An unnecessary war

By
Jimmy Carter                                                                   Read Spanish Version  

From
The Washington Post

I
know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza
by Israel could easily have been avoided.

After
visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological
damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area, my wife,
Rosalynn, and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable
and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare (three deaths
in seven years), the town was traumatized by the unpredictable
explosions. About 3,000 residents had moved to other communities, and
the streets, playgrounds and shopping centers were almost empty.
Mayor Eli Moyal assembled a group of citizens in his office to meet
us and complained that the government of Israel was not stopping the
rockets, either through diplomacy or military action.

Knowing
that we would soon be seeing Hamas leaders from Gaza and also in
Damascus, we promised to assess prospects for a cease-fire. From
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who was negotiating
between the Israelis and Hamas, we learned that there was a
fundamental difference between the two sides. Hamas wanted a
comprehensive cease-fire in both the West Bank and Gaza, and the
Israelis refused to discuss anything other than Gaza.

We
knew that the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza were being starved, as
the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food had found that acute
malnutrition in Gaza was on the same scale as in the poorest nations
in the southern Sahara, with more than half of all Palestinian
families eating only one meal a day.

Palestinian
leaders from Gaza were noncommittal on all issues, claiming that
rockets were the only way to respond to their imprisonment and to
dramatize their humanitarian plight. The top Hamas leaders in
Damascus, however, agreed to consider a cease-fire in Gaza only,
provided Israel would not attack Gaza and would permit normal
humanitarian supplies to be delivered to Palestinian citizens.

After
extended discussions with those from Gaza, these Hamas leaders also
agreed to accept any peace agreement that might be negotiated between
the Israelis and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who
also heads the PLO, provided it was approved by a majority vote of
Palestinians in a referendum or by an elected unity government.

Since
we were only observers, and not negotiators, we relayed this
information to the Egyptians, and they pursued the cease-fire
proposal. After about a month, the Egyptians and Hamas informed us
that all military action by both sides and all rocket firing would
stop on June 19, for a period of six months, and that humanitarian
supplies would be restored to the normal level that had existed
before Israel’s withdrawal in 2005 (about 700 trucks daily).

We
were unable to confirm this in Jerusalem because of Israel’s
unwillingness to admit to any negotiations with Hamas, but rocket
firing was soon stopped and there was an increase in supplies of
food, water, medicine and fuel. Yet the increase was to an average of
about 20 percent of normal levels. And this fragile truce was
partially broken on Nov. 4, when Israel launched an attack in Gaza to
destroy a defensive tunnel being dug by Hamas inside the wall that
encloses Gaza.

On
another visit to Syria in mid-December, I made an effort for the
impending six-month deadline to be extended. It was clear that the
preeminent issue was opening the crossings into Gaza. Representatives
from the Carter Center visited Jerusalem, met with Israeli officials
and asked if this was possible in exchange for a cessation of rocket
fire. The Israeli government informally proposed that 15 percent of
normal supplies might be possible if Hamas first stopped all rocket
fire for 48 hours. This was unacceptable to Hamas, and hostilities
erupted.

After
12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported
that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed. During that
time, Israel rejected international efforts to obtain a cease-fire,
with full support from Washington. Seventeen mosques, the American
International School, many private homes and much of the basic
infrastructure of the small but heavily populated area have been
destroyed. This includes the systems that provide water, electricity
and sanitation. Heavy civilian casualties are being reported by
courageous medical volunteers from many nations, as the fortunate
ones operate on the wounded by light from diesel-powered generators.

The
hope is that when further hostilities are no longer productive,
Israel, Hamas and the United States will accept another cease-fire,
at which time the rockets will again stop and an adequate level of
humanitarian supplies will be permitted to the surviving
Palestinians, with the publicized agreement monitored by the
international community. The next possible step: a permanent and
comprehensive peace.

The
writer was president [of the U.S.] from 1977 to 1981. He founded the
Carter Center, a nongovernmental organization advancing peace and
health worldwide, in 1982.

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010702645.html