Background of the Current Israeli
Assault in Gaza
The current offensive being waged against the population of Gaza is the latest round in an ongoing campaign by Israel to prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This latest incursion comes at the end of a five-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. During that time Hamas was able to largely halt the firing of missiles at Israeli towns and cities, while Israel on its part suspended its campaign of assassination directed against Hamas militants within Gaza.
At the same time, in violation of international law, Israel continued its blockade of much needed food, fuel and medical supplies entering Gaza. It also severely restricted the Gaza’s access to drinking water and electricity.
The cease-fire between Hamas and Gaza was broken by Israel on November 4, 2008 when Israeli Defense Forces entered Gaza and killed six Hamas supporters and then again on November 17, 2008 when another four Hamas supporters were assassinated. Approximately one month later Gazans began firing rockets into cities and towns in southern Israel.
It is widely acknowledged that Hamas would have been willing to maintain the cease-fire had Israel agreed to lift its blockade of Gaza and stop targeting members of Hamas. As is apparent now Israel had other plans for Hamas and Gaza. Though the pretext for the invasion of Gaza was the firing of rockets into Israeli cities and towns, plans for the invasion, it has become evident, were actually drawn up in March of 2008 under the direction of defense minister Ehud Barach.
From the Israeli point of view the invasion has two objectives.
The first relates to Israeli domestic politics, specifically to the up-coming February 2009 national election. At present the Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has a wide lead in the polls and looks likely to defeat the current government coalition of the Labour and Kadima parties. Likud is running their campaign based on a hard line against Hamas and any concessions toward a Palestinian state within the territories occupied by Israel. The current campaign going on in Gaza would therefore appear to be an attempt by the governing party to demonstrate to the substantial right-wing Israeli electorate that it can be just as determined in its attacks on the Palestinians and their ambitions as Likud proposes to be.
The second and more long-term objective of the Israeli attack on Gaza is Israel’s desire to destroy Hamas as a political and social force and, as such, deprive the Palestinians a leadership that has been representing their national interests.
Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the PLO and President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has little authority in the West Bank and virtually none in Gaza. He has become a puppet of Israel to such an extent that he has blamed Hamas for the Israeli attack on the Palestinians of Gaza. Israel would love to replace Hamas with the PLO led by Abbas in Gaza and tried to do this in the summer of 2007. At that time part of Abbas’s military organization, with arms and training supplied by the U.S., attempted to stage a coup against Hamas, which had won the PA election in 2006. Hamas however thwarted the attempted coup and has since been the political authority in Gaza. Since that time Abbas and the PA he leads have been essentially shut out of influence in Gaza.
The problem that Hamas creates for Israel is that, unlike Mahmoud Abbas, it has shown itself unwilling to surrender its national and economic rights to Israel. Israel has no intention of allowing the creation of any kind of Palestinian state even in the 20 percent of Palestine that has not been expropriated by Israel. Instead, it wants to replace Hamas with Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO, which it now considers a “willing partner”.
This is not a plan that the Palestinian people are likely to accept.