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The Quest for the Demilitarization of Gaza
(New York Times) Jodi Rudoren - After years in which Israel's prevailing approach to Gaza was a simple "quiet for quiet" demand, there is growing momentum around a new formula, "reconstruction for demilitarization." Said one senior Israeli official, "If you can, through this operation, significantly weaken them militarily, if you can reinforce with them the thinking that it's not in their interest to shoot rockets into Israel, and if you can have the international community on board to prevent Hamas from rearming, these are elements of an endgame." Dore Gold, a foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, said demilitarization had worked elsewhere in the Middle East, pointing to UN Security Council Resolution 687, which required Saddam Hussein to give up weapons of mass destruction after the First Gulf War in 1991, and President Bashar al-Assad's agreement in Syria to turn in chemical weapons last summer. Gold said that in demilitarization, Netanyahu now had "a very clear strategic goal."