Israel needs to talk to Hamas to halt rockets

An elderly Palestinian woman sits outside a destroyed house in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday following the deadly Israeli assault. Photo: AFP

Israel is likely to launch more deadly assaults on the Gaza Strip before it realises that it is an ineffective strategy for ending rocket attacks by militants, analysts warned on Monday, with one saying the Jewish state was acting like a "blind Goliath".
The escalation of violence that erupted last Wednesday left 22 children among the 116 Palestinian dead, prompting the moderate Palestinian leadership to break off contacts and drawing a chorus of international criticism against Israel.
But even though the onslaught failed to halt the rocket fire with two more striking the city of Asheklon on Monday, analysts predicted that the Israeli government would launch more such offensives before realising that talks with Gaza's Hamas masters were the only answer.
Former top military intelligence official Yaakov Amidror said the government appeared determined "to demonstrate to the population of Gaza, to Hamas and to the world that if there is no other choice, there will be an even deadlier operation".
Only then will the government realise that ultimately there are only two alternatives -- a full-scale re-occupation of Gaza, or talks with the Islamists, he said.
Menachem Klein, a Middle East expert at Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan university, said the weekend's deadly air and ground incursion was a symptom of Israel's frustration at its inability to halt the persistent rocket fire that has killed 14 Israeli civilians since September 2000.
"Israel is behaving like a blind Goliath who strikes hard without a political objective," he said.
"The rocket fire exposes its weakness. Offended, it hits out. This is an erroneous concept, void of any strategic thought and which leads nowhere.
"It demonstrated once again that Israel does not understand Palestinians," said Klein, who believes nonetheless that "another operation like this could take place very soon."
Fellow Middle East expert Emmanuel Sivan said it was time for Israel to end its boycott of all contacts with the Islamists of Hamas and negotiate a reciprocal ceasefire.
"The only solution is to negotiate with Hamas, but not a peace agreement, which is impossible considering that movement's views, but a ceasefire that is in both parties' interest," he told Israel's privately run Channel 10 television.
Although Hamas is committed in its charter to establishing an Islamic state in the whole of historic Palestine, the group's leaders have said in the past that, without recognising Israel, they are prepared to agree to a ceasefire lasting as much as 50 years or even longer.
The former head of army planning, Shlomo Brom, also predicted more deadly assaults on Gaza but he too agreed that they would have to be accompanied by negotiations with the Islamists if they were to stop the rocket fire.
It is an approach that opinion polls suggest has the backing of many Israelis. A survey published by the Haaretz daily last Wednesday found that 64 percent of respondents believe Israel should hold direct talks with Hamas.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remained firmly wedded to a military strategy on Monday.
"We are still in the midst of the battle and this is not a one-off," a senior official quoted him as saying. "Everything is possible... air strikes, ground strikes and special operations are all being discussed.”