The right of self-defence

3 January 2009

Barack Obama got to the heart of the matter in July when he visited Sderot in Israel, a town in range of Hamas missiles.

President-elect Obama would be well served to concentrate on the Iranian aspect of the problem, as Dennis Ross, Middle East peace envoy under President Bush Sr and Bill Clinton, and Martin Indyk, an ambassador to Israel under Clinton, are urging him to do. Attempts at direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians will be futile as long as the rejectionists of Hamas remain dominant in Gaza, pawns in Tehran’s chess game. The Camp David talks that came so close to securing a Middle East settlement at the tail end of the Clinton presidency mean that the outline of an eventual Middle East peace deal is already fairly clear. But no progress can be made until Hamas ceases firing rockets into Israel.

In the meantime, the incoming Obama administration should continue with the Bush administration’s efforts to improve governance in the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank. It was, after all, the rank corruption of the PA that allowed Hamas to make its electoral breakthrough in the 2006 elections.

This has been a bleak and bloody week in the history of the Middle East, a horrible throwback to the slaughter of the Six Day War and the conflict of 1973. But nothing should detract from the fact that Israel, like every other sovereign state, has the inalienable right to defend its citizens and territory against attack. No progress can be made until the finger-waggers of the West acknowledge that right.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3

Barbara Abraham

January 1st, 2009 12:05pm Report this comment

At last some understanding from the British press to the heart-rending difficulties faced by our adminsitration. But 60 years on Israel still has to fight for a peaceful existance. We never started the wars but we certainly have a right to protect our people. War brings nothing but suffering and certainly funds should be spent on making life move forward, bringing literacy and economic stability, making the desert bloom and many more important things than hatred and killing. Visiting Israel our Christian friends are impressed - and indeed amazed by the progress made in every sector. This is a modern and democratic state with much to be proud of so why can this lesson not be learnt by our neighbors?

Geoff Cass

January 7th, 2009 10:32pm Report this comment

After all these years, it is good that the UK has at last woken up to the dire straights Israel faces. And the terrible threat that Hamas, backed by Syria and Iran, presents not just to Isrtael, but to the rest of the Western world too.

Elizabeth Allen

January 8th, 2009 2:59pm Report this comment

Great article.

With the unimaginably vast amounts of money and land in the wider Arabic empire the Palestinians could have been settled in great comfort and luxury long before now, and be in peace and harmony with Israel. The Arabic world does not care about Palestinians, but is keeping them poor and hateful, and using them as pawns in their racist, propagandist bid to wipe tiny Israel from the face of the earth. It is also trying hard to hoodwink the West's idle liberal-left into buying into its racist right wing agenda.

Israel is a tiny piece of land, roughly the area of Wales, within a huge swathe of Arab land of gargantuan continental proportions. Given the ongoing daily threat to Israel, no wonder they have the defence force that they do. The Israeli Defence Force has the hardest job of any country anywhere in the world, therefore, such sophisticated and robust military means are entirely proportionate to the threat Israel faces every day.

Neil Fiertel

January 11th, 2009 10:47pm Report this comment

This is a perfect article, concise and totally accurate in my mind. Too bad the morons on the street, the hand wringers and naive fools that think of the fanatical Hamas as the average Palestinian are getting press coverage rather than the real facts about what caused this sad situation. As you so well stated, if the IRA had rained rockets on Britain, just exactly what would have happened?...Just so.

Post comment