Palestine ­ Time To Stop Pretending

On February 3, with some hastily mustered resolve, Hosni Mubarak closed Egypt's border with Gaza. With that action, he attempted to restore the physical integrity of the world's largest open-air prison, while renewing the confinement of 1.5 million Palestinians against their will. This action was a calculated political act, undertaken to squelch mainly US and Israeli objections to an open border between Gaza and Egypt, but it reignited a war crime that has gone on for decades in full public view. That crime reached its most oppressive stages in the past few weeks, as Israel increased its military assault and harassment to break the will of the Palestinians, while unseating their Hamas political leadership in Gaza. It is time to stop pretending that "peace" talks now underway will change that agenda.

Israel's long-term goal, as any honest observer knows full well, is to make life so intolerable for the Palestinians that they will leave. Then there will be no barrier to realization of a Jewish state. In Ariel Sharon's era as Prime Minister-before his illness took him out of action-occupying Gaza had become expensive, dangerous and politically costly. Israeli withdrawal left the Palestinians of Gaza to their own devices, while giving them little to no help. Then, in early 2006, Palestine held a general election. That election, insisted on by the United States, was supposed to bring an easy affirmation of Fatah's control of Palestine. Fatah's leader, Mahmoud Abbas, had shown himself easily manipulated by Israel and the US. In time, promoters thought, the Palestinians would trade their resistance to Israeli confiscation of all of Palestine for a chance to huddle in two shrinking enclaves.

The plan backfired in three critical ways. First, credible outside observers declared the election more or less free and fair. Second, voters in both Gaza and the West Bank rejected Fatah. Third, the majority of voters favored Hamas, an Islamic group whose insurgents largely had taken the battle over from Fatah. Hamas had practiced terrorism against Israel but was observing a unilateral truce. On the critical negotiative issues with Israel (up front recognition of Israel's right to exist, a Palestinian state, a right of return, a capital in Jerusalem, and no give on those issues short of actual negotiated outcomes), Hamas had defined the Palestinian mainstream. In essence, the Palestinians voted to continue their struggle for at least a piece of their national home. More