Continuous cycle

Just a few weeks ago, no one was talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a pressing matter. When 1.5 million Palestinians were blocked off from the rest of the world, when rocket barrages struck civilian targets in southern Israel, when a militant organization took control of the Gaza Strip, the United Nations didn't call an emergency session. The world, and most notably the United States, the apparent mediator in the region, stood back from this powder keg. Now that it has exploded into its obvious result, the international community is in an uproar. But these denunciations are coming too late.

The Gaza Strip is a densely populated concrete jungle of overwhelmingly impoverished people who blame Israel for their woes. And with bombs raining from warships emblazoned with Hebrew lettering, that sentiment isn't likely to change anytime soon. The Israeli government argues that the Gaza offensive is necessary to put an end to the rocket attacks from Hamas militants. But what will happen once Israeli forces leave? Will the Palestinians suddenly want to live in peace with their Israeli neighbors? Will parents forget that Israeli bombs killed their children? Will the majority of Palestinians already living in poverty before the offensive be more willing to cooperate after universities, mosques, homes and corpses lie in heaps of rubble?

The statistics collected by the World Bank in early 2008 paint an abysmal picture of the Palestinian territories, but especially Gaza. Unemployment in Gaza is at 35.5 percent and rising. Based on household income and excluding aid programs, almost 80 percent of those living in Gaza are living in poverty. And the cost of living continues to rise. Is it really any wonder that Hamas flourishes in the region?

Hamas offers public services and blames Israel for the Palestinians' hardships. Like the American political machines of the past, Hamas preys on the poor and distressed (according to a recent study by Near East Consulting, 75 percent of Palestinians show signs of depression). And when education, religious observance, government and daily life is dominated by a militant faction, it doesn't take much to convince angry, hopeless young men to pick up rockets and launch them across the border to fight the good fight.

On the Israeli side, it shouldn't take much for any country to step up and defend its citizens. In the last few days, Hamas has launched rockets into a kindergarten and a high school. In 2008 alone, Hamas launched 3,278 rockets and mortar shells into Israel. That's almost nine a day. There's no question that Hamas is targeting civilians, and now militants seem to be hiding among Palestinian civilians. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, would not defend Hamas in a CNN interview this month, he called for a mediator to step in. The international community has been reactive for too long, and in a world that is speeding up daily, there needs to be a shift to proactive strategies.

When Israel is done, Gaza will be a pile of rubble inhabited by people who have nowhere else to go. What about the other Arab states who claim to support the Palestinian cause? Egypt has closed its border with Gaza and doesn't let refugees come through. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon were massacred only a few decades ago. During the "Black September" of 1970, thousands of Palestinians were killed when the Jordanian military moved to regain control over the east bank of the Jordan River. Arab support for Palestinians comes strictly out of political necessity, and a wish to keep the refugee problem as far away as possible. But perhaps the most important lesson of Palestinian history is that militancy has only brought greater suffering.

Israel claims that the offensive is not meant to bring about regime change, but it should. If Hamas is the problem, get rid of it. Destroy their infrastructure, fracture their leadership and end any hold they may still have on Gaza. Once Israel started bombing, they left themselves no other end game than the utter eradication of Hamas, whether that was the best strategy or not. But Hamas was not the root problem. Poverty is. Once the battles end, a third party must fill in the void--no Palestinian will want to accept aid from the same people who killed their children.

The United States must be that third party. Fly doctors, engineers and aid workers into Gaza. Organize the greatest international assistance program in the history of the world. Bring stability and hope to a people who have lived without it for 60 years. The World Bank has stated that the Palestinian economy has "incredible potential." These are the types of investments the United States should be making-investments in peace, humanitarian relief and a reestablishment of American moral authority.