"Today's Debate" articles on the Middle East-January 2009

Our view on the Middle East: Israel’s tactics in Gaza invite Palestinian backlash
Efforts to crush Hamas prompt Arab street to rally behind it.
Israel's bloody 11-day incursion into Gaza appears to have two goals, one entirely justified and one based on wishful thinking.
The first is simply to stop the rocket attacks that have been coming from Gaza, controlled by the militant group Hamas, into Israel. For this, Israel has every right, much as the U.S. would if Mexicans sworn to the destruction of America were firing missiles from Juarez into El Paso.
The second, more expansive goal is to try to smash Hamas and turn the Palestinian masses against the group. As desirable as this might be given Hamas' record of terrorism, decades of Middle East conflict provide scant evidence that Israel can achieve this objective by military means.
(Gaza border: Smoke rises from Israel’s Jan. 6 attack on Hamas / David Silverman, Getty Images)
Decades of punishments — from assassinations to mass imprisonments to confiscation of Palestinians' property and curtailment of their rights — have only engendered more support for Palestinian leaders. It's a matter of human nature, and the Israel's latest offensive appears to be producing more of the same. Tuesday's deaths of dozens of Palestinians sheltering at a United Nations school are likely to intensify the anti-Israeli backlash.
The lesson is that Israel needs to step back and figure out how to prevent the same cycle from repeating without end: Israel punishing innocent Palestinians in response to terrorism, inevitably stirring up more radicalization, resentment and retaliation.
Popular support for terrorism typically ends when people see a future for themselves. The Irish Republican Army's horrific bombings petered out as people on both sides in Northern Ireland got tired of violence and were steered into a credible political process. The Palestinians' own tangled history with Israel tells a similar tale.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization was once as violent and as bent on Israel's destruction as Hamas is today (though without Hamas' radical Islamic fervor). But the PLO came to accept Israel's right to exist under the Oslo Peace Accord signed in 1994, which promised Palestinians a homeland.
The PLO's iconic leader, Yasser Arafat, ultimately reneged on a final peace deal with Israel. But the framework of a two-state solution remains much as it was outlined in the last days of the Clinton presidency eight years ago.
After Arafat died in 2004, Palestinians became disenchanted with his Fatah successors because of corruption that kept them mired in poverty and without that all-important path to a better life. Hamas won elections in 2006 because it promised a way forward, lavished social services and benefits on Palestinians and vowed to end corruption. But it remained committed to terrorism.
Israel's efforts to split Palestinians from Hamas, however, have long lacked the needed carrots to match its sticks. It has particularly failed to build up Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government controls the larger Palestinian territory in the West Bank and who wants to be a constructive alternative.
Israel deserves to be safe from Hamas rockets. But it can't ensure lasting security by going after tactical successes likely to radicalize Palestinians over the long term.
Posted at 12:22 AM/ET, January 07, 2009 in Foreign Affairs - Middle East - Editorial, USA TODAY editorial

Opposing view: Israel's inalienable right
Efforts to crush Hamas prompt Arab street to rally behind it.
By Jonathan Peled
Israel has the inalienable right to defend itself and its citizens. While America and Europe are engaged in wars thousands of miles away from their soil, we are entrenched in the front lines of the West's war on terror.
In 2005, Israel voluntarily disengaged from Gaza to create an opportunity for peace, giving Palestinians a chance at self governance and economic prosperity. We worked closely with the U.S. and the international community to prop up Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with economic and diplomatic support.
Unfortunately, Israel's withdrawal was soon followed by Hamas' takeover of Gaza. This Iranian-backed terrorist organization has proven time and again to adamantly oppose peace and coexistence. Each Israeli peace overture has been met with terror. In the past three years, more than 6,000 rockets and mortars have fallen on Israel.
Hamas has brought this war onto itself and fights in the most repugnant and cynical way imaginable. They regularly exploit their own people by turning them into human shields and using schools, mosques and population centers as launch pads for attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. These barbaric tactics, which violate international humanitarian law, drastically increase the human toll on all sides.
Israel always prefers a political solution to a military one, but sometimes diplomacy is not possible without the deployment of legitimate force. Israel's counter-terrorism operation will continue until Hamas' capability to attack Israeli civilians is minimized and the status quo of constant rocket fire ends, laying the foundation for a durable and sustainable arrangement.
Previous lulls in violence have been viewed by Israel as an opportunity to build peace, but used by Hamas as an opportunity to build rockets and to smuggle in sophisticated weapons. We will not allow our wish for quiet in the short term to enable our destruction in the long term. Hamas cannot be allowed to regroup, rearm and rebuild the smuggling tunnels and terror infrastructure we are destroying.
Eliminating the Hamas obstacle is the only realistic way to advance the peace process and to achieve peace through a two-state solution. We have already made substantial progress with the Palestinian Authority the Palestinian people's legitimate representative and have seen tangible proof that peace is attainable. We are determined not to allow Hamas' terror to derail the process.
Jonathan Peled is the Israeli embassy's spokesman in Washington.