Gaza: We Cannot Afford to Turn Our Backs

Your article underscores the moral need to address the deplorable situation in Gaza. There are also a number of practical reasons why Americans should not go back to ignoring Gaza: 
 
First, the half-century conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is made 
much more difficult to solve as long as Palestine remains split between two 
Palestinian groups also fighting with each other. Whenever one tries to 
compromise, that gives the other incentive to undercut the dialogue for 
short-term political gain in the internal jockeying for the power to rule 
Palestine. Palestinian politicians are no more immune to this disease than 
Israeli or American politicians. 
 
Second, failure to resolve the Gaza issue only raises the likelihood 
that Egypt will be destabilized. Hamas and the Moslem Brotherhood are too 
close--in terms of heritage, ideology, and geographic proximity--for the issue 
of including Hamas in the international maneuvers over the future of Palestine 
and the issue of including the Moslem Brotherhood in the Egyptian political 
process to be kept apart. Whether the overthrow of the Egyptian dictatorship 
would be good, as the first step toward democracy, or bad, as the first step 
toward chaos and possibly an Islamic radical state, it would certainly be a 
major shift in global affairs and fraught with danger. 
 
Third, Palestinians are focused on Palestine, but the longer Washington 
refuses them justice, the more they are likely to blame Washington. With al 
Qua’ida eagerly waiting in the wings to exploit any shift toward further 
radicalism, a new burst of Palestinian terror against the West like the one a 
generation ago is likely this time to be much worse. 
 
If morality does not move us to address the plight of Gazans, then self-interest should. It is hard to call any U.S. presidential candidate who fails to acknowledge this a serious potential leader.

http://shadowedforest.blogspot.com

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