Secretary Clinton called the situation in Gaza “unsustainable” this week. She is right, but U.S. policy is also unsustainable. We need to find a way to get humanitarian aid to Gaza while ensuring Hamas can not smuggle in more rockets to attack Israeli cities and that prevents al Qaeda and other extremists from smuggling in "volunteers" who want to wage jihad.
Fortunately there is precedent for an international regime to monitor shipping in the region. In the 1990s the United Nations created a special regime to inspect cargo going to Iraq, then under UN sanctions, through the Jordanian port of Aqaba. The U.N. hired Lloyds of London to provide inspectors who examined each cargo to ensure Iraq was not importing banned material, especially weapons or technology for weapons of mass destruction. The Iraqi people got aid but Saddam could not get WMD.
A regime like that needs to be established urgently to defuse Gaza. NATO could help provide inspectors; it already has a counter terrorism naval presence in the Mediterranean called Operation Active Endeavour created immediately after 9/11. If Hamas refuses to accept such a regime, the onus for any suffering in Gaza would clearly be on it. If it does, then the world can start rebuilding Gaza.
Israel will not likely agree to if believes the inspectors are bound to be incompetent or passive such as UN forces in Lebanon who could not stop Hezbollah from smuggling in rockets and arms. However, if it's a force with a bit more credibility like NATO, with a military commander who will work with both Israeli and Hamas officials, it may be a way out of an increasingly untenable situation.
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