Israel, Hamas, Death & Destruction &Gaza,

Anyone who's followed my blogs will know the one thing I despise most is moral cowardice. Mike Freer's latest leader listens blog brought home to me the fact that the effects of events in Gaza have implications here in Barnet, so I feel I have to let the readers of my blog know my views. I suspect a fair few of you won't like what I have to say.

Firstly I'd just like to pass comment on the stance of many of our local politicians. Barnet has a large and rather infuential Jewish population. One of the largest outside of Israel. As such the local politicians, whether of Jewish extraction or not have to take account of the sensibilities. I suspect that many of our professed Christian councillors spend more time in Synogogues than the average semi-secular Jew does. I've received a few emails over the life of my blog alleging all sorts of rubbish about this pratice, but to me it's just politicians grubbing for votes and not disturbing or overly worrying. I don't believe that too many of them really have a deep rooted commitment to Zionism and if they moved to Romford or somewhere with a different demographic make up would probably find a different group to suck up to.

Which brings us to the situation in Gaza. My father was working in Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel. He was present when the "Zionists" were viewed by the British establishment as terrorists and when Menachim Begin was a member of the Stern Gang. Friends of his were killed in the terror campaign. As he had major business interests in the region at the time, when Israel was created he departed. As Arab countries would not allow people with an Israeli stamp to enter, he didn't return until 1966, when he went on a Pilgrimage with the Metropolitan Police to the Holy Land. On returning he was impressed by the progress. Areas of desert had been transformed and Soceity had been modernised. He contrasted this with what happened in Libya when the British evicted the Italians in 1943 and how that had developed, despite huge oil wealth. A year after his visit, there was a war between the Arabs and Israeli's. This was followed by a further war in 1973. Both of these wars were brought about by the stated Arab intention of destroying the state of Israel, created by a United Nations Mandate. By the time of his 1976 visit, many holy places had bullet and shrapnel marks. As a result of these two wars, the Arab nations realised that they couldn't achieve their aims through conventional war.

It is also worth remembering that one of the notorious Palestinian terror groups, Black September took their name from the Jordanian purge of Palestinians, not from any Israeli atrocity. The sad truth is that whilst many Arab nations pay lip service to the Palestinian cause, they've never welcomed the Palestinians or given them any real support other than in the armed struggle. States like Saudi Arabia have huge wealth, but what have they done to help Palestinians in refugee camps?

After the 1973 war, Israel was seen as too powerful a foe for the Arabs to fight head to head. In truth the Israeli army started to get complacent. This reached a head when they invaded southern Lebanon and fought Hizbollah. Hizbollah is a Shia faction backed by Iran. They were ready and waiting for Israel and Israel suffered it's first major military setback.

With the creation of the Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, various Arab and Iranian groups saw an opportunity to repeat this success. Hamas was built up with Arab and Iranian support and became the predominant power in Gaza. This densely populated strip of land houses an urban and impoverished population. Billions of dollars has been poured into it, but rather than raising the living standards of the residents, it's funded a campaign against Israel. Rockets are fired on a daily basis into Israel, not at military targets, but randomly at civilian areas. The aim is to provoke the Israeli military into a response. As Gaza is so tightly packed, any military action will result in civilian deaths. Israel eventually fell for the ploy and we have the current offensive. Huge numbers of civilians are being killed in Gaza and many capitals around the world are seeing anti Israeli protests. The Israeli line is "what would you do if you were under daily attack".

Which brings me to my point. There are not two parties involved in this - Hamas and Israel. There is a third darker aspect. The backers of Hamas who supply rockets and are sitting back, safe in their distant palaces, letting the poor and the dispossessed fight their battles. Israel cannot defeat Hamas, Hamas cannot defeat Israel. All that can happen is the two parties will make each other's lives hell. Every death spawns a new batch of Martyr's. Every Rocket spawns a new batch of reprisals. Whilst all this goes on, the backers of Hamas sit back and happily watch the death toll rise and use their influence and oil wealth to ferment trouble at the UN.

The unpalatable truth is that Hamas and Israel will have to talk to each other and reach an accomodation. Just as Menachim Begin went from terrorist to statesman, so will the leaders of hamas eventually. The Israeli policy of killing the leaders is counter productive as new, unknown and even more hardline leaders emerge. Someone has to break the cycle. It won't be Hamas, so it has to be Israel. The US has a vital role to play as it can not only influence Israel, but to some degree it can also influence the wealty, fat cat backers of Hamas. I'm a pacifist, I don't agree or believe in war as a solution, in all but the most extreme cases. I don't think war will solve the problems of Gaza or Israel. Israel has to cease it's campaign and the UN has to apply pressure to the backers of Hamas. The thing that saddens me most is that every Martyr has been a futile waste of life. Every rocket has been paid for with money that could have improved Gaza. Every Israeli soldier watching his back in Gaza today, could be building a better world.

Violence is not the answer and violence will not work in Gaza. For anyone