Yossi Beilin on the Urge to Invade Gaza

by Charles Lenchner · 2008-12-25 17:50:00 UTC
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Yossi Beilin was once proud to be associated with the birth of the Oslo Accords. As a rising star in the Labor Party and a protoge of (now President) Shimon Peres, everything looked up for him. Then came the disillusionment with the Labor Party, after he failed to win a secure spot in the Knesset, and the defection to Meretz. And then, he lost a power struggle in Meretz and is not forced to write columns for Israeli websites.

That being said, he's still an insightful analyst of political affairs in Israel. As Israel's leadership publicly discusses the imminent possibility of reinvading Gaza, he writes:

There is no simple “textbook answer” here. The Gaza lull saves lives. Hamas’ military buildup does not justify an Israeli return to the alleyways of Jabaliya and a guerilla war that could exact a very high price for victory. We are seeing significant military buildup beyond our borders, among states and hostile organizations, yet our objective needs to be the prevention of these weapons from being turned against us, rather than a war because the very existence of these weapons.

His analysis points to one of the central misunderstandings plaguing the relationship between Israel and the Hamas leadership in Gaza.

Israel tries sanctions, seige and blockade as a means of pressuring Hamas and the people of Gaza. This will never work, and actually serves to provoke more violence than might otherwise be taking place. Hamas, in contrast, sees violence against Israel as a perfectly reasonable strategy to get Israel to change its policies. It's not a strategy with a good track record. When both sides pursue their respective strategies of violence and coercion, the result is - a vicious circle of more and more violence.

It needs to end.

Read the rest of Beilin's column here.

Charles Lenchner
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