Peace possible if both sides make commitment

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Transcribed from the clipping

Not so long ago, President Bush and his administration urged all parties to renew a peace initiative in my region. I believe the peace can be won — indeed, it may be near — if we marshal the willpower to make it happen. In this process, we must confront the challenges honestly.

For example, in the summer of 2006, an Israeli Defense Force patrol inside Israeli territory was attacked from Lebanon. Seven soldiers were killed, and two abducted — Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldvaser. Israel could never accept a situation in which the government of Lebanon allows a non-governmental armed body to attack it.

The fully justified response of the Israeli government to this act of violence came in the form of an attack on terror cells in southern Lebanon.

After 34 days of fighting, the United Nations offered a solution to both Israel and Lebanon: to mobilize the Lebanese armed forces in the southern region of Lebanon; and to assemble a special U.N. force that would also be positioned in the southern region of the country.

These two actions were designed to allow the government of Lebanon to reach a better level of control in its territory so acts of violence similar to the one that caused the war in the first place would not recur. In the past seven years, continuous acts of aggression have been launched from the Gaza territory toward Israel.

These acts significantly increased in volume after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005. The results of this situation: 10 killed, 1,000 injured, and a total of 3,000 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. No one disputed Israel’s right to retaliate in order to protect its citizens.

Actions by Israel designed to eliminate the attacks from Gaza are understood. Should Israel declare an official state of war against Gaza and invade its territory? I don’t think so — Gaza is not a sovereign state and does not have an official government controlling it.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping. Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “The News Times”.

Context added by this archive

Tagline as printed: ‘Avi Shaked of Hertzelia, Israel, is co-founder of the Geneva Initiative (www.geneva-accord.org), a joint Israeli-Palestinian effort that suggests a detailed model for a peace agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His e-mail address is aviavishaked@post.com.’

The headline is the most even-handed of the three Shaked placements — ‘both sides make commitment’ — over a text that argues entirely from Israeli interest.

Cite this clipping

"Peace possible if both sides make commitment," The News-Times, 1 March 2008. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2008-025. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2008-025