Sunday, June 17, 2007
What We Can Learn From the Hamas Victory in Gaza
Call me a cynic, or say that I am jumping the gun here, but now that Hamas has apparently fully taken control of Gaza - with Fatah men running for the borders with Egypt and Israel, or even fleeing into the Mediterranean Sea - I think we can all learn one critically important lesson.
No, not that expelling Jews from parts of the Land of Israel will only make things worse in every respect for everyone concerned. Not that. That we knew soon after the Disengagement, when more rockets began falling on Sderot than before the expulsion of the Jews of Gush Katif.
And no, not that negotiating with terrorists leads to their violent path becoming more popular, rather than less so. Not that. That we learned shortly after Israel negotiated the Oslo Accords with the PLO - and the number of Jews killed by Arab terrorists since that "peace agreement" was signed increased exponentially over the number killed by Arab terrorists beforehand.
No. I'd say that the most important lesson to be learned from the Hamas success in Gaza is that it is, in fact, quite possible to defeat a terrorist organization. And it can be done within days.
Not only that, perhaps to the consternation of those with great faith in dialogue and reconciling "competing narratives" and "the peace process" and "peace now," the defeat of the Fatah terrorist organization was accomplished entirely by military means.
In Hebrew, many Israelis use the expression that there is no zbang ve'gamarnu ("bang, and it's done") solution to terrorism. Oh, no. It always has to be some long, drawn out and complicated effort involving political maneuvering, concessions (always by us, of course), and endless and pointless negotiations.
Well, considering that Hamas forces ended the reign of Fatah terror and eliminated most of their leadership in less time than it took us to win the Six Day War (yet, we have been fighting Intifada II for at least seven years), maybe there is a zbang ve'gamarnu solution, after all. Could it be?
In other words, in contrast to the accepted punditry and "common knowledge" in the West and in Israel, Hamas has proven that, yes, there is a military solution.
No, not that expelling Jews from parts of the Land of Israel will only make things worse in every respect for everyone concerned. Not that. That we knew soon after the Disengagement, when more rockets began falling on Sderot than before the expulsion of the Jews of Gush Katif.
And no, not that negotiating with terrorists leads to their violent path becoming more popular, rather than less so. Not that. That we learned shortly after Israel negotiated the Oslo Accords with the PLO - and the number of Jews killed by Arab terrorists since that "peace agreement" was signed increased exponentially over the number killed by Arab terrorists beforehand.
No. I'd say that the most important lesson to be learned from the Hamas success in Gaza is that it is, in fact, quite possible to defeat a terrorist organization. And it can be done within days.
Not only that, perhaps to the consternation of those with great faith in dialogue and reconciling "competing narratives" and "the peace process" and "peace now," the defeat of the Fatah terrorist organization was accomplished entirely by military means.
In Hebrew, many Israelis use the expression that there is no zbang ve'gamarnu ("bang, and it's done") solution to terrorism. Oh, no. It always has to be some long, drawn out and complicated effort involving political maneuvering, concessions (always by us, of course), and endless and pointless negotiations.
Well, considering that Hamas forces ended the reign of Fatah terror and eliminated most of their leadership in less time than it took us to win the Six Day War (yet, we have been fighting Intifada II for at least seven years), maybe there is a zbang ve'gamarnu solution, after all. Could it be?
In other words, in contrast to the accepted punditry and "common knowledge" in the West and in Israel, Hamas has proven that, yes, there is a military solution.
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Any military action against Hamas is doomed to fail unless the hostile population is expelled and Gush Katif resettled.
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