Israel is its own worst enemy

The hardline Likud party of former Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu is gaining ground amid the fighting in Gaza, according to an opinion poll published late last week.

This is good news for a party that does not support the idea of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, not to mention the fact that Netanyahu has no qualms about building more Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

The next election in Israel is scheduled for February 10.

Strange as it may sound, the path chosen by the current Israeli government is pushing its voters towards the opposition, as well as strengthening the hand of Hamas.

Does Israel think the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will not sympathise with Hamas and the residents of Gaza? Nearly 700, mostly civilians, living in Gaza have been killed by Israel's two-week bombardment.

Besides pushing more Palestinians towards Hamas at the expense of Fatah, Israel's onslaught in Gaza has made a mockery of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's path of negotiations as the way to establish an independent state alongside Israel.

Indeed Abbas's diplomacy has been hard to sell because it has brought virtually no relief. The only real development has been the expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

Fed up with incompetence within the Fatah rank and file, as well as Abbas's inability to stand up to Israel's expansion and continued absurd restrictions on the people of Gaza, Palestinians in the 2006 elections threw their support behind the hardline Hamas. Yet much of the Western world, as well as Israel, denies it the fruits of victory.

If Fatah wishes to return to power, it is going to have to clean up its own house.

So we wonder out loud what this latest incursion was all about. What political objective is Israel trying to achieve? Does it actually think invading Gaza can silence the Hamas rockets?

In the 2006 war in Lebanon against Hizbollah, Israel came out with a big black eye. The victor was the Hizbollah militia with its Iranian and Syrian backers.

It is somewhat ironic that as the Israeli incursion and Palestinian death toll rise, Hamas's popularity continues to grow.

In the final analysis it doesn't only mean a stronger Hamas but a diplomatic blunder for the moderate Arab countries, namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, which had chosen to put their eggs in the Fatah basket.

It will also make it harder for US president-elect Barack Obama to pick up the pieces when he takes office on January 20.

There is little chance of restraining Hamas without dealing with its patrons in Syria and Iran. Obama will also have to move quickly to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Israel's two-week onslaught on Gaza is looking more and more like a war crime. The Palestinian death toll is more than 760. Half of the victims were civilians. Fewer than 20 Israelis have been killed.

Yet should we be surprised by this? Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead, mostly civilians, from Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese refugees, all civilians? What about the 1,000 dead, mostly civilians, from the 2006 invasion of Lebanon?

It's a shameful disgrace for a country that has been taking the moral high ground in the fight against a terrorist organisation.

No one is saying Israel does not deserve security. Like any other state, it does, but the way it is going about it will make it difficult for later generations to hold their heads up high.

Let's be honest with ourselves: this war isn't really about rockets or about deterrence. Regardless of the loss of innocent lives, Israel is trying to make the Palestinians understand that they are a defeated people.

For decades, ever since the state of Israel came into existence, the Israeli leadership has persuaded itself that a subjugated Palestinian population will come to appreciate its overlords.

It's quite amazing how the leadership of Israel and the settlers refuse to see the peril of their policy. If anything, it has become not just a grave security hazard but a source of moral corrosion as well. It's time for change.