THE HOLY LAND IN THE CRUCIBLE OF WAR

The Middle East has exploded again. Israel has been conducting military operation "Cast Lead" in the Gaza Strip for almost 20 days. The uncompromising positions of the conflicting sides - Tel Aviv and the radical Palestinian movement Hamas - overshadow prospects for peace in this most unstable region of the planet.

Fatal lead

Referring to continuing strikes against Israeli territory, Ehud Olmert's government launched a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip on 27 December. After a week of air strikes, the Israeli Defence Forces (Tsahal) began the ground phase of the operation. The Israeli leadership said the purpose of the invasion of Palestine was to seize districts from which militants are firing rockets on the Jewish state and to liquidate Hamas' infrastructure. In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, the deputy chief of the Israeli general staff, Dan Harel, clearly stated that the aim is not only to put an end to Hamas air strikes, but also to destroy the political apparatus of the movement which rules the Gaza Strip and which Israel considers to be a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, every day of the war claims the lives of civilians, including women, children and elderly people. Since the beginning of the Israeli operation, 800 Palestinians have already been killed, including 257 children, according to the Palestinian side. Israeli air strikes on UN-run schools in the Jabalia camp and in Gaza City, which were being used as civilian bomb shelters, had terrible consequences. These military actions, which claimed the lives of dozens of civilians, including children, were condemned by most of the international community. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the Israeli air strikes "absolutely unacceptable", since attacks on facilities being used as civilian shelters are banned by international humanitarian law.

Hostilities in the Middle East are expanding. On the 10th day of the war, Israel opened fire on Lebanon, justifying its action by the need to respond to air strikes on Israel from Lebanese territory. The only positive factor is the Israeli government's agreement to allow humanitarian aid for the local population to enter the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the civilian population of Palestine, which lives under a deadly blockade, was given a chance to leave dangerous areas. In order to open a humanitarian corridor, Tsahal suspended military operations from 1300 to 1600 every day. The Israeli army command said it was ready to observe the three-hour truce every day as long as not a single rocket was fired at Israel from Hamas-controlled territory. The leadership of the radical movement, for its part, promised not to fire rockets at Israeli territory during the hours when Tsakhal suspends its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The decision to open a humanitarian corridor marked, in essence, the end of the second phase of Operation Cast Lead. The Israeli government is to decide: whether to continue the offensive, despite the unpredictable consequences of expanding hostilities, or to give up its plans to finish Hamas off and open negotiations following the appeals of the international community to stop the military operation.

The world community expresses a common will

Almost all states condemned the new war in the Middle East. Even Turkey, one of the few Muslim states to maintain friendly relations with the Jewish state and considered to be a strategic partner, condemned Israel's actions decisively. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that "the use of disproportionate measures by Israel have caused a human crisis in the region". He even suspected the Israeli government of launching the military operation in order to boost its authority ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for February. In this regard, the Turkish prime minister called on the Israeli defence minister and foreign minister, Ehud Barak and Tsipi Livni, "to forget about these elections, because history will punish them for the black stain they will leave on the history of mankind". The position of Turkey, which became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on 1 January, played a role in discussions about the situation in the Gaza Strip at UN headquarters in New York.

Incidentally, the position taken by the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Human Rights, Richard Falk, had great repercussions. In an interview with Italy's La Stampa, he expressed his protest that the Israeli authorities did not let him into the conflict zone despite his UN mandate. According to Falk, the Jewish state has launched aggression with modern weapons against an unarmed Palestinian population which has been living under a tough embargo for a long time. According to the UN official, the matter is not that Hamas and terrorist elements under its control which have infiltrated the Gaza Strip are continuing to shell Israeli territory. The matter is that Israel used this factor in order to carry out military strikes which cased a great number of civilian casualties.

The UN Security Council failed to come up with a single position on the situation in the Middle East. Most Security Council members agreed that it was necessary to secure a cease-fire as soon as possible, to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza and to make every effort to resume peace talks. However, the US delegation opposed the adoption of a resolution. The United States was the only country that did not urge Israel to stop air strikes on Gaza. The White House administration only urged Israel to avoid casualties among the civilian population while liquidating militants in Gaza and demanded that the Hamas movement stop its air strikes on Israeli territory.

Only on 8 January did the UN Security Council manage, as Ban Ki-moon said, to present "the single will of the world community". Resolution 1860 "requires an immediate and steady cease-fire that leads to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza". The resolution also noted the need to ensure the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the entire territory of the Gaza Strip and condemned "all cases of violence and brutality against civilians and all acts of terrorism". During the vote, 14 members of the Security Council voted for the resolution, while the US delegation abstained, which made it possible to pass the draft resolution which was approved by the leading countries of Europe and the Arab world.

At the same time as the UN consultations, unilateral efforts were also made to put an end to the hostilities in the Middle East. However, the Israeli authorities rejected the European Union's initiative to place international observers in the Gaza Strip after the cease-fire, as well as Russia's proposal to mediate contacts with the Palestinian movement Hamas in order to secure an agreement to end hostilities.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was much more successful as he demonstrated his outstanding diplomatic skills once again by partially pacifying the conflicting sides. But before his peacekeeping mission to the Middle East, Sarkozy condemned the position of Hamas, because continuing rocket attacks on Israeli territory by its militants had become "an unacceptable provocation", just like the actions of the Israeli side, "because they only serve to keep us away from peace and make it difficult to help the people of Gaza".

A peace plan as the last chance

In Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Nicolas Sarkozy held negotiations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The two leaders presented a specific plan to end the hostilities in the Gaza Strip. It must be noted that Cairo also placed responsibility for the new war on both sides. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Gheyt condemned Hamas and the air strikes on Israeli cities, which had given Israel "a wonderful chance to begin a military operation in Gaza" and accused Israel of "carrying out disproportionate strikes against the Palestinians".

The French-Egyptian plan provides for three phases to achieve peace. In the first phase, Israel and Palestinian organizations should cease firing and give international mediators, first of all Egypt, a chance to come up with further measures to secure a lasting peace. In this period, humanitarian aid will be freely delivered to the Gaza Strip. During the second phase, Egypt will invite Israeli and Palestinian representatives to a meeting to seek agreements that will not allow either side to disrupt the truce. There are questions of protecting the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, opening checkpoints and lifting the blockade of the sector by Tel Aviv. In the third phase, another meeting will be held to which representatives of all Palestinian factions will be invited, together with the Palestinian Authority administration.

The Mubarak-Sarkozy plan was supported by all leading states, including the US government. The Israeli government issued a statement welcoming the efforts of the presidents of Egypt and France, but did not unreservedly approve the peace plan. The press secretary of the Israeli Prime Minister, Mark Regev, pointed out that "a lasting truce should be based on the total absence of attacks on Israel from Gaza and on the effective blocking of military supplies to the Hamas movement". It is clear that those who support a further expansion of hostilities in Gaza Strip hold strong positions in the Israeli leadership. It is most likely that Tel Aviv, although it approves various peace initiatives, will put forward demands that are unacceptable to Hamas in order to avoid concluding agreements which may legitimize a terrorist organization as a force to be spoken to.

In turn, Palestinian radicals said in response to the Mubarak-Sarkozy plan that they do not accept a lasting truce and suggested limiting it to six months, on condition that Israel really lifts the blockade of Gaza. The leaders of Hamas cannot imagine a lasting truce, never mind peace, with Israel.

In this way, the positions of Palestinian and Israeli "hawks" coincide, making it impossible to achieve a lasting peace in the region. This is proved by the refusal of both Israel and Hamas to follow the terms of the latest UN Security Council resolution, because they do not meet their interests. It turns out that war suits them much better.

Against the background of the uncompromising Israelis and Hamas, the policy of the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas, who approved the UN resolution, stands apart. Condemning Israel's actions, he also condemned Hamas, which is to blame for the split in the Palestinian Authority and which refuses to obey its official leadership. "We contacted Hamas leaders directly and through mediators in order to persuade them to resume the truce with Israel, but they refused. This has claimed hundreds of Palestinian lives," Mahmud Abbas admitted. He probably understands better than anyone else that the current escalation of the conflict holds no prospects for Israel or for Palestinian radicals. All previous military operations by Tel Aviv against extremists have ended the same way - in a truce. The only question is how long it will last and, most importantly, how many casualties the Jewish and Palestinian people will have to suffer in order to realize that there is no alternative to peaceful dialogue as the way to achieve peace in the Holy Land.

In essence, the new war deprived the Israelis and Palestinians of a chance to solve the confrontation as soon as possible. It also dashed the hopes that arose after last year's international conference in Annapolis. Thus the efforts of the US administration, which was trying to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict before George Bush's departure from the White House, suffered a setback. The leaders of Israel and the radical organizations of Palestine had neither the will nor sufficient political skill to bring forward the peaceful end to the conflict for which their long-suffering people have waited so long.