A Hamas-related “military unit” called “Sons of al-Zawari” has been responsible for launching countless incendiary and explosive kites and balloons across the border into Israel for more than a year. Recently they even threatened to fill the condoms they use for balloons (apparently they are made of strong latex, so they are less likely to break prematurely) with a payload of some kind of poisonous or carcinogenic material.
Mohammed al-Zawari, in case you are interested, was a Tunisian engineer who developed drones for Hamas; he was assassinated in 2016, probably by the Mossad.
Although it is not so newsworthy outside of Israel, Arabs from Gaza continue to start fires and try to kill people in southern Israel with these devices. Israel responds in various ways, like reducing the size of the area in the Mediterranean in which Gazans are allowed to fish (really). They have also “attacked” the groups launching the devices with drones – but news reports never say that any of their members are killed, so I presume they fire low-yield weapons near, but not directly at, the terrorists.
The “disturbances” at the border fence wax and wane, but they never stop. Every once in a while someone is shot trying to harm Israeli soldiers on the other side, or planting explosives to create a breach in the fence that would allow a large number of terrorists to cross over and attack local civilians. Israel is building a massive barrier, both above and below the ground, to protect local communities against attacks via tunnels dug under the fence, and from shooting – in a recent case, a man was killed when his car was hit by an anti-tank rocket fired from Gaza. This barrier will cost billions, but will not stop the balloons or kites, nor will it prevent rocket attacks as we experienced this May. Recently, Israeli officials said that Hamas has already replenished its stock of rockets after the recent violence.
In a sense, Hamas is already engaged in chemical and biological warfare against Israel. The border demonstrations often involve burning tires, with the smoke darkening the skies over Israeli communities, some of which are only a few hundred meters from the fence. Even more seriously, for years, raw sewage from Gaza has been dumped in the sea and into streams that flow in southern Israel. Garbage is dumped and burned near the border. The Hamas government has received much assistance from international donors to solve its pollution problems, including the World Bank financing a large treatment plant in northern Gaza, which, due to a lack of electricity and other problems, never became operational.
Of course the population of Gaza suffers far more than that of Israel from the air and water pollution. But Hamas has always allocated available resources primarily to its war effort, following the First Principle of Palestinism,™ which is that it’s always preferable to hurt Jews than to help Arabs (although, to be fair, they have built luxurious residences for their leaders).
The Israeli government has come up with various reasons (perhaps ‘excuses’ is better) for why the mighty Jewish state can’t stop the torture of the residents of the southern part of the country: Israel does not want to occupy and become responsible for Gaza; there is a more serious threat from Hezbollah and Iran in the North; among the balloon launchers and fence busters are “children;” and, an attempt to overthrow Hamas would result in numerous civilian casualties in Gaza – something that the “international community” would not permit.
The “solution” from our “hardline, right-wing” government – just ask the NY Times how “hardline” it is – is to find technological answers to all the threats: we’ll shoot down the rockets with Iron Dome or similar systems, we’ll finish the expensive over- and underground barrier, and we’ll put out the fires started by the incendiary balloons before they get too big. Then, when the Gazans understand that we won’t allow them to hurt us, someone (preferably not us) will provide the cash to solve their economic and ecological problems, and we can live peacefully side by side.
This is a recipe for failure, and it is already failing. With every Iron Dome launch costing the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars, and with Hamas and Islamic Jihad improving both the number of rockets they can fire in a short period of time and their accuracy, the task of intercepting them all becomes more challenging and more expensive. During the last exchanges of fire in May, several rockets did get through and resulted in a number of deaths. The trend is against us: it is easier and cheaper for them to improve their offensive systems than for us to strengthen our defensive ones.
Although various high-tech solutions to the low-tech balloons have been proposed, they are still setting damaging fires on a daily basis. While attempts to bribe the Hamas regime have from time to time reduced the number of balloons launched or the number of demonstrators at the fence, extortion has a way of becoming more expensive and less effective as time goes by. And we have no solution to the ecological crisis that Hamas is creating for its own population and for our common neighborhood as long as Hamas remains in power.
One goal of Hamas is to cause Israeli residents of the area to abandon it. So far, because of economic incentives to live there, the high cost of housing in other places, and apparently a strong feeling of community, this has not happened. But don’t kid yourself – if there is a successful penetration of the border in which there are significant casualties among Israelis, or if there are extended periods during which people must stay in shelters, there may be a point at which many of them ask themselves whether the disadvantages of living there don’t outweigh the advantages.
What we are doing is a combination of holding the line and kicking the can down the road, to violently mix metaphors. These are by definition temporary solutions. What is a permanent solution?
We could win a war with Gaza, and probably suffer relatively few casualties of our own, as long as we actually apply the “principle of proportionality” in the Law of War as it is intended. If the enemy is using otherwise protected targets like mosques, hospitals, schools, and civilian structures for military purposes, then we are permitted to attack as long as the collateral damage is proportional to the military advantage of doing so. In other words, if Hamas has located its main command and control center in the basement of a hospital in Gaza City, then we can bomb it, if doing so is an important enough military objective – which it certainly would be. We are permitted to fight against child soldiers, and human shields that are injured or killed are the responsibility of Hamas.
Part of winning such a war would include targeted killings of the upper echelons of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership. They are war criminals, responsible for the deaths of numerous Israelis, and they maintain a dictatorial and oppressive regime over their own population. They are our deadly enemies and even if their military capabilities were destroyed, would manage an insurgency against us. Killing them would send a message to their successors that they are personally responsible for events.
At this point, the hard part begins. We have eliminated the regime – who will be the new regime? Probably the civilian infrastructure will have collapsed. It is already collapsing economically and ecologically, public health is a disaster, and drug abuse is rampant. The educational system is a training camp for jihadists.
Should we dump it in the lap of the UN? If they agreed, they would be ineffective at best. At worst, they would invite operatives from hostile countries who would establish a beachhead. I am sure Erdo?an would love to help!
I think there is only one acceptable long-term solution: to depopulate Gaza. That is, to provide an exit for most of the Gazan population to emigrate to various parts of the world, including but not limited to Arab countries, Europe, Australia, and North and South America. Emigration would be financed by the UN with funds normally provided to Gaza by UNRWA. If cooperation of host nations could be arranged, this would probably cost less in the long run than continuing the international support for Gaza as at present. There would probably have to be a temporary Israeli administration set up to assure security during the process. At some point, Israel would officially annex the territory, and the remaining population – who would be vetted to ensure that they didn’t present a risk of terrorism – would be offered Israeli citizenship in a way similar to what was done in Jerusalem.
It’s doubtful that there would be many votes for this idea in the UN, if it were put to a vote. But there are probably two groups of people that would love it: Israelis, especially those that live in the southern part of the country – and Gazans.
Why is Israel allowing money flow to Gaza when it is constantly attacked from there? Why not destroy Hamas instead?
So far near Gaza in Israel today (Friday) three (3) fires started by the terrorists. Last night Israel did fire missiles into Gaza at terrorist military structures at a few locations in response to rocket fire striking a Yeshiva in Sderot.
Today if the following is correct Israel conveys more weakness which will predictably end terrorism instigated by Iran, Islamic Jihad, Hamas or other terrorists in Gaza. This weakness will also likely spread to Judea/Samaria where some are trying to start another intifada.
First a bit of mailed fist demo in retaliation for rockets and fire kites etc by turning off the power, fuel and food and everything else that can be stopped ie a real hermetic siege of the old fashioned starving match kind that never lasted more thn two months. As this begins and even before it bites invite the Gulf sheikhs – UAE, Bahrain, Muscat & Oman, Saudi for Eastern Province to invite the Gazans to transfer as communities to prospective new towns and garrisons [against Iran]. Then offer bus convoys to Aqaba and Saudi beyond or cruise ships from Gaza via Suez to the Gulf. Field the project in winter to make it less pleasant to stay and easier to travel.
I haven’t read the article for which I apologise to the writer…
As I have very often advocated…there is only ONE way…. From Rachmonas, give the inhabitants 24-48-72 hours warning, to get away south…tell them what is going to happen… Then, when the time is right, begin a rolling fire, artillery, bombs, etc, beginning at the extreme north of the strip, and flatten everything into rubble, all the way down to the Sinai Border. As for the population, which has already piled into the Sinai…arrange for the Egyptians to look after them-they are mainly from Egypt originally anyway. 36 separate and different families there are named “El Misri”…
After the rubble is bulldozed into the sea, which will make a greater land area for israel, then it can be used by the real owners , The Jewish People……..
Israel must somehow find a way to “neutralize” the terrorists in Gaza without getting zapped by the West. What would help a great deal to achieve this goal would be a) a well-run and well-funded public affairs ministry that would explain to the Western publics and governments why Israel must get tough with the terrorists, even if some civilians unavoidablyare killed and their homes destroyed. Of course we need competent diplomats who are competent and absolutely dedicated to Israel to make the case for us. And we need a competent, non-leftist, Mossad to find out isecretly just how much pressure on the terrorists the Europeans will tolerate without retaliating against Israel or intervening. Regrettably, we don’t have this human infrastructure in place now, which makes it very difficult for the Israeli government to know how much force they can use against the terrorists without having to take on the Europeans as well as the Arabs and Iran. Developing the competent human infrastructure, both overt and covert, is a prerequisite to defeating and eliminating the terrorists.
Bibi is the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister. Is he psychologically capable of doing the needed military action in Gaza?
Luckily the students were away on holiday.
Everyday there explosives and fire balloons sent into the nearby communities. Some people have started to move away from the area. I certainly would NOT move near Gaza at the moment because they GOI and Bibi play lip service to destroying the terrorists. How pathetic!
Liberman resigned because of the inaction by Bibi on Gaza. People yell at him because he brought down a right wing government. In reality when it comes to Gaza the GOI is toothless and out of any ideas that will work to solve the problem. Is this because Bibi is more worried about his and his wife’s legal problem’s or the next elections.
If you live in Sderot or nearby you do not care you just want the terrorists destroyed.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/264565
Vic, you are correct, Israel either lets the terrorism continue and fool itself that there are answers short of destroying the terrorists and their support base in Gaza.
The ONLY solution is to destroy Hamas, Islamic Jihad and any other terrorists in Gaza. You then allow the Gazans to emigrate, you facilitate this emigration of peaceful Gazan’s in humanitarian manner. The longer one waits the more weapons or deadlier weapons they acquire will make the inevitable task costlier to Israel in money and lives.
The IDF is quite capable of conquering Gaza with minimal casualties if done quickly with the first concept is overwhelming force with minimal exposure to Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Gazan’s already emigrate whenever the gates via Egypt open. Hamas is now forcing doctors to stay because so many have left to other countries. I believe Cruise Liners and other large ships should be made available off shore of Gaza and allow the Gazan’s to emigrate. These ships should stop in the various middle east ports for various countries to take in the refugees. Turkey is currently a favorite place for Gazan’s to emigrate to.
On the other hand, Israel could be less helpful to Hamas than it has been without suffering serious consequences, For example, it did not have to let Qatar , and open and avowed enemy of Israel,hand out a lot of cash to Hamas to pay its officials. No country that trades extensively with Israel was very likely to be indignant if Israel had “just said no” to the Qatar bastards.
As I have pointed out in my comments on Dr. Sherman’s articles, the solution proposed by Vic here (essentially the same as Dr. Sherman’s) would lead the “international community” (mainly Europe) to impose harsh BDS sanctions on Israel and embargo needed arms shipments to Israel. Some of the Europeans, especially Britain, might even intervene militarily to protect the Palestinians and prevent being overrun by (this time real) Palestinian refugees. The fact that Vic’s proposals concerning military action against Hamas are all legla under international law” does not mean that the “international community would tolderate these “inhumane” actions. In practice,” “international law” is waterever the great powers decide it is, regardless of what is written on the pieces of paper called treaty. Not a pleasant reality, but reality nevertheless.
I’ve not read the whole article but will later. Without knowing what is written my own answer is Dresden 2. No ifs ands or buts nor maybe.
Israel should by now know how to misfire a sodomite rocket back to sender, Israel should have a whole division of look alike rockets.