Get out of Gaza
Monday, October 27, 2003 Cheshvan 1 - 5764 Israel Time: 01:59 (GMT+2)
The terrorist attack early on Friday morning at
Netzarim, which ended in the deaths of three
soldiers, two of them women, and the wounding of
two others, makes tangible the absurdity of Israel
continuing to hold on to the Gaza Strip. It would
be an error to examine the incident merely in the
light of an operational mishap or mistaken
considerations by the commanders and to try to
learn lessons from it regarding the local
deployment of the Israel Defense Forces. This is a
national failure and all Israeli governments since
1967 are party to it, as is the society of this
country, which gave them backing.
The Gaza Strip was a tract of
land that was left in
Egyptian hands after the War
of Independence. It fell into
Israeli hands after the
Six-Day War, together with
its hundreds of thousands of
residents, most of them
Palestinian refugees. The
Gaza Strip had no sentimental
value in the Israeli national ethos, as did the
West Bank; nevertheless, the governments headed
by the Labor Party and, later, those of the
Likud, were foolish enough to covet it and
establish settlements upon it, and in this way
to create a commitment to it. This was an
untenable settlement enterprise that cost a
fortune, was in no way useful to the country's
development, caused grievous suffering to the
Palestinian population, placed a heavy security
burden on the IDF and presented Israel as a
state that inflicts injustice.
The basic facts have indeed led to an
unfortunate result: 1.3 million Palestinians
who mostly live in extremely deprived
conditions scuffle with 7,000 Israelis who
generally live in spacious settlements, over
the control of an area of 340 square
kilometers, amid constant mutual bloodshed. The
IDF invests enormous resources and deploys huge
forces to protect the Israelis in the Gaza
Strip but nevertheless the settlers there and
the soldiers keeping guard over them are
subject to uninterrupted attacks and assaults.
Over the past three years, they have suffered
the greatest number, relatively speaking, of
shellings, roadside bombs, shooting incidents
and infiltrations to their settlements.
This reality must change forthwith and in a
drastic fashion: Israel should declare that it
is evacuating its troops from the Gaza Strip
and redeploying them, together with a security
fence, alongside the Negev settlements that
border on the Strip. Israel should evacuate the
residents of the settlements from the Gaza
Strip and offer them appropriate compensation
or alternate lands within the country where
they can establish themselves and flourish. If,
heaven forbid, the assaults from the Gaza Strip
continue in the wake of such an evacuation,
Israel would have the right, by any criterion,
to defend its border and its residents.
It would be better if the withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip were carried out according to an
agreement with the Palestinian Authority, as
part of a comprehensive blueprint for settling
the conflict. However, in circumstances where
no diplomatic progress is visible, there is no
choice but to decide unilaterally on leaving
the Strip. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
sufficient political power and public support
to carry out the move. If Sharon continues to
abide by his decision to leave the situation as
it is, with a barren balance between suffering
assaults and carrying out attacks, he will then
sentence the residents of the Strip, Israelis
and Palestinians alike, to continue to wallow
in blood, pain, hatred and despair.
--------------------
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Edit 
Reply 
