The 2014 Gaza war and the elusive peace in Palestine

Neither Hamas nor Israel pay the cost of their episodic Gaza wars. Israel gets weapons and funds from the U.S. government and from the American Jewish community. Hamas gets weapons, funds and reconstruction funds from Iran, Qatar, and the international humanitarian community; i.e. the U.S., UK, EU, and Nordic states via the UN agencies they fund. Israel’s Gaza blockade has since 2007 allowed more than a hundred truckloads of food and humanitarian aid a week into Gaza, even during times of fighting. Israel has curtailed dual-use goods like cement and pipes which Hamas diverted for war purposes. In 2014, as previously, both sides repeatedly violated the Geneva Convention. To stop repetition of the Gaza wars, outsider financing for the adversaries has to be reduced and weapons must be removed and banned from Gaza. Gaza should be demilitarized in a “weapons-to-end-the-blockade” cease-fire deal. Israel should pay rent to the Palestine Authority for West Bank settlements, access roads, military bases and other occupied real estate. Suggestions are made in this paper about how to accomplish this goal.