Sunday, July 09, 2006
Foreign Policy in Focus has published an analysis of the current escalation in Gaza co-written by Raed of Raed in the Middle:
Many analysts of the escalation in Gaza seem to be interested in questions such as "who started the fight" and "who should stop first". But the latest installment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be more complicated than a ping-pong match needing a lot more than "stopping" to solve it.
The escalation in Gaza is not an isolated development brought about by the abduction of a soldier. It is the logical conclusion of the unilateral policies pursued by the Israeli government over the last year. The Israeli pull-out from Gaza in August 2005 left the small Gaza Strip with almost no access to the outside world and with no effective central rule. At the same time Israel has retained direct and indirect control over Gaza's borders and its crippled economy. The Israeli government thus sought to relieve itself from political and economic responsibility to the 1.3 million people of Gaza, while keeping a military occupation by remote control.
