Israeli-Palestinian conflict won't resolve itself
Op-ed: Instead of initiating negotiations for a regional agreement, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya'alon are insisting there is no solution and that all we can do is 'manage the conflict.'
Let me just mention the dry figures: Fifty-one days of fighting, 4,258 rockets fired at Israeli targets, 735 Iron Dome interceptions, 5,226 airstrikes, 32 destroyed tunnels, 74 dead on the Israeli side and about 2,200 dead on the Palestinian side.
Over the weekend, we received a reminder that shouldn’t surprise anyone either: A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council. At the same time, Hamas is continuing its preparations for the next round of the bloody conflict: The rocket manufacturing lathe-shops are working, and offensive tunnels are being dug into Israel.
The Netanyahu government's spokespeople are offering no surprises either: Minister Gilad Erdan promised that there would be a response, and Israel Air Force planes attacked Hamas targets on Saturday.
The hopeless problem is that behind the words said by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers, the Israeli public is not getting an answer to a simple question: You failed to deter Hamas, so why did you drag us into a war which had no strategic targets?
An impressive booklet issued these days by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) affiliated with Tel Aviv University makes a real effort to summarize Operation Protective Edge. The chapters written by the finest researchers present a grim picture.
Brigadier-General (res.) Udi Dekel wrote, among other things: "The Israeli government failed to take full advantage of a golden opportunity to establish broad regional cooperation against terrorists and non-state jihadist players, simply out of both fear that this would lead it back to the negotiating table with PA President Abbas and unwillingness to provide the Arab world with some recompense in the form of a declaration that Israel views the Arab Peace Initiative as a basis for talks and cooperation between Israel and the Arab world."
Netanyahu used to take credit for not ordering the IDF to launch an unnecessary war during his term. It all changed last summer, following the perception among Hamas in Gaza, the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Arab world in particular, that Hamas managed to defeat the strongest army in the Middle East.
Israel's decision makers should now decide between several alternatives. The first alternative is the one represented by Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, that there is no solution to the conflict with the Palestinians and that all that is left to do is to "manage the conflict." In other words, get hit, disrupt life on the home front, launch an operation with casualties and gnash our teeth until the next round.
Another alternative is to try to set strategic targets in the form of negotiations as part of a regional agreement, which would include a withdrawal from territories Israel has been holding onto since 1967 in exchange for the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state and Arab states' recognition of Israel.
No one is promising us that such an initiative will lead to a peace agreement as we know it in Europe, but on the other hand, without any initiative we cannot make progress and improve the situation.
What should have been made clear in the months left until the Knesset elections is the direction Israel is headed in. The conflict with the Palestinians will not resolve itself, and it's more important and crucial than the price of pudding.
But in the meantime, we received a reminder over the weekend of the direction the Netanyahu-Ya'alon duo is taking us in.
In summary, Israel will get what it chooses.
