Truces, schmuses, if the parties want peace, here's the deal:
1. Hamas revises its charter deleting passages that call for Israel's destruction. Gaza's borders are not in dispute. It must accept them.
2. Hamas forswears the use of the word "resistance," their code word for engaging in hostilities against Israel.
3. Israel eliminates the sea blockade around Gaza and permits Gaza controlled egress and ingress for purposes of traveling to other countries or visiting Israel.
4. Israel will assist Gazans to revive their economy and infrastructure through technical assistance in any area where Israel has expertise.
5. Hamas must end hostilities and demilitarize. That means no more rockets, no more tunnels, no more subterranean bunkers, and no more military ordinance of any sort.
The benefits that would derive from such a deal would be substantial.
a. Gaza may well have gas or oil off its shores under the Mediterranean. If so, this would be a fine source of revenue.
b. Israel had developed a thriving flower export business. When Sharon ordered Israelis out of Gaza, the Israelis did not destroy their hot houses. The left them in good order for the use of the Gazans. It was the Gazans who destroyed them. (But, what purpose does it serve to digress?)
c. Israel has considerable expertise in desalinization, and the recycling of grey water.
d. If the energy and enterprise the Gazans showed for building tunnels could be diverted to peaceful and productive ends, there is no telling how much progress they might make in bettering their lives.
This deal depends on verification. At present, there exists no trust.
i. Inspection at Gazas borders must include Israeli inspectors.
ii. Israelis must be permitted to also inspect what's happening within Gaza. Clearly, this must be done in a nonintrusive way.
Why this absence of trust? A people who have lived many years under a charter that calls on them to eliminate the Jewish State of Israel will, no doubt, find it wrenching to suddenly be told that the Israelis are their friends.
However, Israeli can point to deeds within its country. In the Israeli universities, there is an affirmative admittance policy that mandates that so many seats be set aside for Muslims, so many for Druze, so many for Ethiopians, etc. The seats are set aside in proportion to their numbers in the population. Israel can also point to various ethnic individuals of high rank in the courts, in other arms of the government and in executive positions in hospitals. This contrasts sharply with Islamic attitudes towards gays, women and other segments of their society.
So what's holding up this deal? Hamas hates Jews. Hamas wants the land which Israel occupies.
For Hamas, Gaza simply isn't large enough. How do you change that mind set? How do you nullify the hatred of Jews drilled into the minds of their children by years and years of brainwashing?
What are your thoughts, Secretary of State, John Kerry?
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