Ghastly tactics in Gaza

May 20, 2004

Israeli helicopters and tanks attacked a street demonstration in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least 10 Palestinians and wounding dozens more. Among the dead and wounded were children and teenagers. Israel initially denied its troops had fired on civilians, and later expressed regrets for any civilian deaths.

The day before, Israeli raids killed 24 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Nearly 2,000 people have been left homeless as a result of the demolition of about 130 Palestinian homes by the Israeli army since this alarming campaign began earlier this month.

The Israeli retaliation was triggered by Palestinian attacks on Jewish settlers in Gaza, plus the deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers by roadside bombs and grenade attacks. The latter stunned Israel's proud military.

Israel has the right to defend itself. But the civilian death toll in Gaza is nothing but irresponsible, and the killings and broad demolition of homes do not contribute to Israel's defense. They contribute only to international condemnation of Israel's tactics.

Just as disheartening, the attacks seriously undermine Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, which was supposed to be an Israeli down payment on a broader peace agreement.

Earlier this month, Sharon's Likud Party voted down his Gaza proposal, but he vowed to refine it and keep pushing for it. The Israeli public seems solidly behind a pullout from Gaza, as a possible way to end the killing.

Even some skeptics were willing to give the Sharon plan the benefit of the doubt. With a population of 1.3 million hostile Palestinians--and only a few thousand Israeli settlers--the Gaza Strip is devouring Israeli lives and treasury. The only sensible strategy for Israel is to get out.

Some thought that perhaps Sharon's unilateral gesture could rekindle the stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. It would be a long shot--but with the "road map" to peace in the Middle East all but shredded, the Sharon initiative was worth a try. President Bush endorsed it.

Yet Israel's scorched-earth strategy during the past two weeks is bound to further inflame Palestinian rage. This atmosphere of increasing mutual recrimination will play into the hands of Palestinian radicals, so that an Israeli pullout from Gaza may leave behind not the seeds of eventual peace but a ticking bomb.

Israel's justification for the housing demolitions in Rafah is security. It says it needs to widen the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, along the border between Gaza and Egypt, to prevent arms smuggling. But most often the housing demolitions by the Israelis appear neither surgical nor an effective deterrent.

The civilian deaths and the spectacle of Palestinian civilians fleeing bulldozers and picking through the rubble for personal belongings afterward suggest a policy of indiscriminate collective punishment.

The best Israeli defense in Gaza? Get out. Pull up stakes and leave the land to the Palestinians.