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Bullets with no address
By Amir Oren

"Our main goal should be to deliver a crushing blow to Nasser," then chief of staff Yitzhak Rabin told the 11 members of the ministerial security committee on the morning of Friday, June 2, 1967, during a two-and-a-half-hour meeting between the committee and the General Staff. There was an oppressive sense of siege in the air, but life was simpler back then: The enemy was a state, Egypt, with an army subordinate to a government headed by a ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The mission was to destroy the air and armored forces, but the goal was embodied in a person, Nasser - to oust him or vanquish him.

Nasser, King Hussein, Hafez Assad, even Yasser Arafat: How simple and convenient it is to handle relations with the adversary, or the partner, when everything is focused in the person of the leader. There is someone to fight against, and also to sign a peace treaty with. A blow to Nasser, a deal with Arafat, and it is done. A conspiracy with Bashir Gemayel and peace with Lebanon is in the pocket. Every bullet has an address, every give-and-take has a destination.

The trouble is that the Palestinian Authority is not a state. It does not have a supreme leader whose authority is universally accepted, whether through desire or through coercion. In the West Bank, ever since Operation Defensive Shield five years ago, control has been in the hands of an available intervention force, the Israel Defense Forces. In Gaza, in the IDF's absence, the bullets fly everywhere without a return address. The gangs, which are organized on a regional or clan basis, are fighting one another and also doing battle with the central government, which is neither government nor central. They have external assistance, supply arteries and an unlimited and constantly renewed stock of weapons. Private interests take precedence over national interests, and there is no one to restore the gangs to their natural dimensions. It is a semi-anarchic, semi-oligarchic situation, with the addition of Qassam rockets, rifles and antitank missiles.
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The Nasser of Hamas is ostensibly Khaled Meshal, now in Damascus - who, if he survives, will shortly celebrate the 10th anniversary of his rebirth in the wake of the Mossad's botched assassination attempt. Meshal issues policy directives to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and military directives to Ahmed Jabari and Mohammed Def. Haniyeh is not capable of implementing these directives, and Jabari and his people refuse to show restraint. In fact, last week they perpetrated a military coup against Haniyeh, and indirectly against Meshal, too. They do not reject the titles of Hamas' leaders and government, only their authority in practice. What took place was a reprise of the tradition of military coups in the Arab world, which date from Nasser. A softer version of a coup was perpetrated at the beginning of the decade by the Tanzim under Marwan Barghouti against Arafat.

Gaza is caught in a swirling spiral of massacres, toward which Israel must not remain indifferent, and not only for self-evident reasons of moral responsibility and to avoid a repeat of Sabra and Chatila. The fragmentation of Palestinian society into armed splinter groups promises a never-ending war, and a civil war on the Palestinian side is also a war against civilians on the Israeli side.

This double war - external and internal - will end only if the government in Gaza is taken over by a tyrannical strongman, who will suppress massacre with massacre. And that, too, will not happen before an external force isolates the most problematic sectors - particularly those of the Philadelphi Road, Rafah and Khan Yunis - blocks the constant smuggling and launches a systematic manhunt against the gang leaders.

In the absence of volunteers, either multinational and Arab (with Egypt in the role played by Syria in the Lebanese civil war, when it was invited in by the Christians to save them from the Muslims and the PLO), the candidate for this ungrateful mission is the IDF.

Intervention in Gaza will be bad for Israel. The trouble is that without it, the rocket fire will continue and there will be no point to negotiations on agreements with an imaginary partner that does not represent the real power brokers.
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  1.   THE Problem Is That These Usurping Arabs Shouldn`t Be In OUR Land 10:20  |  Yishai Kohen 22/05/07
  2.   #1 the arab state is JORDAN AND THE ONLY VIABLE ANSWER 10:44  |  paul harris 22/05/07
  3.   Send Nato troops into Gaza and the West Bank 11:09  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/05/07
  4.   # 1 and # 2 Holy Land rights 11:16  |  Andrew Watson 22/05/07
  5.   The big picture must be too hard to understand 11:36  |  Natallie Durson 22/05/07
  6.   This wisdom from the guy who faked the news?? 11:48  |  Ariel 22/05/07
  7.   Israels Assasination Policiy 11:51  |  Wael 22/05/07
  8.   To Yishai: OUR LAND 11:52  |  Wael 22/05/07
  9.   Not even a thousand Arafats can 12:02  |  Palestinian 22/05/07
  10.   So Yishai, How exactly do you propose to: 12:40  |  spyguy 22/05/07
  11.   spyguy: It Worked With Germans Post-WWII 12:56  |  Yishai Kohen 22/05/07
  12.   Don`t mention the occupation 13:36  |  Gustav Lindt 22/05/07
  13.   This sounds bad but... 13:36  |  Fed Up 22/05/07
  14.   To #5 Spyguy 14:10  |  loofkcilc 22/05/07
  15.   Spyguy from San Francisco (Post No. 5) 14:33  |  Johnny Weintraub 22/05/07
  16.   We should expel them all to their own 21 countries 14:56  |  No enemy = No probem 22/05/07
  17.   The trouble is that Israel is a failed state 15:01  |  John 22/05/07
  18.   #17 John to John..... 15:23  |  John Allen 22/05/07
  19.   #17 I think they DO know and 15:34  |  T A Sheppard 22/05/07
  20.   Israel should have annexed Judea/Samaria decades ago 15:37  |  Chaim 22/05/07
  21.   The problem is that Israel`s neighbors are Arabs 15:56  |  Gene 22/05/07
  22.   10Yishai K,both right and wrong,about the transfer of populations 16:21  |  lakshmi 22/05/07
  23.   massacre and cleansing 16:25  |  Glen Allan 22/05/07
  24.   14lookfilc,territory captured in any war,including defensive, 16:28  |  Alan 22/05/07
  25.   Isrsael is occupying power and PA is a subcontractor 16:29  |  El-birawi 22/05/07
  26.   There`s no Palestinian government because Israel destroyed it 16:43  |  George W 22/05/07
  27.   Hey, Palestinian, you forgot something. 17:19  |  Mark 22/05/07
  28.   #17, FAILED STATE, HAHAHAHA 17:25  |  Philly Jew 22/05/07
  29.   Palestinians have an edge over Israel 17:45  |  Alan 22/05/07
  30.   One land, one homeland partitioned 18:01  |  The Other Alan 22/05/07
  31.   restructure palesine/israel/jordan/egypt 18:05  |  fredo 22/05/07
  32.   #3 Swiss (Dino) 18:06  |  Boycott 22/05/07
  33.   #14 loofkcilc 18:13  |  Boycott 22/05/07
  34.   #18 George W 18:17  |  Boycott 22/05/07
  35.   3 Dino - NATO Won`t 18:33  |  Mark of Lewiston 22/05/07
  36.   So who are the real power brokers? 18:41  |  Eddie 22/05/07
  37.   # 3 Swiss (Dino) 19:15  |  christa 22/05/07
  38.   # 20 fredo 19:19  |  christa 22/05/07
  39.   lack of imagination 19:38  |  Pssd Off American 22/05/07
  40.   Palestinian authorities 19:54  |  Nabil 22/05/07
  41.   # 21 Boycott 19:55  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/05/07
  42.   Not just the Palestinian authority. 19:59  |  David Nigel Braham 22/05/07
  43.   # 22 Mark of Lewiston 20:04  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/05/07
  44.   Five questions 20:13  |  Walter 22/05/07
  45.   Amir Oren is precisely right. 20:15  |  Fortuna Benmayor 22/05/07
  46.   # 24 christa 20:16  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/05/07
  47.   The Palestinian(90)has spoken and spoken well 20:17  |  Vijaya 22/05/07
  48.   Pause for a second, breathe, and think... 20:21  |  Fortuna Benmayor 22/05/07
  49.   19 - What edge? 20:58  |  Bruriah Sarah 22/05/07
  50.   27 - The UN is anti-Israel, so why trust it for Israel`s security 21:01  |  Bruriah Sarah 22/05/07
  51.   #48 Bruriah Sarah 21:47  |  Boycott 22/05/07
  52.   To #24 Alan & #33 Boycott 22:23  |  loofkcilc 22/05/07
  53.   To #24 Alan & #33 Boycott 22:24  |  loofkcilc 22/05/07
  54.   No, the problem is too much arrogant leaders in the PA 23:33  |  Sam 22/05/07
  55.   #20 Chaim puts his finger on it. 03:15  |  Johnboy 23/05/07
  56.   #20 Chaim 04:15  |  Sam 23/05/07
  57.   We have a deeper problem 11:03  |  Dangor 23/05/07
  58.   #20: war of aggresion 16:57  |  Jens 23/05/07
  59.   To Swiss Dino 18:23  |  Fabio 23/05/07
  60.   Very good Haaretz, you are at last admitting,wrong on disengaging 19:08  |  Genuine Tosefta 23/05/07
  61.   Resettle all ancient Jewish land, expel hostile Arab hamullas, 19:14  |  Genuine Tosefta 23/05/07
  62.   Beat the Donkey 20:00  |  Sam Frost 23/05/07
  63.   Revisionists of history 20:14  |  john 23/05/07
  64.   #55,56,58. It`s all perspective. I want Israel to thrive. They... 20:24  |  Chaim 23/05/07
  65.   israel assasinations 20:28  |  jimbo 23/05/07
  66.   The IDF needs to complete their mission 00:43  |  B 24/05/07
  67.   #63 John decides what makes a war 05:07  |  Johnboy 24/05/07
  68.   Johnboy needs a history lesson 08:15  |  B 24/05/07
  69.   will europe stand by and let it happen again 20:42  |  geoff 28/05/07
 Read & React
U.S.: Obama to push forth peace, regardless of who leads Israel
Responses: 44
Israel Harel: In this election, Israel's left got what it deserved
Responses: 33
Gideon Levy: Does Zionism legitimize every act of violence?
Responses: 37
Abbas urges world to isolate Likud like it does Hamas
Responses: 27


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