Barak: Ceasefire with Hamas Could Have Worked

by Charles Lenchner · 2009-03-10 05:15:00 UTC
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This is coming straight from Tikkun Olam:

Every so often in Israeli politics there are brief flashes of clarity when the clouds of obfuscation clear, allowing you to see what you knew all along was true. Sol Salbe brings word of a news report from Israel’s Galey Tzahal (Army Radio) about a fractious Israel cabinet meeting at which Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak went at each other hammer and tong about the current Palestinian rocket attacks. Here is Sol’s translation of the key excerpt:

A sharp confrontation has taken place around the table at the full Ministry meeting. Discussing the subject of the continual firing of rockets from Gaza,…Defence Minister [Barak] explained to his colleagues that negotiations are being conducted to ensure an arrangement with Hamas with Egypt acting as the intermediary. He was interrupted by the prime minister who said: “There are no negotiations. Israel does not intend to arrange a “calm” with that organisation.”

The Defence Minister responded that the firing of the rockets would have stopped had Israel accepted the calm.

“What the Defence Minister proposes proves that there was no value to the whole Cast Lead Operation. You are suggesting that now that we have smashed Hamas, we should accept the conditions that they offered to us before the operation,” said the prime minister.

Stay tuned for even more evidence that the war on Gaza was another in a long succession of Israel "wars of choice" conducted when peaceful alternatives existed. Or rather, conducted precisely because peaceful alternatives that Israel did not want needed to be pre-empted with massive violence.

Charles Lenchner
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