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1054 Centre St., Suite 312, Thornhill, Ontario L4J 8E5
info@peacenowcanada.org
THREE-WAY EFFORT NEEDED
TO EASE GAZA TENSIONS,
SAYS PEACE NOW
TORONTO--[Feb. 11, 2008] -- President George W. Bush’s vision of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians by the time he leaves office appears increasingly unlikely, unless the three parties to the conflict can co-ordinate a parallel easing of tensions, Canadian Friends of Peace Now (CFPN) said today.
The escalation by Hamas of its cruel Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot and the militants’ successful suicide bombing via the Sinai underline their determination to play the role of spoiler in any negotiations limited to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Government.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, has played into Hamas’s hands
by imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza in the mistaken belief that a siege against the civilian population will bring popular pressure against Hamas to desist from violence. There is no such dynamic.The possibility now looms of a massive Israeli military offensive in Gaza, a move that is unlikely to suppress the militants’ vicious rocket fire but would further harm the civilian population and damage Israel‘s international standing.
Israel’s best hope for ending the rocket fire would be to tolerate, and even actively encourage, a rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas for a new Palestinian national unity government. The terms would have to include a ceasefire on the Gaza border, the freeing of captive Cpl. Gilad Shalit and Hamas’s tacit acquiescence in a Fatah-led peace process with Israel.
Undoubtedly, giving an unreconstructed Hamas any role in the peace process is likely to harden the Palestinian negotiating position and may make a formal peace agreement on final-status issues impossible. But Israel would gain more from an indirect ceasefire with Hamas than from a deal with Fatah that carries no weight beyond the West Bank.
A number of senior Israeli military-intelligence figures have urged indirect negotiations with Hamas. It’s not necessary to believe that the the Islamic leopard is changing its spots in order for Israel to work out a ceasefire that spares the people of Sderot and the people of Gaza. ·
For further information, please call: 905-707-5308
________________________________________________________________
CFPN is a Zionist organization and a member of Canadian Jewish Congress. It is dedicated to enhancing Israel’s security through peace and to supporting the Israeli Peace Now movement and its campaign for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.