OPINION> Columnist
How far remains to go to ‘Golden Handshakes’
By Li Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-31 18:15

With its punitive air strikes on Gaza entering a fifth day, its gunboats swarming near the Gaza port, and its ground forces poised for long-simmering and perhaps imminent action, Israel finally declared on Dec.30 it was considering a 48-hour cease-fire that would also compel Hamas to end its rocket attacks.

But, despite a flurry of diplomatic mediation from both the U.N. and the world’s powers, Israeli officials insisted on a continuing and expanding military operations for the once-for-all settlement of Hamas’ rocket fires, already shooting deep in the Israeli southern parts, while Hamas vowed to step up its resistance and revenge for those killed in the Israeli air raids. The death toll is thus far estimated to surpass 370, among them at least 62 women and children and an unknown number of civilian men.

Since the short-lived truce between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas expired on Dec.19, a general panic has again overwhelmed the volatile Gaza Strip. Both sides had, before the weekend catastrophe broke out and escalated, blamed each other for violating the Egyptian-brokered truce agreed in June, with Israel saying it would re-open border crossings and bring to an end of its military operations on the condition that Gazan fighters stopped launching rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Obviously it is no point at the moment arguing about who to blame, as the barbarous assaults have already taken a terrible toll on the civilians’ lives and properties. The international relief missions have yet to be guaranteed an unimpeded access to the war-torn area where the profound human dignity crisis looms ahead and the humanitarian conditions are currently worrisome.

Both Palestinians and Israelis are humans and deserve humanitarian concerns, at the very least. On this basis, nobody and nothing can plead the bloodshed of innocents. The international community has strongly appealed to the rivals to explore prospects for halting the tit-for-tat fighting. Even if it is still early for the both sides to arrive at a ‘durable and sustainable’ cease-fire, they might as well resort to some other bilaterally acceptable means, as the settlement for rifts and conflicts can also find its way on the negotiation table in lieu of the battle field.

The linchpin is that both of them are required to shake off the geopolitical mentality, a phenomenon which shaped the political thinking and moral standards in building the world order in the 20th century and still persists in the 21st century.

Only when the solid wall of egoism, bias and resentment recedes, will the two peoples feel free to reach out to each other, and will the region start an arduous journey of its economic recovery.

May permanent peace descend upon the Gaza Strip in the foreseeable future!