Israel intensified its strikes in Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted he would not suspend military operation against Hamas fighters. Gaza went through another week of a deadly standoff despite a strong message from a UN Security Council resolution, which called on both sides for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire”.
Uzi Rabi, Director, Moshe Dayan Center of Middle East Studies, Thomas Seifert, Deputy Editor in Chief, “Wiener Zeitung”, a Viennese daily, and Gretta Duisenberg, Stop Occupation, Dutch NGO, Chairperson shared their opinions with Radio VR.
Uzi Rabi: Israel will stick to the ceasefire, the question is whether Hamas is going to stick to it. Let me remind you that this is actually the sixth time in a row when we have a humanitarian, so to speak, ceasefire and Hamas is violating that.
What I think was understood by everybody is that Israel cannot pullout of Gaza without demolishing the tunnels. So, I guess that 72 hours will provide Israel with the opportunity to demolish the tunnels and then pull out, hoping that Hamas will not shoot rockets and other stuff at Israel.
So, basically, it is kind of an interim agreement and a humanitarian ceasefire. And then, Cairo and the different parties will try to tailor a more constant and stable ceasefire agreement. But it remains to be seen because the diplomatic machinery there is very complicated.
It is not only Israel versus Hamas, it is Hamas versus Fatah, it is Hamas Gaza versus Khaled Mashal, it is Egypt, which has its own agenda, Qatar and Turkey. So, I'm not sure that we are going to have a stable understanding and a memorandum of cooperation, or a ceasefire.
When it comes to the international club, so to speak, it is very awkward to see how the world is capitalizing on that and attack Israel. Israel is very cautious, trying not to get into there, but Hamas is dragging Israel into Gaza.
I guess that Israel at this stage decided to end up with the tunnels, pull out and see what comes out of it. Benjamin Netanyahu said quite clearly that if quiet will be there, it will be answered by quiet. We’ll have to wait and see how the Hamas is going to perform, because it is not going to get what it thinks it can get in Cairo. And it remains to be seen how it is going to perform later on.
Gretta Duisenberg: I don’t talk about a conflict; this is really a war. Israel has always, even after they withdrew from Gaza in 2009, they kept the borders closed, they have suppressed the Gazan people. Gaza is a fairly small strip and it has 1.8 million people living there.
Israel is talking lies. The American unthinking support for Israel is the key reason why the assault on Gaza continues unabated. Israel says that Gaza Strip isn’t occupied, but the Gaza Strip is occupied. I’ve been there many times. It is very difficult for the people to go out. It is not possible to have medical aid, it is not possible to rebuild all the buildings that were destroyed by Israel in the previous wars.
It is an incredible shame that it is clear that the international community is not doing anything for protection at the moment. It is attempted genocide. And as long as they are not against the Israel’s aggression, the slaughter of women and children in Gaza is set to accelerate, while the great powers stand aside.
And what we need is to be very critical of Israel, and they should follow their solutions. We have to go to the Security Council, we have to punish them, and we have to bring them to the Vienna Court of Justice.
Thomas Seifert: There is a sense of helplessness, because I think that most people believe that we all know what a solution in the ME would look like. And that would be a peace plan that has been hammered out in Oslo roughly following the 1967 borders between Israel and the Palestinians.
I think what people are waiting for is a political solution, because there is no military solution to this whole conflict. We know what the end result would look like and why do so many people have to die on the way getting there.
And taking sides is quite problematic, because which side is right? Both sides have legitimate claims, but the methods that are being used by both sides are not really very constructive, to put it mildly.
