Saturday, February 11, 2012

Demanding Disarmed Gaza


Weekly Commentary: Demanding Disarmed Gaza


Dr. Aaron Lerner

It could not be simpler:


The Palestinians claim that the Hamas-Fatah unity government that is to
reunite that West Bank and Gaza Strip is committed to honor the Oslo
agreements.



The western countries that take a favorable position regarding the unity
government also, at least in their pronouncements, condition their support
on Palestinian compliance.



And there is no better test of this commitment to honor the agreements than
requiring a very public removal and destruction of the huge stores of
weapons in the Gaza Strip that constitute a gross violation of the Oslo
agreements.



Sure, you can talk about “incitement”, but we very quickly get sucked into
a debate over just what constitutes “incitement”.



The last thing we should demand is “quiet” instead of “compliance”.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a strong promoter of Palestinian “quiet”
instead of “compliance” and this mindset continues to plague Israeli
policymaking.



The problem with demanding “quiet” instead of “compliance” is that this
essentially gives the Palestinians carte blanche to smuggle in anything they
want to, manufacture whatever they want to and train forces in preparation
for war against Israel. All of this and more as long as they don’t shoot.
Yet. Or more accurately, don’t shoot too much.



And the consequences of this terribly shortsighted approach have been that
the Palestinians today have a mind boggling array of weapons systems
deployed in the Gaza Strip.



This wasn’t what Israel’s leaders had in mind.


Time and again Israel warned that Israel would act swiftly and decisively
should the Palestinians dare to introduce “balance breaking” weapons systems
to the Gaza Strip.



So far those warning have been empty words. To date Israel has acted
neither swiftly nor decisively against the many “balance breaking” weapons
in the Gaza Strip.



It’s time for Israel to put Mahmoud Abbas, the PA and the world on notice
that as far as Israel is concerned the clearing out and destruction of the
illegal weapons from the Gaza Strip is a key test of the legitimacy of any
Palestinian regime.



http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=55658
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

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