3's company? not with Israel

Imminent is a unilateral ceasefire. As my friend assured me the other night that it would, it comes just before Barack Obama's inauguration and a hazy future of Israeli-American relations. Hazy in that Israel is unsure if it will receive a carte-blanche of destruction from the US government anymore. The relationship between these two nations will continue strong, while others (Mauritenia, Qatar, Syria, Bolivia, and Venezuela) have severed ties with Israel in protest of its inhumane attacks on Gaza. So Israel crammed this 3 week war in, just when Bush was fading out of public view and would surely not take any sort of action against them, and Obama--with his promises of "hope and change"-- had not yet assumed power.

Israel and the United States have signed an agreement for Gaza's border, in which the US will provide "technical assistance" to ensure that Gaza will "never again be used as a launching pad against Israeli cities", as Rice stated. Not, predictably, to ensure that Gaza will never again be starved, occupied, and strangled. It is certainly welcome news that Israel will soon cease its indefatigable attacks on the people of Gaza. God knows they need rest from bombs, shelling, blood, death, and destruction. But, as before-- this ceasefire agreement seems to be missing one key element...the consultation and agreement of Palestinians. Israel and the United States talk, and make agreements which shape the lives (and deaths) of Palestinians, without setting aside their colonialist ideals and taking seriously the words of the Palestinians. Israel runs on unilateral decisions-- its withdrawal fromg Gaza in 2005, its construction of the Apartheid Wall.

These unilateral, and bilateral decisions with the States, will not and cannot lead to any real peace. Palestinians, in the case of the Gaza attacks, Hamas, must have an equally respected and weighted voice in the outcomes of the land. Whether or not Israel likes it, whether or not Israel bombs the hell out of Gaza and builds innumberable illegal settlement-colonies in the West Bank, Palestinians exist. This is the problem Israel has faced since before its creation. Palestinians exist. When Palestinians are consulted, during "negotiations", Israel increases settlement building, continues the construction of the Apartheid Wall, continues demolishing homes, and jailing youth. But far too often-- during these episodes of bloody violence-- Palestinian representatives are not taken seriously in the creation of a cessation of violence. It just does not make sense-- you cannot create a real peace without legitimately and seriously talking with one of the two peoples involved. The US is not being bombed. The US is not being starved. The US has electricity and fuel and functioning hospitals. The US is not watching its children dying continuously with no ability to help them. Gaza is. The US should not replace Palestine in agreements, but should complement them (in absence of any real unbiased mediator). Sidestepping Palestinians reeks of colonialism, when Europeans would decide the fates of the dark, colonized "natives"-- drawing up borders that pleased their own interests, rather than those of the indigenous people, and placing sychophantic leaders, rather than democratically elected leaders from the people (ahem, Hamas). And we all know how well that policy worked out.

A real agreement must include the people of Gaza, the representatives of the people of Gaza. Hopefully Obama's administration will realize that in the case of Palestine-Israel, 3 is company, 2 is ineffective.