Enlightenment in Gaza

THE WRITER Eudora Welty once observed that the novelist "assumes at the start an enlightenment in his reader equal to his own." This principle applies to writers of newspaper columns, too. Nothing prompts such modesty like the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, and the bloody climax to which it has been brought in recent days. By now, readers have reached conclusions of their own about Israel's war against Gaza, Hamas rocket fire into populated areas of Israel, questions of disproportionate retaliation, civilian vulnerability on both sides, prospects of a cease-fire - or brutal escalation. Israel's obligation to defend its citizens is obvious, but so is the catastrophic suffering of ordinary Palestinians who are at the mercy of both Hamas and Israeli bombardment. Readers are aware of political calendars - whether in America, where an interregnum creates a power vacuum, or in Israel, where approaching elections inevitably pollute military assertions with partisan self-interest.

Regular readers of this column will not be surprised that I deplore both Hamas terror tactics and Israel's hyper-belligerence, as much this week as ever. I firmly believe both that Hamas undermines the justice of Palestinian claims, and that the mailed fist of Israel never falls on Palestinians without smashing Israel's own prospects for real security. Once the argument gets going, the back-and-forth is rote. What would America do if rockets were being fired from Tijuana into San Diego? But what if the South Bronx, say, were an open-air prison, with residents forbidden to enter or leave? What if Iran gets a nuclear weapon? What about Israel's? What if fanatic settlers in the West Bank have already made the two-state solution impossible? Why is the plight of Palestinians so widely ignored? What if Arab citizens of Israel, preferring Palestinan nationhood to the Jewish state, form a fifth column? How, in any case, can the state be democratic and Jewish both? If lobby-generated support for Israel is the root cause of America's problems in the Middle East, where does that leave oil? And what hidden current, finally, drives the readiness of so many to think badly of the Jewish state?

Perhaps a columnist can be forgiven for assuming in his reader not an equal enlightenment, but a like bewilderment.

Which brings us to Barack Obama. That the Israeli-Palestinian cauldron has just boiled over gives the new president the tragic but nonetheless real advantage of destruction as a starting point. It's like what confronts him on the economy, with financial trust in ruins. Not that things could not get worse, and not that improvements will be in any way automatic. But that moments like this, with old structures fallen and facile hopes dashed, are ripe for fresh thinking, untried measures, and a breakthrough of intention.

As Hamas rockets continue firing through the siege, and martyrdom grips the Palestinian imagination, the limits of Israeli military power are evident once more. Was nothing learned in Lebanon? Meanwhile, the cynicism of neighboring Arab regimes is clearer than ever. Will they stop exploiting Palestinian suffering, to address corruptions of their own? The Europeans, mustering to intervene, do so in advance of initiatives from Washington. What will Barack Obama do with this opening?

His enlightenment can be assumed. The question is one of will. Majorities of Israelis and Palestinians understand what the solution requires; the wheel of peace is already invented. Indeed, as the writer Bernard Avishai observes, Obama's secretary of state bears the name of its most succinct summary - "the Clinton parameters." Majorities understand also that the door is fast closing on the two-state finale, which alone offers hope of long-term reconciliation. What is needed now are firm messages from Washington: Israel must cease fire, respect Palestinian rights, and keep agreements; Palestinians must halt rockets, repudiate terror, and empower moderates toward a new unity. Obama must draw the line with both.

For a brief period, America's new president will bask in universal goodwill. The Arab world, Muslims generally, and Palestinians in particular, have unprecedented reason to believe they will be heard. Israel can count on Obama's friendship. The war in Gaza requires him to act boldly and swiftly. If he has political and moral capital, he must begin by spending it there, making sure that such heartbreaking violence stops, for good.

James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.