The Gaza Strip is certainly not a treasure to anyone. Menachem Begin offered it to Sadat at Camp David, and he refused the offer. The most popular thing Rabin has done in his term as Prime Minister is suggest that Gaza be abandoned. Few Israelis are willing to keep the festering boil so close to the heart of the country. Netanyahu tapped into this sentiment and now also suggests that the strip be surrounded by electronic fences and land mines. Why does the term "concentration camp" come to mind?
Enveloping Israel with fences and land mines is not the answer. Security is not provided by besieging a nation. Fences and mines will not deter terrorists who are willing to blow themselves up. Neither will demanding that the Arabs solve their own problem, as leaders from the Likud and Labour have done for most of the past 30 years. No, the answer must be creative, workable, and unmistakably clear in emphasizing who is responsible for Israel's security. It cannot be the Arabs. Here is what I suggest:
- Immediately following the next terrorist attack, while the anger of the Israeli population is at its height, the Israeli army must be sent into Gaza, fully equipped (artillery, tanks, infantry, even the air force and navy if necessary) and engage in operations to arrest every person in the strip in whose possession arms are found. It need not matter whether those arms are guns, bombs, knives, or anything else. It also need not matter whether such person is Arab or Jewish (as I will get to in a moment).
- The operation must be carried out with dual emphasis. Firstly, for domestic consumption, the point must be heavily emphasized that too many Jews have been killed, and it will (not must) now be stopped. Secondly, for international consumption, Israel must emphasize its duty under the Geneva Conventions to ensure the security of an occupied population under its control. The increasing anti-collaborator violence can be cited to illustrate the need for the operation. Additionally, the arrest of any Jews carrying arms will go a long way to convincing the world of Israel's fidelity to this point of international law.
- Following these arrests, the Jews would be quickly and very quietly released back to their normal lives, with their arms, and an explanation from the authorities (in line with the above reasoning). The Arabs must be subject to the Israeli Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (1948) at the very least. That law makes possession of arms for the purpose of terrorism punishable by 10 years in jail. Imprisonment cannot be used for all of the people arrested, however, and those not imprisoned, for whatever reason, should be expelled. The homes of all those arrested should be destroyed. Israel should then finance re-building projects over the ruins, eliminating the camps and replacing them with proper housing and infrastructure.
- Following this entire operation, the idea of security fences should be re-examined. If they are still found to be necessary, then they should be constructed -- after the area is cleaned out.
- The same programs can be carried out in the nests of terrorist support in Judea and Samaria, such as Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem, and Hebron.
- At the same time as all of this is taking place, Israel should pass a law making terrorism of any sort punishable by a mandatory death penalty.
- Once the clean up is completed, only then can autonomy be considered.
This set of policies is likely the only workable suggestion that will now result in a decrease in the amount of Arab terrorism against Jews. Even this, however, may not be enough to end terrorism completely. But it will certainly go a long way toward making Israel and Israelis more secure, and more stable.
It is time that the Israeli leadership, whether in government or the opposition, take its head out of the sand and realize just what is at stake. Oslo was an attempt to increase Israel's standing internationally and decrease the chances for an international war involving Israel. Jordan's peace treaty, and the move of non-border states such as Tunisia, Morocco, Oman, and Qatar toward normal relations, have gone a long way toward preventing war in the region for the foreseeable future. But the chances of civil war in Israel, which is much more dangerous to Israel's existence and Jewish survival, has increased immeasurably.
Civil war is so much more dangerous owing to the inter-mixture of Arab and Jewish population throughout the country. Israeli defense forces are hamstrung by this mixing of communities, affording them no geographic lines from which to defend Jewish communities against Arabs. It is for specifically this reason that Arab infiltrators were never defeated between 1904 and 1948.
The likelihood of civil war has increased so vastly due to the inane policies of the Rabin administration. Arab terrorism against Jews has gone unpunished by Israel, and is not condemned by Arafat. Yet, Rabin continues to negotiate with Arafat, and to allow for possible further concessions to him. So Jewish life has become meaningless to Rabin, as it always has been to Arafat.
The only plausible policy the opposition parties can adopt is one in which Jewish life is once again made of paramount importance to the Israeli political leadership. This basis for policy is the only one that will guarantee Likud a victory in the next election, it is the only one that will lead to a credible effort to bring down the current government, and it is the only one that will guarantee Israel's safety and security, which is supposed to be the entire purpose of the Madrid process in the first place. Until such policies are adopted, Israelis can be forgiven for harbouring doubts of Netanyahu's abilities, and Israel will continue to be destroyed from within.
Copyright 1995. Reproduction in electronic or print formats by permission only.
