Gaza demilitarization won’t solve Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/israel-gaza-war-hamas-palestine-peace-demilitarize-weapons.html#
Par #Daniel_Levy
Fatah’s experiment in bucking this basic rule of conflicts — ending its armed struggle without securing Palestinian rights, an end to occupation or any guarantees thereof — has, from a Palestinian perspective, been a dismal failure. Hamas will not follow suit and turn Gaza into something akin to the West Bank, where the IDF operates with impunity against Palestinians. This West Bank model is an anomaly that is itself likely to prove unsustainable and certainly not something Palestinians are willing to replicate.
Finally, demilitarization is a distraction — it offers no way out of this conflict for either Palestinians or Israelis. For progress on Gaza, attention would be better focused on, for instance, the establishment of a port facility that would be less dependent on Israel or Egypt and could reconnect Gaza to the outside world. If third parties are looking for a mission, then forget demilitarization and push instead to create a Gaza port, quickly.
The demilitarization distraction is reminiscent of the three preconditions imposed on Hamas (recognize Israel, respect previous agreements and renounce violence) by Israel and mimicked by Western powers after Hamas’ election victory in 2006. This endorsement by Western powers of Israel’s refusal to engage politically with Hamas on the assumption that it can be bludgeoned and blockaded into submission represents another failed policy that contributed to entrenching the conflict. Better to engage and to actively promote the nascent Palestinian political reconciliation.
Demilitarization looks set to become the latest mantra of obfuscation and evasion of the steps necessary to resolve the underlying Israeli-Palestinian conflict of which the Gaza war is but one symptom. Don’t fall into the trap.