What to do with the Gaza Strip

After the notorious "disengagement", the Israelis are asking themselves and those they put in charge of the state: what should ultimately happen to the Gaza Strip? Is there, in principle, a solution to the tangle of problems there? What should we strive for in relation to Gaza, what do we want from it?

Фото: Depositphotos

The Gaza Strip is an area of ​​365 square. km and a population of over 2 million. One of the most populated corners of the planet. The volcano, the regular eruptions of which remind us, Israelis, time and again that it is so easy not to dismiss it.

It turns out that we need to bring things to the point of either overthrowing the power of Hamas - unless Hamas suddenly “reforms” enough to recognize Israel’s right to peaceful and safe coexistence with its Arab neighbors and accepts our condition: restoration and economic prosperity instead of disarmament.

We can achieve this in two ways ...

The first is that we are delivering a crushing blow to the sector, we compare everything there with the ground, our troops again occupy Gaza. This option is inevitably fraught for us with significant, painful losses. This is about the life of our soldiers.

The second way - which I consider preferable - to create conditions under which ordinary Gazans will lose patience, and they will replace Hamas’s power with a more pragmatic leadership. Of course, those who will then replace Hamas will also not be ardent Zionists, but they will be guided by rational considerations, preferring economic development and normal life to incessant confrontation, causing endless suffering and deprivation of the sector itself.

Is the second option possible, is it a spotlight? Israel’s defense policy should not be tossed about between an instinctive reaction to condoms – lighters and attempts at least to agree on something. It should be built on a clear strategy, on an unyielding determination to achieve the set strategic goal.

The first and absolutely necessary step to achieving a strategic goal is to appeal to ordinary people over the heads of their bosses. In the case of the Gaza Strip, this means appeals and unambiguous, intelligible and visual messages to the residents of the strip, bypassing the leaders of Hamas. The residents of Gaza must be brought to the conclusion: if the so-called. The Arab Spring worked in Tunisia, and it is possible in Gaza as well. And we have been conducting such a “dialogue” with the population of the sector, such clear and clear messages (both verbal and very visual) - we have been steadily sending them over the past two years.

We set out to put the people of Gaza with a choice, as far as possible, to drive a wedge between thugs in the sector, blinded by the manic idea of ​​destroying the State of Israel, and ordinary people, for whom the main thing is to feed the family, to make a living. Our task is to consistently and clearly show the residents of the sector that their economic situation is directly related to how quietly they behave.

This is our strategic line, the violation of which we must not allow in any case. As soon as there is terrorist activity from Gaza, the checkpoints and fishing zones are closed. There is no terror - everything is open, everything works in the normal mode. Terror is unprofitable. Peace and tranquility - they have a direct and obvious benefit.

It is important to remember and remind you that before the conclusion of the notorious “Oslo Accords”, nine dozen enterprises worked successfully in the Karni industrial zone, and ninety thousand other residents of the Gaza Strip left for work in Israel every day. Today is unthinkable. We simply can not afford such a risk. But if in the Gaza Strip a sane leadership comes to power, for which the main thing will be not terror, but economic gain and prosperity of its own population, then the situation will change radically. We will actively promote the development of the economy of the sector, foreign investment will go into it, and this will bring direct dividends to both them and us.

Since taking office as Minister of Defense, I have consistently adhered to a balanced, responsible, thoughtful strategy. Its essence is decisive and powerful actions where and when it is necessary to solve our strategic tasks, and not at the whim of sofa strategists from social networks and public opinion polls. Show state responsibility is not shameful.

Since I took the post of Minister of Defense, our policy of unswerving determination has led to the destruction of more than two hundred militants and Hamas activists, and even 5 thousands of overly zealous Hamas workers were seriously injured and were permanently disabled. We destroyed 16 sabotage tunnels, wiped out dozens of strategically important facilities for Hamas leaders - headquarters, communications centers, enterprises for the production of concrete (they need for laying and maintaining tunnels), companies for the production of missiles, weapons and ammunition depots, etc. P. Of course, the IDF and other security services in the Gaza Strip and beyond is being done very, very much every day, which, thank God, is not known to the media or the general public.

At the same time there is not and there can be no doubt: the fight against terror will continue to be associated with active - both defense and offensive - actions. The IDF, as before, will with all determination resist the terror there and in the manner required of it.

But we must understand that suppressing terror without a clear long-term strategy has not and will not solve the problem at its roots. Einstein brilliantly formulated: “Stupidity is trying to achieve different results with the same actions.” We have already tried operations “Cast Lead”, “Pillar of Cloud”, “Indestructible Rock”... We carried out targeted liquidations over and over again - Sheikh Yassin, Rantisi, Jabari, and many others were eliminated. And the result is the same. More precisely, there is no result. The Gaza problem remains before us in all its dubious glory.

As for talking about the alleged settlement, it is necessary to clarify the following: yes, there is no shortage of intermediaries. This is Egypt, the UN, and the Americans and Europeans. But with all due respect for any initiatives and initiators, we will conduct our defense policy based solely on the real state of affairs and our own, Israeli interests.

Summarize. Anyone who has had to resist terrorism knows that to succeed in this fight it is necessary, first of all, to deprive the very idea of ​​terror, its leaders and the formation of support from the local population. An ordinary resident who provides active or passive assistance and support to terrorists should become the main target of the fight. It is he who needs to be convinced of the futility of such support - that terror hits, first of all, on himself. A terrorist formation deprived of popular support is doomed. The list of examples can go on for a long time; just remember the most recent ones - FARC in Colombia or ETA in Spain. These organizations, seeing that they were on the verge of extinction, chose to abandon violent struggle and lay down their arms.

As a staunch follower of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, I believe that today we need to be “wise, generous and ruthless.” In relation to the Gaza Strip, this means that we need to strike ever more decisively and painfully at those who engage in and direct terror, while at the same time trying - subject to peace and quiet - to make life as easy as possible for ordinary residents of the strip. Those who care about feeding their families and providing a future for their children should be reminded that they have a better alternative than the hardships and suffering under Hamas rule.

And the most important thing is inflexibility. The real solution to the problem of terror, its suppression seriously and for a long time largely depends on our own resilience, on the realization that the solution will not come from today to tomorrow.

But if we are persistent and adamant, the desired solution will come much sooner than pessimists and critics believe.

If we rally around this strategy, success is guaranteed. If we throw mud at each other and impatiently push our legs, we will remain at the broken trough.

We act and will act with wisdom and determination. The last remark is for the attention of lovers to speculate about the alleged lack of a clear and wise strategy.

Avigdor Lieberman,
Minister of Defense,
leader of the party "Our Home Israel"

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