Now that the guns have gone silent in Gaza, it is prudent to reflect on the causes and consequences of this latest round of mass carnage in the Middle East. While both Israel and Hamas have claimed their objectives were achieved, justifying their willingness to cease fire, the fact remains that only Palestinian noncombatants have been made the victims of this needless war.
US corporate media, to a large extent, blindly followed Israel's prescripted war message and did not even challenge Israel’s media blackout. Americans by and large have not seen the full extent of Israel's excessive use of firepower, some of which has been declared illegal by the United Nations, against civilians. More than 70% of the 7000 injured or killed in Gaza have been Palestinian civilians, half of whom are children and women. More than 20,000 homes have been destroyed in addition to hospitals, schools, public buildings, and places of worship. As more corpses are removed from under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the entirety of Israel's objectives will be starkly revealed. Israel invaded Gaza hoping to destroy Hamas but it inflicted the most damage on the Palestinian civilians. Hamas's military and popular strength seems to have been unscathed. As such it is a legitimate demand to bring Israel's leaders to account for war crimes and the use of prohibited weapons.
What happens in the short term will depend largely on a more visible US role in not only easing the tension and providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians but more importantly in redirecting the world's efforts to the core issue of the conflict- namely the ending of the Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. After all, the Palestinians need a place they can call home: in which they can live free and sovereign. This objective is a right enshrined in international law and should never be considered a gesture of goodwill on the part of Israel.
It is certain that neither the ceasefire can be sustained nor violence eradicated without a more vigorous, impartial and committed engagement by the United States. President Obama will soon recognize Israel's ploy of creating facts on the ground and obstacles to peace. We hope he will also recognize that there is no uglier example of terrorism than Israel's military occupation and the inhumane treatment of millions of Palestinians at the hands of Israel ith the blessing and funding of the United States government.
With the American political establishment firmly and blindly in support of Israel's attack, and Obama's foreign policy team heavily weighted with pro-Israel insiders like Dennis Ross and Hillary Clinton, any efforts to hold Israel accountable in the United States will depend upon American citizens mobilizing a major grassroots effort behind a new foreign policy that will not tolerate any violations of international law, including those by Israel, and will immediately work towards ending Israel's siege of Gaza and ending Israel's occupation.

It is our hope that Obama will let the Israelis know early on that while he supports their security, he will not refrain from pressing them to make accommodations in the pursuit of a peace that would be in the best interests of both Israel and the United States. And his best way of getting a hearing from the Arabs (especially the Palestinians) is to make clear that the Arab Peace Plan is the basis for negotiating peace in the region. The very idea of the two-state plan will probably vanish if during the Obama presidency, it does not graduate from a vision into a reality. Along the way, Israel will make every effort to forestall a final peace agreement with the Palestinians.

This plan, first proposed in 2002 by the Arab League, offers peace and normal relations in return for an end to Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Bush and the Israelis brushed it off in 2002, and Hamas, the Islamists elected as the Palestinian government, officially rejected any outcome short of the annihilation of Israel. But most people in the Middle East and around the world accept that a solution must entail the security of Israel and of a viable Palestine. The Arab Peace Plan is the template for such a solution. And the most welcome appointment of former Senator George Mitchell signals the kind of change we hope will bring about true peace.