The situation in Gaza is brutally clear. Hamas ended the truce. It said it has no interest in either prolonging it or entering into a different kind of agreement that would ensure a relative calm on both sides. Furthermore, Hamas marked the end of the truce by firing rockets into Israel. What should have Israel done? Ignore it? It couldn't since the rockets were the handiwork of what it considers a terrorist group on a sovereign country and its citizens. Many have responded, saying that the response is disproportionate, without questioning the wisdom of the decision taken by Hamas to end the truce in the first place.
 
Those who can never see that, as the cliché says, it takes two to tango, will run to find excuses for poor old Hamas: The leadership is in Syria, enjoying the hospitality of President Assad's regime and as such is hostage to its regional strategies; that the party receives support from Iran and inspiration from Hezbollah, and as such, work in cahoots with people that do not put the well being of the average Palestinians before their own regional ambitions.
 
But these are not excuses; these are in fact the reasons why the party exists; they are its raison d'être: to do the bidding of others. And in doing so, it has put its people second. This is the real outcome of Gaza's democracy. When one betrays its own kind, what else is there to claim to stand for? Where is Khaled Meshaal? Certainly not in the streets of Gaza supporting his people. The Hamas leadership may exhort people to take the route of martyrdom as long as it's not theirs. Hypocrisy, servitude and cowardliness have no limits when Hamas is involved.
 
But let us not forget also the role that countless Arab and Muslim regimes have played in abusing the Palestinian card for their own ends. (For what would they do without the Palestinian card?).  They have sent the Palestinians weaponry, educated them to become suicide bombers and encouraged them to glory in the ghetto, while their leaders have been allowed to bully and brutalize, be politically dysfunctional and morally bankrupt in their attempts to present the world a sorry excuse for a state. It is not the Israelis or the rest of the world that hates the Palestinians; it is their own leaders and Arab nations that have exploited the cause to whip up the masses on their own streets.
 
When one brushes aside the propaganda from all sides, we see two people that are fighting to defend themselves, be it their land, dignity, rights or freedom. Neither is going to go away. If and when they understand the simple but highly sensitive concept of partnership, then the cycle of violence will stop.
 
Manuela Paraipan is a Bucharest-based independent foreign policy analyst. She wrote this piece exclusively for NOW Lebanon