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aza began Dec . 27, in fact Palestinians have been dying from bombardments =
for many weeks. On Nov . 4, when the Israeli-Palestinian truce was still in=
 effect but global attention was turned to the U.S. elections, Israel launc=
hed a "preemptive" airstrike on Gaza, alleging intelligence about an immine=
nt operation to capture Israeli soldiers; more assaults took place througho=
ut the month.=20



The truce thus shattered, any incentive by Palestinian leaders to enforce t=
he moratorium on rocket fire was gone. Any extension of the agreement or im=
provement of its implementation at that point would have required Israel to=
 engage Hamas, to agree to additional trust-building measures and negotiati=
on with our movement -- a political impossibility for Israel, with its own =
elections only weeks away.=20



Not that the truce had been easy on Palestinians. In the six-month period p=
receding this week's bombardment, one Israeli was killed, while dozens of P=
alestinians lost their lives to Israeli military and police actions, and nu=
merous others died for want of medical care.=20



The war on Gaza should not be mistaken for an Israeli triumph. Rather, Isra=
el's failure to make the truce work, and its inevitable resort to bloodshed=
, demonstrate again that it cannot permit a future built on Palestinian pol=
itical self-determination. The truce failed because Israel will not open Ga=
za's borders, because Israel would rather be a jailer than a neighbor, and =
because its intransigent leadership forestalls Palestinian destiny and will=
 not make peace with history.=20



This week's war is not an attack on the Izzidin al-Qassam units -- our move=
ment's military wing -- but is simply aggression targeting the people, infr=
astructure and economic life of Gaza, designed to sow terror and loose anar=
chy; it aims to establish new "facts on the ground" -- that is, heaps of ru=
bble with bodies trapped beneath -- in advance of the coming American admin=
istration.=20



Israel claims loudly that it had no other choice this week but to rain deat=
h on refugees in camps, killing dozens of women and children, while Defense=
 Minister Ehud Barak (the once and would-be prime minister) -- his eye fixe=
d on February elections -- employs mass murder as his party's latest vote-g=
etting appeal, an electoral strategy fit to shame the most hardened Chicago=
 political operative.=20



But, of course, options remained available. Israel might have relented mont=
hs ago, for the sake of the truce, in its criminal determination to starve =
Gaza, cutting off much of its fuel and choking all commerce to a trickle, b=
locking relief organizations from delivering food and medicine, and consign=
ing Gaza's citizens to famine rations. Only the most cynical observer would=
 call this grinding attrition "good faith" adherence to the truce. Blockade=
s, after all, are explicitly acts of war.=20



Palestinians everywhere mark the closing of the Bush era with relief; never=
theless, skepticism runs high that any justice for our people might come fr=
om a new president who remained ominously silent in the presence of the lat=
est Israeli onslaught, and who has aligned himself so thoroughly with Israe=
l's interests, so long in advance of taking power. Barack Obama's helicopte=
r ride two years ago above the Holy Land was not unusual in the annals of A=
merican parliamentarians junketed on "fact finding" trips by Israel's lobby=
ists; yet his fond remarks on what he saw -- "houses and streets like ones =
you might find" in any American suburb -- were notable for their silence as=
 to any troubling sights. Did he miss the security roads and checkpoints th=
at riddle the West Bank, or the construction of the wall, or the illegal se=
ttlements? Perhaps his helicopter flew too high.=20



But now, amid Israel's latest attack on our people, as the death toll rises=
 in the hundreds, with thousands wounded -- all victims of American taxpaye=
rs' largesse -- Palestinians wonder how Obama will react to the escalating =
crisis. They demand of the next White House a new paradigm of respect and a=
ccountability, because when Palestinians see an F-16 with the Star of David=
 painted on its tail, they see America.=20



Palestinians are understandably guarded about the coming administration, no=
ting its appointments with trepidation. The soon-to-be secretary of State i=
s unforgettable for urging years ago U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israe=
l's "undivided" capital, while the administration's chief of staff bears th=
e stain of his father's service in the banned terrorist Irgun paramilitary,=
 a Zionist group responsible for numerous atrocities.=20



Renewed calls today for our movement to "recognize the right of Israel to e=
xist," in the face of murderous onslaught, ring as hollow as Israel's conti=
nuing claims to be acting in "self-defense" as her jets bomb civilians. Wit=
hout debating here the Zionist state's fictive, existential "right," which =
of the many Israels, precisely, would the West have us recognize? Is it the=
 Israel that militarily occupies land belonging to three of its neighbors, =
ignoring international law and scores of U.N. resolutions over decades? Is =
it the Israel that illegally settles its citizens on other people's land, s=
eizes water sources and uproots olive trees? Is it the Israel that in 60 ye=
ars has never acknowledged the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their =
farms and villages as the foundational act of its statehood and denies refu=
gees their right to return?=20



Through bitter experience, when we hear demands for "recognition" of Israel=
 as a precondition to dialogue, what we hear is a call for acquiescence in =
its crimes against us, validating the injustices that have been wrought in =
its name.=20



Our spirit to fight on is the legacy of collective suffering: With tens of =
thousands dead or wounded by decades of the "peace process," you cannot fin=
d a family in Palestine -- Muslim or Christian, Hamas, Fatah, PFLP or Islam=
ic Jihad -- without a son or daughter killed, injured, jailed or tortured, =
or which does not count itself or its kin among the millions of refugees li=
ving in U.N. camps.=20



Hamas is not a handful of leaders. Israel may kill all of the current leade=
rship in this round of violence, including me, and its organic, social infr=
astructure will not go away. We are, simply put, a homegrown national liber=
ation resistance movement, with millions of people who support our struggle=
 for freedom and justice.=20



President-elect Obama spoke courageously in his campaign for a policy of op=
en dialogue, absent preconditions, with those deemed inimical to U.S. inter=
ests, and we were listening. One former U.S. president -- a true peacemaker=
 -- has dared to visit with us and hear our side of this struggle, while of=
fering us no shortage of criticism. It has been a refreshing exchange. Now =
is the time for the next U.S. president to do the same.=20



No American leader has ever visited a Palestinian refugee camp anywhere, mu=
ch less in Gaza -- a startling fact, considering the central role America h=
as played in our people's narrative. None has dared to look our refugees in=
 their faces and experience their suffering directly.=20



In observance of the storied tradition of Arab hospitality to guests, and a=
nticipating that day when an American president fulfills his promise of cha=
nge, we extend the invitation now, and we will put the kettle on.=20



Mousa Abu Marzook is the deputy of the political bureau of Hamas, the Islam=
ic Resistance Movement=20