EDITORIAL - Elusive peace

As Christians prayed for peace on Earth in the most joyous season of the faith, violence erupted anew in the tinderbox that is the Middle East. On Dec. 27, Israel launched punitive air strikes aimed at Gaza as the Hamas-led Palestinian government refused to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish state. As the body count mounted and the United Nations did not intervene, Israeli ground troops invaded the Gaza Strip yesterday to flush out Hamas militants.

The invasion is but the latest dark episode in the Middle East peace process that suffered a serious blow in January 2006 when Hamas trounced its rival Fatah in legislative elections and took over the reins of government. Fatah, the party founded by the late Yasser Arafat who forged an interim peace accord with Israel, lost favor among Palestinians at the grassroots who were accorded welfare and other benefits by Hamas. The vote for Hamas was a vote for its ultimate goal, which is the creation of a Palestinian state based on territorial borders that would effectively eliminate Israel from the world map.

Suicide bombings and armed attacks on both military and civilian targets have long been employed by Hamas to advance its cause, earning for the group an international terrorist tag. The obvious problem for those fighting terrorism is that this group is now the legitimately elected representative of the Palestinians. If Palestinians want to eliminate Israel, can Tel Aviv afford to stand idly by?

If Israel wants to have world opinion on its side, however, it will have to avoid perceptions that it is swatting a fly with a guided missile. A week into the Israeli air strikes, the body count is heavily lopsided. This may be attributed to a more accurate Israeli bomb guidance system, but there are also those who blame the high Palestinian body count on sheer Israeli ruthlessness. This accusation is, of course, nothing new to Israel, which has been fighting for its survival as a state on and off since its creation. But the sooner the violence stops, the better for both sides. Both Israel and Hamas will have to start exercising restraint.