Amir Oren-22/05/2007

Amir Oren, (Times)

"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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