Ted Rall: Israel Should Respond, Not React

Ted Rall discusses Israel Should Respond, Not React

Israel could turn the power back on, let food and water back in and beef up its lame security along its border with Gaza. It could treat the attacks as a police matter and demand that Hamas turn over suspects for prosecution. It could jumpstart negotiations to finalize a two-state solution, which everyone knows is the only viable long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It could embrace the wisdom of Nelson Mandela, who understood that a cycle of violence would never end unless one side, the side in charge that happened to be the African National Congress after he was elected president, declared amnesty so the country could move past apartheid. And if it finally did—after careful consideration—decide to invade Gaza, it could so with full knowledge and understanding of what form of governance would follow Hamas.

Emphasis Mine

The calls for blood-thirsty revenge by ethnic cleansing lays the basis for the escalation of the conflict. The future Palestinian resistance will make the actions of Hamas seem rational and restrained, just as PLO is now seen to be far better than Hamas. Maybe the delay in the Gaza incursion will allow cooler heads to prevail.

The two-state solution is now dead. Israel has to be subsumed into a secular Palestine. Israel has become toxic due to its current form as a jewish apartheid state.