PrettyChec”,)

(Written: 03 January 2009, The Eve of my Mother’s Birth Day)

So to start, I would like to point out that this is my personal standpoint, and my professional point of view does not in any way reflect on my opinion to this issue.

Over the course of this trip, I came up with just three wishes beyond myself interest for the New Year. The first is for Israeli government to realize once and for all that Middle East conflict cannot be solved by military means. The second is, for Hamas to realize that its interests are not served by violence, and that Israel is there to stay. The third is, for the world to acknowledge that this conflict is unlike any other in history. It is uniquely intricate and sensitive-a conflict between two peoples who are both deeply convinced of their rights to live on the same very small piece of land. This is why neither diplomacy nor military can resolve the conflict.

The developments of the last few days are extremely worrisome to me for reasons of humane and political natures. While it is self-evident that Israel has the right to defend itself, that it cannot and should not tolerate the missile attacks on its citizens, its army’s brutal bombardment of Gaza, however has raised a few important questions in my mind.

The first question is, if Israel’s government has the right to make all Palestinians culpable for the actions of Hamas. Is the entire population of Gaza to be held responsible for the sins of the terrorist’s organization?  The Jewish people should know and feel even more acutely than any other populations that the murder of the innocent civilians is inhumane and unacceptable. The Israeli military has weakly argued that the Gaza Strip is so overly populated that it is impossible to avoid civilian deaths during operations.

The feebleness of this argument leads to my next questions: if civilian deaths are unavoidable, what is the purpose of the bombardments? What, if any, is the logic behind the violence and what does Israel hope to achieve through it? If the aim is to destroy Hamas, the most important question to ask is whether it is attainable. If not, then the whole attack is not only cruel, barbaric and reprehensible, it is senseless.

If, on the other hand, it is really possible to destroy Hamas through military operations, how does Israel envisage the reaction in Gaza once it has been accomplished? One and a half million Gaza residents will not suddenly go down on their knees in reverence for the power of the Israeli Army.

We must not forget that before Hamas was elected by the Palestinians, it was by Israel as a tactic to weaken Yasser Arafat. Israel’s recent history leads me to believe that if Hamas is bombed out of existence, another group will most certainly take its place, a group that would be more radical, more violent and more full of hatred toward Israel.

Israel cannot afford a military defeat for fear of disappearing from the map, yet history has proved that every military victory has left Israel in a weaker military position because of the emergence of the radical groups. I do not underestimate the difficulty of the decisions the Israeli government must make everyday, nor do I underestimate the importance of the Israel’s security.  Nevertheless, I stand behind my conviction that the only true viable plan for the long-term security is to gain the acceptance of all Israel’s neighbors. I wish for a return in the year 2009 of the famous intelligence always ascribed to the Jews. I wish for the return of King Solomon’s wisdom to Israel’s decision-makers that they might use to understand that both Palestinians and Israelis have equal human rights.

Palestinians violence torments Israelis and does not serve the Palestinians cause; Israeli retaliation is inhuman, immoral and does not serve security. The destinies of these two countries are inextricably linked; obliging them to live side by side They have to decide if they want to make of this as a blessing or a curse.