Damage Control

Three weeks and 1,285 lives later, both Israel and Gaza are cleaning up the mess. As I mentioned a few days ago, weakening Hamas was not the sole objective of the offensive. IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted in the summer of 2006, is still behind enemy lines, although whether he is alive or dead remains to be seen. Public pressure to retrieve Shalit is tremendous. Protests are held demanding that the government facilitate his release, letter writing campaigns are run, and Ha'aretz newspaper has a perpetually-running PSA on its front page, reminding readers how long Shalit has been in captivity (942 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes, and 42 seconds, as I'm writing this). The fact that time ran out on this operation before Shalit could be rescued is a crushing blow to the current administration, especially Tzipi Livni, who may be blamed for the failure, hurting her chances in the upcoming election for Prime Minister.

So Israel is doing its media spin thing. The AP's Ben Hubbard writes today:

Israel indicated Thursday that it wants to swap Palestinians held in Israeli jails for an Israeli soldier captured in 2006 as part of a longer-term truce after three weeks of fighting in Gaza.

Israeli media said some Cabinet ministers have softened their positions on releasing dangerous Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, signaling the government is trying to work out a deal with Hamas ahead of Israeli elections next month.

What makes this story a big yawn-fest for those who have been paying attention is that Israel has been saying this for at least six months. The two governments were negotiating, through the ubiquitous moderator Egypt, back in July about how many prisoners Hamas would get in exchange for Shalit. Israeli leaders will have to balance the unpopularity of releasing convicted murderers against the popularity of bringing Shalit home.

In an effort to make it seem like everything is going according to plan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said recently, "I believe the war created levers that could hasten Gilad Schalit's return home." Meaning Israel had applied sufficient pressure to make Hamas more docile.

Olmert could be referring to the destruction of hundreds of underground tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle weapons into Gaza. The recent offensive destroyed or damaged 60-90% of those tunnels (depending on which side you ask), which numbered upwards of a thousand. But, according to the AP's Alfred de Montesquiou, tunnel operators are already fixing the damage and could be back in business within days. As a result of the collective punishment methods Israel utilizes to try to weaken Hamas, goods, not just guns, are in short supply in Gaza. Tunnel operators describe the goods they smuggle as potato chips, cigarettes, baby formula, underwear, and even animals for the zoo.

About weapons smuggling, Montesquiou writes:

While both traffickers insisted they had never considered bringing weapons for Hamas, Abu Bilal, another colleague repairing his own tunnel, said he wouldn't mind doing so. "But frankly, the resistance never asks us to," he said. "I think they've got their own tunnels and don't want to pay us," he said.

What's materializing as the smoke clears is that neither side has achieved its goals- both are right back where they started, politically- but both are claiming victory. Meanwhile, 6,000 Gazans are dead or injured and southern Israel will continue to be bombarded with Hamas' qassam rockets until both Israel and whoever rules Gaza learns to use diplomacy instead of brute force.

File it Under Human Nature

File this one under "people will do what they gotta do."

Those tunnels I've mentioned numerous times are now conservatively estimated to number in the hundreds. And they are going legit.

AP announces that tunnel operators are registering their tunnels with Hamas, installing electrical equipment, and paying their smugglers workers' comp.

Hamas says:

"We are watching what is coming through and we prevent the entry of weapons and drugs," said spokesman Ehab Ghussen, spokesman for Gaza's Interior Ministry, adding that the tunnel trade would be halted if borders reopen.

Economics as it Applies to Human Life

This AP article says five more people have been killed in "tunnel collapses" while smuggling "contraband" into Gaza.

First, those "tunnel collapses" were caused by explosions. Second, the "contraband" was, in this case, fuel.

AP writer Ibrahim Barzak writes:

The five were bringing contraband goods from Egypt into Gaza when an explosion collapsed the tunnel, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been cleared for publication.

Two bodies were located shortly after the explosion Tuesday and the rest were removed early Wednesday. Three smugglers survived and emerged on the Egyptian side, where police arrested them, an Egyptian security official said. The three told police they were smuggling fuel.

Gazans blame the Egyptians for blowing up the tunnels but the Egyptians deny it. Everybody is under a lot of pressure here. The Egyptians are being pressured by Israel to stop the flow of weapons to Hamas through these tunnels and by the Arab world to stop doing what Israel says. The Israeli people are pressuring their government to prevent the resumption of daily missile attacks by Hamas. And Gazans are being pressured by their pesky children for a daily supply of food.

Daily I tell you.

Since the start of the year, 45 people have died in tunnel collapses and, in one of life's cruel ironies, a similar number of people have died as a result of the shortage of goods the tunnel operators were trying to solve. This loss of human life in the prevention of the loss of human life is a bit like our consumption of oil or mass produced food. The energy output exceeds the gain.

Siege-Breakers Take Heat Off Smugglers

The buzz about those those seige-breakers I wrote about is getting louder. Probably because they actually succeeded in breaking the siege and arriving in Gaza.

The event was very poorly publicized when the ships first set sail from their original location in Greece, but with each stop on each island closer to Gaza, they received more publicity. During the last leg of their trip, Israel sent word that they would be allowed to pass through to Gaza because Israeli intelligence had determined that they were not a security threat.

Today, two days after they docked in Gaza, the human rights organizers in charge of the event plan to join a Gazan fishing expedition to provide cover for the fisherman, who are not allowed far enough off the coast to catch adequate numbers of fish to support their families and their economy.

While breaking the siege has a lot of symbolic importance, the practical benefit for the people of Gaza is minimal. The two ships, the SS Liberty and the SS Free Gaza, while carrying 45 human rights activists, did not bring much in the way of necessary material items to a people who are short on almost everything, from food to soap.

Ynet says:

A Gaza activist told Ynet Saturday that local residents were disappointed by the small quantities of food brought in by two boats carrying international leftist activists.

"Many people thought these boats will make a significant contribution to break the siege, not only politically but also in terms of brining in goods, equipment, food, and medicine," he said. "However, once it turned out these boats contain too little food and mostly activists…some people left the beach disappointed."

Perhaps it would be more efficient to support the smuggler network already operating roughly 100 tunnels under Gaza. It is this network that has been responsible for such feats as providing Gazan mothers with baby formula and sexy underwear and delivering drugged lions in sacks for Gaza's zoo.

But of course, these are not the only items being smuggled through the tunnels. And the confirmation of their existence puts to bed previous questions I had about how al-Qaida is providing weapons to Hamas.