U.S. Working for “Sustainable and Durable” Cease-Fire in Gaza

29 December 2008

(Bush administration urges Hamas and Israel to avoid civilian casualties)

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington — The end of the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel has led to days of violence in Israel and Gaza that has left more than 300 dead, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been speaking with foreign leaders to try to end the fighting.

Rice has been “vigorously engaged,” according to State Department acting deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid, who spoke with reporters in Washington on December 29. Since December 26, Rice has spoken to leaders in Israel, the United Nations, Russia, the European Union, France, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Duguid said Rice’s efforts have included five conversations with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, three with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and additional calls with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

“The United States is working actively to restore the cease-fire. The responsibility for violating the truce lies with Hamas. Hamas needs to stop its rocket attacks. And then we believe that the cease-fire can be restored, but it must be sustainable and durable. It also requires Hamas to stop its policies of confrontation and start becoming a part of the process,” Duguid said.

The United States does not have direct contact with Hamas, which it has designated as a terrorist organization. “Other nations have other contacts they can use to help re-establish the cease-fire,” Duguid said.

But he said Hamas “has the ability to join the process for peace” by taking steps such as renouncing violence and recognizing Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, as called for under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1850.

“More to the point, we’re working for a cease-fire now where Hamas must stop its rocket attacks on Israel. All sides then should respect a cease-fire, and work to build one that is sustainable and durable.”

U.S. Assessing Palestinian Humanitarian Needs

Duguid said the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is “urgently assessing” current Palestinian humanitarian needs, especially in terms of food and medical supplies. He said USAID delivers aid through partners in the region and is looking for ways to support the delivery of aid from the U.N. World Food Programme.

“For the past year … the U.S. has been a major donor of humanitarian assistance to the West Bank and to Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East and the 2008 emergency appeal for the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” he said.

During fiscal year 2008, which ended September 30, the Bush administration provided $57 million in humanitarian assistance that “helped support over 1 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza,” he said, and has also given $14.34 million to the International Committee for the Red Cross for its operations to serve Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.

White House deputy press secretary Gordon Johndroe expressed appreciation for all countries in the region that are working to alleviate humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

“We ask all parties involved to allow food and medical supplies to reach the people there,” he told reporters December 29 in Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is spending the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Johndroe said Bush administration officials have urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties, but he said the United States “understands that Israel needs to take actions to defend itself,” and “Hamas, as we've seen in the past, seems to base its people and some of its rockets in civilian areas.”

On December 19, Hamas refused to renew the six-month cease-fire which had been brokered by Egypt, and Johndroe said “hundreds of rockets … have fallen on southern Israel in the last few days.”

“Hamas has once again shown its true colors as a terrorist organization that refused to even recognize Israel's right to exist,” he said.

Johndroe said Israel has said both publicly in the press and in private conversations that it does not want to retake the Gaza Strip, from which it unilaterally withdrew its military forces and settlements in 2005.

He also said President Bush spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah earlier December 29 and with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia December 27 to discuss the crisis and to urge that “the violence stop … in a way that leads to a durable and sustainable cessation of violence.”

President-elect Barack Obama has also been monitoring the situation and has been kept informed thanks to Secretary Rice, according to his senior advisor, David Axelrod, who spoke on the CBS television network’s Face the Nation program December 28.

“I think he wants to get a handle on the situation so that when he becomes president on January 20th, he has the advantage of all the facts and information leading up to that point,” Axelrod said. But, he added, “there's only one president who can speak for America at a time, and that president now is George Bush.”