Israel - Gaza, what happens next?

At some point the fighting will stop, probably when Israel decides it has weakened Hamas enough to stop the rocket attacks. However what happens after that or what should happen? What can not be allowed to happen is nothing, where the civilians of Gaza are left to fend for themselves, living in a ghetto that is barricaded and controlled by Israel. This will only give more support to Hamas, who will regroup and strengthen till the next round of conflict between the two parties. There must be a way to break the vicious circle.

I believe that after the fighting has stopped Israel should be at the forefront of a plan to rebuild Gaza, working with the United Nations and other influential nations in the world and especially in the region. Let those nations that protest about the conflict and Palestinian victims show their support by helping the Palestinian civilians, not just the Palestinian leadership. Those nations could help in a constructive way, not just with speeches, marches or protests.

Finances could be raised to rebuild Gaza and its services. It could be implemented by international companies, organisations or neutral countries. Most importantly Israel has to be at the front of the fundraising (Israeli troops in Gaza could be a tricky situation).

Israel can claim they are just targeting Hamas but civilians are getting killed, with too many of them being women and children. Put yourself in the place of a Palestinian who has lost family or been injured, if Israel do nothing the only memory of that Palestinian will be of death and suffering and that person will turn to Hamas very easily and quickly. If Israel work with international co-operation (but very prominently) and help rebuild Gaza's infrastructures and services while allowing the people to be fed and lead a more comfortable life, the Palestinan's viewpoint will change to one where the enemy has helped to make their life better. They will not be so quick to support Hamas if they see this other kinder face to Israel.

The other key is education, a lack of general education helps organisations like the Taliban and Hamas as these organisations can easily brainwash minds not used to thinking. A Palestinian population with a better education will think more clearly about situations and not just believe the propaganda that is aimed at them. Getting this education (that should not include many aspects of extreme religious ideologies) to the people would be difficult but would be worth it. An educated person can make their own mind up about issues, not be told what to think. Maybe there should be more international schools or more freedom for students to study abroad.

The real fear here is that this conflict is not about land but ideologies. If this is the case it will be very difficult to solve this problem, land would be relatively easy to hand over but changing years of thinking is extremely more difficult.

Unfortunately there could be in the future more rounds of rockets and fighting. The pattern is set and obvious. Hamas fire rockets at Israel and they react with their superior military might killing civilians, earning Hamas more propaganda against Israel. The fighting stops, Hamas regroup because they can claim more support from disillusioned Palestinians until they can bait Israel to another round of fighting. A vicious circle.

Israel needs to be smarter when they are being inundated by the rockets by Hamas, get the international community on your side and put pressure on the natural allies of Hamas to criticise them. When the rockets start, Israel should use all means possible to show what they are experiencing. Israel should allow the media to see the damage caused and let it be broadcast, backed up by dependable and reputable reports from independent witnesses from the U.N. or other organisations. They could take the issue to the highest levels in the U.N. or other organisations to try and get some agreement and maybe a diplomatic answer.

Israel could always state that if no answer can be found, that they can and would take action themselves but would only do so as a last resort, warning that there could be high civilian casualties.

Israel could also offer to meet with Hamas or any other party to try and stop the rockets, let those responsible for the rockets show their true colours. They will soon lose support from many people, although unfortunately not everyone. If Israel try diplomacy and the unthinkable action of meeting with Hamas and other organisations, they will have shifted the focus back on Hamas or other organisations. If Hamas rejects these talks, the responsibility will be theirs having rejected the constructive, peaceful actions of the Israeli government.

Of course there could still be conflict but now the responsibility will be on those instigating the fight. When Israel has exhausted all options, who wouldn't have sympathy for them? It would be easy for anyone to see who is at fault and to understand that Israel had done everything in its power to end the conflict by different means.

Another idea would be to maybe have advanced negotiations with Fatah in the West Bank, this would show an example that Israel is seriously looking at peace in the region when the two parties really want peace. If Israel have to separate the West Bank and Gaza and negotiate separately, then so be it.

Maybe this round of fighting is not helped by the fact that there are elections soon!

Comments please.

 

Any resolution of the conflict needs to include an end to the rocketing of Israel. Americans who condemn the Israeli response should acknowledge that if the United States was being targeted by rockets fired from Mexico, everything within rocket range south of the Mexican border would become a free fire zone. If a members of a minority group in the United States engaged in suicide bombing of whites in the United States, everyone in that minority group would be put in internment camps, or they would be expelled from the United States. Many of them would be killed by white vigilante groups and lynch mobs.

 

All of this has been done, several times over. No answer ever is found, and Israel always does end up taking action itself as a last resort, at which point it gets worldwide condemnation for being trigger-happy.

 

This is a really pleasant surprise in what is a really unpleasant and distressing event. My compliments for a very well thought out, constructive analysis of what should happen and could very well end this conflict and finally bring peace.

The only thing I would add is that if Israel does not take the lead in actually finding peaceful solutions and helping to rebuild the destruction they have caused then the US should take the lead and see that it gets done.

When we look at how Hamas gained momentum and ultimately political power in Gaza it was by doing exactly the things you mention in your post. The thing is any nation or group could have done and should do the same thing instead of taking steps or stepping back and allowing Hamas to gain more support and more members.

Bullshit. The things laid out in the OP are the very things that HAVEN'T BEEN DONE. And they are the very things that would have the best chance of bringing peace to the region.

 

One of the problems with the Palestinians, and with Arabs in general, is that they have a very high birth rate. This means that a high percentage of the population consists of young men who enter job markets that have little use for them. A high percentage of young men makes a country volatile, and more prone to experience terrorism, revolution, or to engage in aggressive war. This is a problem that cannot be blamed on Israel. If Israel did not exist, the Arab world would still be dangerous.

 

Actually birth rate tends to decrease with education level, which is outlined in the OP.

 

It also increases when women become equal to men. Islamic culture aggressively discourages this.

In the United States those on and to the left of the Democrat Party tend to be sympathetic to the Palestinians, and to Arabs in general. Nevertheless, everything they hate about the religious right and the Bible Belt is far more true of the Arab world, including Palestine.

 

Actually, it doesn't. It's only the fanatics that do this. A lot of women don't even wear the veil (I forgot the name of it). I remember a reporter decided to wear it in Pakistan, and she was questioned by many of the women and given strange looks, since it's generally only associated with fanaticism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Islam

 

The website you give gives an idealized picture of the status of women in Islamic countries. In Africa most Moslem women are subjected to female genital mutilation. Not too long ago I read about a rape victim in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to receive 400 lashes. The reasoning of the judge was that if she had been a good girl, she would not have been raped. Yesterday there was a front page story on The New York Times about girls in a Moslem country - I think it was Afghanistan - who had had acid thrown in their faces because they were going to school.

None of this can be blamed on Western imperialism or Israel. It is symptomatic of a disturbed and disturbing culture.

 

All those people who, like Stumbler, simply refuse point blank to accept that they exhausted all options about forty years ago, and keep going through the same pointless motions every few years to no avail whatsoever.

 

First of all thanks to anyone who posted a comment on the above post.

I have to say that unfortunately it may all be wishful thinking but anything has to be better than the current vicious cycle we have at the moment. Israel is losing the propaganda war at the moment and will in the future if they don't show that they are been attacked by rockets, how many reports did you see in the media about rocket attacks?

A further addition to the post would be the suggestion of using Israel's aerial power to drop leaflets in Palestine explaining that want to help the civilians. Maybe radio stations could broadcast the same message in to Palestine. There could be many other means to communicate to civilians, bypassing the message sent by Hamas. Israel could also do food drops from the planes aswell couldn't they? Israel do have to do something for the civilians, otherwise Hamas just gets stronger. It is time for positive action from Israel to the CIVLIANS of Gaza.

 

Personally, i think the reason we dont see much about rocket attacks, or all the civilian casualties in the papers, is because the media simply will not put it out there. Many view israel as a higher, more aggressive and dominating state, and as such, its not much big of a deal if they get hit. On the other hand, when israel throws a punch back at the palestinians, THATS news, because the world sees israel as the big strong bully, and the 'poor defenseless' palestinians as exactly that. Now, the western culture calls for the people to come to the defense of the weak. As such, meaning to show how badly the palestinians are hurt, and that somehow israel is doing it out of pure hatred rather than self defense.
One thing ive noticed, is that the western world MUST learn that, 1. The palestinian people are NOT interested in westernizing or leading more comfortable lives, simply because their mindset calls for a more spiritual life over physical pleasures. So they will NEVER accept a completely democratic government, or stop fighting to destroy israel. And 2. We all have seen and know what their spiritality and religion calls for, and they will resist in every way. And have they the chance, they would definitly attack any american target without thinking it over for a second. Even if its the same nation that is doing its all and working its ass off to make their lives more comfortable.

 

During the Cold War most Americans believed that the Russians were essentially the same as us, but that they were oppressed by a totalitarian dictatorship. I think it is obvious that the Arabs are not the same as we are.

The Arabs love war. Fortunately they are not good at it. They are only skilled at making terrorist attacks on civilian targets. The only reason they have any significance is because some of them have oil. This oil was discovered by Westerners. It is drilled by technology invented in the West to fuel vehicles that were also invented there.

The Arab world has never really recovered from the Mongolian conquests of the thirteenth century. The Russians and Chinese were also conquered by the Mongolians back then. They recovered, eventually defeating the Mongolians, and going on to build great civilizations. Since the thirteenth century the Arab world has been an international backwater.

 

The practice of female genital cutting predates Islam. It's an ancient cultural tradition. I don't defend it -- no one could -- but your attempt to associate it with Islam is misguided and ill-informed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_cutting

 

Some people would argue that the United States isn't really very good at war either. With the biggest, most technologically advanced military on the planet, we still couldn't win in Korea, we couldn't win in Vietnam, we couldn't defeat the insurgency in Iraq, we couldn't capture Osama Bin Laden, who was able to launch a successful attack against the U.S. homeland...

Your anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry is really getting tiresome. Those of us who take the other side are not so much in sympathy with them as you think. We are simply attempting to counter the pervasive attitudes of people like you, which are dangerous and repugnant.

 

Israeli civilization is immeasurably superior to anything else that exists in the Mid East. Every now and then one needs to state the obvious.

 

In Korea we preserved the independence of South Korea. I do not feel the need to belabor my assertion that South Korea is a better country than North Korea.

We lost in Vietnam, and we have not won in Iraq because we are not ruthless enough to occupy and subdue a hostile population that is willing to fight back. That speaks in our favor.

We won hands down in the first Gulf War. There is no military that can stand up to us in a conventional war.

 

Liberals are too civilized for our own good.

Those who have read many of my posts know that I am liberal on quite a few issues. Nevertheless, many liberals have a tendency to see various forms of equivalence where it does not exist. They think everyone is as civilized as they are, or would be if given the chance. They think negotiation is the way to end all conflicts.

In short, they overestimate human nature, and refuse to see life as a struggle for scarce resources.

 

You really are pathetic, get help while you still have some semblance of a brain left. Nothing in bigotry prejudice and narrow mindedness
is liberal. There really is one good thing about your posts as of late, they really have shown others just what you are.

 

[FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]You would be more impressive if you were able to explain where I am mistaken. Instead you insult me. What have I said that is not true?