafat who became the most dominant leader of the Palestinians. In the early years of their revolutionary struggle Fatah conducted many guerrilla attacks on Israel. But now they are no longer regarded as a terrorist organization by any government.

Hamas was formed in Gaza in 1987 by the Muslim Brotherhood with the goal of establishing an Islamic state in “Palestine.” From 1993 to 2005, Hamas carried out many suicide bombings in Israel. They have never acknowledged Israel’s right to exist and are still considered a terrorist organization by most nations. Hamas won the last Palestinian general election in the Gaza Strip in 2006. In a brief Palestinian civil war in 2007, Hamas completely ousted Fatah from Gaza. The Palestinian Authority was effectively split in two, with Hamas in complete control of Gaza and Fatah in control of the West Bank. Hamas continues to refuse to sign an Egyptian reconciliation proposal agreed to by Fatah. Hamas ended its truce with Israel in 2007 by firing homemade rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory. Eventually Israel responded by forcibly entering Gaza and the three-week Gaza war ensued killing 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers. Today the deep division continues between Hamas and Fatah making a united agreement with Israel much more difficult. About a year ago, Israeli tanks rumbled out of a devastated Gaza Strip accompanied by a volley of rockets. Today, Hamas is beginning to regain its strength but Gaza remains in tatters. No reconstruction has begun and Israeli and Egyptian blockades are in place in the poor and crowded territory of 1.5 million Palestinians. Some Israelis are concerned for that Hamas may violently overtake the West Bank as it did in Gaza, if a new Palestinian state is created.

The EU, Israel’s largest trading partner, had taken more active role in the peace process. EU Parliament President Jerzy Buzek had met with Palestinian President Abbas and reinforced their commitment. Mahmoud Abbas, asked Ashton for EU intervention to put pressure on Israel to freeze building settlements in Jerusalem. Earlier she held talks in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Since her trip she has called for the settlements to stop. The EU has “condemned” them as “illegal” and undermining peace efforts. Britain’s most senior Jewish and Muslim representatives have issued an unprecedented joint call for peace in the Middle East and harmony amongst the UK‘s religious communities. Human Rights Watch was very much concerned about the serious violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces and by Hamas, violations that in some cases amount to war crimes. Human Rights Watch and other independent organizations have repeatedly documented such unlawful attacks by Israel causing high civilian casualties. When such attacks are carried out deliberately or recklessly they constitute war crimes. Israeli forces have also unlawfully targeted non-combatant members of Hamas, their homes, and governmental infrastructure without providing information that they were military objectives.

The present ceasefire has of course reduced the incidence of laws-of-war violations. Past fighting between Israel and armed groups in Gaza has shown that both sides again violate the laws of war when hostilities resume, with civilians paying a heavy price. It was the time for the United States to play a more active role in preventing violations of international law and helping to ensure justice for victims. Israel has asserted as a matter of policy – contrary to the laws of war – that civilian members of Hamas or other groups who do not have a military role are nonetheless “terrorists. Israel has also targeted family homes of alleged members of armed groups without showing that the structure was being used for military purposes. Israeli air or ground attacks have destroyed homes, schools, United Nations facilities, civilian infrastructure, and hospitals, often causing high numbers of civilian casualties. Deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians are war crimes. The latest fighting occurred amid an extensive, years-long blockade of Gaza by Israel, reinforced for most of that period by Egypt’s blockade of its border with Gaza. Far beyond preventing the import of military equipment, this blockade has largely prevented the export of commercial or agricultural goods, crippling Gaza’s economy, as well as travel for personal, educational or health reasons. This blockade has had a disastrous impact on the health and well-being of Gaza’s civilian population, curtailing the delivery of food, medicine, fuel and other necessities. Hundreds of thousands of people have little or no access to clean water and Hospitals. Palestinians need to live with dignity, with some freedom, with goods that can come in and out, and they need a life that is free from the current restraints. To the extent that this blockade goes beyond justifications of military necessity, it constitutes unlawful collective punishment of the civilian population in Gaza.

The United States currently provides Israel with military assistance amounting to $3.1 billion per year, in addition to the $500 million per year for missile defense programs. This assistance includes US supplies of rotary and fixed-wing military aircraft, Hellfire missiles, and other munitions that Israel has used in unlawful air strikes in Gaza during this most recent conflict, in possible violation of the “Leahy Law.” However, we understand there is no mechanism in place to track which Israeli units are receiving US military assistance, much less to sanction units found to have used such assistance in violation of US laws. They are also concerned with the extent to which the US has failed to support any serious measure of accountability for Israeli violations of international law, such as by opposing the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution to establish a fact-finding commission to investigate violations of the laws of the war, and opposing Palestine’s accession to the International Criminal Court. We believe both these measures can provide an important opportunity to provide justice to the victims of unlawful attacks carried out by both Israel and Hamas.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned “war crimes” by Israeli occupation regime in Gaza and urged a meeting of donors on financing reconstruction in the enclave devastated by a month long war. The OIC also proposed a meeting of donors on the reconstruction of Gaza, where the war has caused US$4 billion to US$6 billion of damage, according to the Palestinian economy ministry. A Palestinian official said that Egypt has offered to host a conference of Gaza donors. The OIC praised Saudi Arabia for supplying medical aid worth 300 million riyals (about US$80 million), as well as a commitment to provide US$500 million towards reconstruction in Gaza. Bangladesh also condemns Israeli atrocity in Gaza and adopted a condemnation motion over the Israeli’s killings in Gaza of Palestine. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition bench lawmakers blasted the Western countries and United States of America for keeping silence and taking no action against Israelis aggression in Gaza. Bangladesh firmly said that she will stand by Palestinians people and do everything for them. The Prime Minister also said the Israel must return the land to Palestinians and recognize the Palestine as an Independent state.

Israel’s military succeeded in neutralizing Hamas militarily. It could protect its population from thousands of rockets fired by Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces destroyed much of Hamas’ arsenal and 32 tunnels that the militants used to infiltrate Israel. But still it is not known to Israel that how many weapons and usable tunnels remain in Gaza. Hamas fired rockets with longer ranges than in previous conflicts, but the Iron Dome prevented those headed for major cities from causing significant damage. That allowed the Israeli military to go after the tunnels without fear of mass Israeli casualties. Israel said it lost 64 soldiers in addition to the three civilians killed. Though Hamas largely failed as a fighting force, it did succeed in raising the Palestinian cause again before the eyes of the world at Israel’s expense. And it put back on the negotiating table its demand that Israel and Egypt end an economic blockade that has squeezed Gaza for years. Hamas’ political fortunes sagged badly last year, when Egypt’s military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi, a key Hamas ally, and shut down Hamas’ tunnels into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Those tunnels were the militant group’s last source of economic supplies. By closing them in 2013 made life in Gaza worse and Hamas’ political standing weaker. The latest fighting has alienated Hamas even more from many Arab states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which view Hamas and other militant groups as threats to their own regimes’ hold on power. Hamas’ chief goal at the negotiating table is to get the economic blockade lifted so that they can survive with human dignity. But how long this type of atrocities will be carried out by Israel against the Palestine and kill innocent unarmed civilians and children’s in this civilized world? Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has rightly raised the question to the Muslim Ummah as to why they remained silent when thousands of Muslims mainly women and children were killed by Israelis in Gaza. She also raised the question to the world conscience and human right organizations for not taking appropriate steps to stop the atrocities by Israel. It has been proved in the history of great nations that injustice and force cannot win over peoples’ mind and their rights. The days are not too far when Israel will have to recognize the legitimate right of Palestinian people and give them the status of independent state for their own survival and safety.

The writer is Director (Administration), University of Information Technology & Sciences (UITS). He can be reached at: HYPERLINK "mailto:akmbashar52@yahoo.com" akmbashar52@yahoo.com - See more at: http://www.daily-sun.com/details_Middle-East-Peace-Process:-An-analytic-view_973_1_5_1_0.html#sthash.GojtRAS5.dpuf