In the last few days, Israel has been the target of a blatant and unprovoked attacks orchestrated and endorsed by the Hamas, an organisation which jointly runs the Palestinian government with the El-Fatah movement. This course of action was taken as the Hamas desperately tries to divert the attention from the internal war between the Palestinian factions in Gaza strip and the misgovernance ever since this movement won the Palestinian election in January 2006.

In these attacks over 130 Kassam rockets have been launched from the Gaza strip aimed at Sderot, a town in Southern Israel. Exercising the right of self defence, the Government of Israel ordered the Israel Defence Forces to step up operational measures designed to reduce rocket launching from the Gaza strip to Israel and strike at the terrorist infrastructure behind the firing.

It is important to underline that the goals of the military operation are strictly within the framework of the concept of the right of self-defence according to the International Law. Israel does not consider the use of its military might as a tool to bring about political solution to the lingering conflict between Israel and the Palestine or in the broader framework of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Successive Israeli governments have not left any stone unturned in their quest for peace. The peace agreements Israel signed with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) are evidences of this fact.

The Disengagement Plan, the complete withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza strip, a unilateral step to try to rejuvenate the moribund peace process, which was endorsed by the Israeli Government in April 2004, was based on a very clear political vision: “Israel is committed to the peace process and aspires to reach an agreed resolution of the conflict on the basis of the principle of two states — the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and the Palestinian state for the Palestinian people...”

This vision is based on basic assumptions: (a) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political conflict and hence can only be resolved by political agreement through negotiations between the two sides. (b) Each side should respect the other side’s right to exist in peace (c) Entering political negotiations means that each side understands that it will have to endorse painful concessions during the negotiations as the only way to reach an agreement by compromise.

But ever since its inception, the Hamas government has failed to endorse the three basic guidelines demanded by the international community: recognise Israel, recognise previous agreements signed between the Palestinian authority and Israel and stop terrorism.

The Hamas ideology is based on Islamic fundamentalism, which rejects the right of any non-Muslim entity to independently exist in the Middle East. According to Hamas, Israel has no right to exist. Palestinian PM Isma’il Haniyya in an interview to the Saudi paper Al-Jazeera (April 2) regarding the recognition of Israel, said: “As far as we are concerned, this is settled once and for all. It is settled in our political literature, in our Islamic thought and it is settled in our Jihadist culture on the basis of which we make our moves. The issue of recognising the Israelis is out of the question.” Such views are routinely aired by various other Hamas leaders.

So the Hamas “vision” is very clear: wipe out Israel through military means. If it is not possible now, offer Hudna, a temporary ceasefire that Muslims are allowed to accept during a war with non-Muslims as long as they are militarily inferior. As they get stronger enough to defeat their enemies, it becomes null and void.

Israel strives for peace as the only way to guarantee a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike. In the absence of peace, Israel is determined to reduce violence, thus, it respected the ceasefire declared by the Palestinians in November 2006 and refrained from responding to the hundreds of Kassam rockets launched from the Gaza strip into Israel. But Israel had to balance between the will to refrain from military reaction to the aggression and its duty to protect its citizens and sovereignty from external threats to which they are exposed.

Facing continued and unprovoked aggression of the Hamas-led government against the Israelis, the government exercised Israel’s right to self-defence, by ordering the IDF to carry out measured actions designed to reduce rocket launching into Israeli territory and strike terrorist infrastructure. While taking these military measures, Israel strongly believes that there is only a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — based on the peaceful co-existence of Israel and Palestine. The intransigent views and policies combined with a ruthless terrorist action of Hamas are the stumbling block to achieving desired peace.

Stav is the ambassador of Israel to Nepal