Palestinians trap Israel in Gaza
By Neal AbuNab

Last Sunday, a handful of Palestinian fighters attacked a couple of Israeli tanks, just north of the Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom settlement. They killed two soldiers, injured four and took one as a prisoner. The fighters had worked on the tunnel they crawled through for months.

This military target is a legitimate one for the Palestinian militias because the Israeli army is the primary agent enforcing the policy of occupation on the Palestinians. An important principle is at stake here for the Palestinians: making a clear distinction between lawful resistance and terrorism. The Palestinians did not kill civilians with a suicide bomb, they attacked a military target.

The Israeli army goes into a Palestinian town every day and arrests suspected militants. This is the first time Palestinians have arrested an Israeli militant. Israeli politicians want to nip this in the bud so it does not become a new Palestinian habit. But the abduction of Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank seems to be the new strategy of resistance. The Hamas government is asking for the release of Palestinian prisoners as a legitimate quid-pro-quo. The issue of Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails is high on Hamas' agenda, as no one in the world has shown any concern for their plight.

Israel responded with Operation Summer Rains, massing 5000 troops at the border. A principle dear to the heart of Israel is at stake in this brewing storm also: any form of resistance is terrorism and we do not negotiate with terrorists.

Two days after the Palestinian raid, twenty four hours prior to the launch of Operation Summer Rains, Fatah and Hamas ended three weeks of negotiations by inking a deal that promises to preserve Palestinian unity, recognizes Israel's existence and focuses armed resistance against the Israeli army in the territories occupied after the 1967 war. Thankfully, the tactic of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians was removed from the Hamas agenda.

That's why Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, was quick to escalate military action. On Wednesday morning, Israeli missiles and artillery ripped through the only electric generation station in Gaza and turned it into ashes. Critical bridges were also destroyed to slice Gaza into three pieces. More than 1.3 million Palestinians who live in the most densely populated sliver of land on earth were left without power and water. This is another tactic that Israel has used before to exert more pressure on Palestinian militants. It is called collective punishment and falls in the same category with home demolitions, bulldozing large tracts of farmland and enacting crippling economic sanctions.

The U.S. Secretary of State had urged all parties to give diplomacy a chance. Palestinian President Abu Mazen assured everyone that he was working feverishly to secure the release of the captured soldier. But Olmert, who had hugged him only a couple of days earlier in Jordan, held him and the Syrian regime responsible for the operation.

It was a diplomatic error such that Israel has rarely committed in the past. Whenever Palestinians were divided Israel always drove a bigger wedge between them to split them further. This time, it drove Abu Mazen and Fatah to stand with Hamas.

Israel committed another error by using the big stick instead of just waving it; its military abducted 64 Hamas officials including 28 members of the Palestinian parliament and cabinet ministers, including the speaker and the deputy prime minister, on Thursday. It is showing all signs that it is prepared to up the stakes in this game even if it means war with Lebanon and Syria. It stated that these lawmakers will be indicted on terrorism charges and will not be released even if their soldier is released.

Israel wants to crush any form of resistance and demonstrate unequivocally that it has zero tolerance for the idea. Hamas wants to prolong this agony and re-open the debate on terrorism and redefine the strategy of resistance. Its new strategy of focusing on the occupied land of 1967 and attacking soldiers will have enormous appeal to the Arab and Muslim populace. It recaptures the moral ground of this debate and pressures Arab governments to adopt the same position.

The White House defended the incursion into Gaza as "self-defense." It is providing diplomatic cover for Israel to have carte blanche in Gaza. Egypt fortified its border with Gaza by sending 2,500 soldiers to prevent a massive influx of Palestinian refugees. It is preparing for the worst case scenario.

Palestinian hard-core militants are salivating at the prospect of Israeli tanks rolling down their streets. They will not go out and fight the Israeli army in open fields. The Israeli army is familiar with the perils of urban warfare and if it goes into Gaza there will be massive civilian casualties.

The Palestinian group that holds the Israeli soldier is an offshoot of Hamas and Israel claims that it answers directly to the Khaled Mashaal faction in Damascus. That's why four Israeli jet fighters flew over Latakia on Wednesday shaking the windows of Syrian President Bashar Asad. All this saber-rattling by the new Israeli government serves as a warning to its foes that it is ready to wage all-out war if anyone dares to support the besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

But this unchecked defiance may backfire on Israel. This new government appears to be all too eager to flex its muscles and to prove its faithfulness to Sharon's iron-fisted doctrine.

Palestinian fighters in Gaza see the massing of Israeli troops as a high-stakes poker game. Israeli politicians said that they are not ready to re-occupy the heart of Gaza. They just want to have their soldier back. Palestinians have asked for the release of their jailed women and minors under the age of 18; which amounts to about 400 of the estimated 10,000 prisoners in Israeli jails. This seems like a perfectly reasonable request to the majority of Palestinians.

It is a high-stakes poker game and if Palestinians call their bluff and the Israeli army does not invade Gaza and fully demolish it, then Israel will have to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for its soldier. And this will be the beginning of new negotiations with Israel based on a whole new Palestinian footing.