Gaza crisis growing

Editorial

The mayhem in Gaza threatens to devolve into a humanitarian crisis. The so-called Army of Islam, which takes credit for kidnapping Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, is attempting to extort the Israeli state, military and people. In response, Israel is taking stringent actions that have potentially disastrous consequences for ordinary Gazans.

What is at issue here is more than the life of one soldier, though the Israeli state places a world of significance on each life. The underlying critical issue here is whether the nascent Palestinian state can and will control the terrorist movement within its boundaries.

The issue is complicated, to say the least, by the fact that the duly elected government of the Palestinian Authority is itself controlled by a terrorist entity – Hamas – whose modus operandi has been, since its inception, to target for death and maiming Israeli and other civilians. The role of the PA, then, is not only compromised by its inability or unwillingness to control the jihadists within their borders, but by the jihadists within their own ranks.

There is an incongruity between the PA's actions and the quest for mutual co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians. Whatever transpires between these parties, remember, Israel has been seeking peace for six decades. Hamas, despite rumors last week of a "tacit" recognition of Israel's right to exist, is explicitly opposed to co-existence. Anything that happens now is a direct result of these two facts.

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