What to do with Gaza

By Ted Belman

In the posts just below this one, both Eiland and Beilin recommend full disengagement from Gaza which means opening it up to the sea and to Egypt. Beilin is from the extreme left (Oslo Accords and the Geneva Initiative) and Eiland is only somewhat to the left. But that is no reason to reject this idea out of hand.

As for the rocket attacks, Beilin writes,

Should Qassams and Grad rockets be fired from the Gaza Strip despite the above, we will always reserve the military option, and the IDF would always be able to reoccupy this crowded and problematic place, even if this comes with a heavy price.

and Eiland simply says

Arms are reaching Gaza anyway, and opening the crossing would once and for absolve Israel of accusations of “occupation.”

Both believe that our blockade of Gaza doesn’t stop the flow of arms and comes at a diplomatic cost.

First of all it is not at all clear that lifting the blockades would stop the rocket attacks totally. Hamas becomes irrelevant if it doesn’t make trouble for Israel. So attacks would continue albeit at a reduced scale. Furthermore, the stronger Hamas becomes the more danger they represent to Israel should a full scale war break out with them and Hezbollah. The flip side of this is the stronger they become, the more we can devastate them.

But should Israel remove all manner of control, Israel would find that Gaza becomes an Iranian outpost. Lebanon is already controlled by Hezbollah which is controlled by Iran. (The US would beg to differ on this and hasn’t yet thrown in the towel.) Russia is also getting into the mix and offering planes to Lebanon and defense systems to Iran.

To my mind, any diplomatic benefit which may accrue to Israel due to the lifting of control would not be worth the military risk in allowing Iran to have full sway in Gaza.

That is not to say Israel should invade Gaza immediately. But Israel must stop the rocket attacks.

Israel should

1) return to assassinating the Hamas leadership with a vengeance.
2) announce that she will devastate with artillery any location from which a rocket is fired.
3) destroy with artillery any arms factory of cache
4) occupy the southern strip for a couple of miles and destroy all the tunnels.
5) occupy the northern 5 miles of so to distance the rocket launching from Sderot and other communities.

As for the fear of international condemnation and prosecution for war crimes due to the artillery fire, Israel should pay no heed. Better to have its leadership accused of war crimes than to order an invasion that would result in the death of dozens of soldiers.

Under no conditions should Israel destroy Hamas only to turn Gaza over to Fatah.

Beilin also comments on how swimmingly things are going in Judea and Samaria. What matters to me is not how we are getting along but how we can retain control over Judea and Samaria. Israel must keep all of Area “B” and “C” as delineated by Oslo. The object of our policies should be to keep this land rather than to get along.