In Your Opinion: What Comes After Gaza Ceasefire?

By Bill Connell.

Tonight, I thoughtfully watched the Township Council meeting. A large group of Muslims and Palestinians spoke to the Township Council requesting a resolution for cease fire in Gaza. Compliments to all the kids who got up and spoke. Many adults including me, find speaking intimidating but those kids knocked it out of the park.  Well-done. 

I don’t think its Council’s position to be making resolutions like that. That’s just my opinion. 

When Sami Shaban and Rabbi Garfinkel spoke on Israel-Gaza in the fall; I spent about a month finding different resources current and historical to have a fuller understanding.  I was only left with one question: If the people of Palestine really disagreed, why did they leave Hamas in power so long?  Put another way, when I told my Republican friends I voted for Biden, every time he goofed up or my 401k took a dive, they pointed it out.  How do you like Biden now Bill? My answer was always the same, “the nonsense could not continue.”   Israel even swings left and right over time.  I had the luxury of going in a box and pressing a button. It’s not clear to me if Palestinians couldn’t or didn’t want to make a change in leadership. 

I was heartbroken by what I heard tonight but they are all symptoms of a bigger problem.

What do you do with a ceasefire? Yes, in the short-term it helps, but what about the long-term? Assuming Israel is not going anywhere, how do you prevent this from happening again?  I have concluded one thing.  The solution has to come from the Palestinians. It needs to be their idea.  Having the US broker a peace or Israel ramming one down their throat will only be short-term peace. 

Does the peace you imagine enable peace?  What does that look?  That is the long-term goal, otherwise we are just saving a little ammunition. 

Cease fire. Then what?   Sami?

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