The Israeli response to the evil attack by the Gazans in the western Negev is summed up, apart from the desire to return the abductees, in the government's order to the IDF to remove Hamas from the world as a military and governmental organization. All Israelis are behind this vital mission, because otherwise we will not be able to live in Israel, and hopefully it will not be dissolved by the necessity of rescuing hostages.
This is an immediate conclusion, in light of the evil that has been exposed to our eyes and has erased moralistic aversions, hesitations and illusions. But what is the general conclusion? Can we go back to a point in time before Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007?
So far, this discussion has focused on the question of the political regime that will prevail in the Gaza Strip after the uprooting of Hamas. This is an important, but still hypothetical, question. First, because we have not yet won and a complete uprooting of Hamas has not yet been guaranteed, the need to release the abductees and the expected increase in super-cruel mercy on the part of the US are considerable threats to our ability to uproot Hamas from Gaza. Second, even if we win and completely uproot Hamas, we do not know what situation the territory and population will be in at the end of the war.
Nonetheless, it can already be said that the idea of returning the Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip, even after it is "fixed," in the words of US President Biden, is a distorted idea in every respect. In its places now, in Samaria and Judea, the PA does not actually control. Even Israeli bayonets don't help her. Almost all the provinces there are subject to gangs, of which Hamas is the most important. Only established Israeli officers and detached American statesmen could conceive of this possibility.
The Palestinian Authority is indeed broken, as Biden's words imply. She educates for the annihilation of the Jewish people in the land. Fatah, the movement at the center of the PA, deals with terrorism. The PA financially and ideologically supports terrorism. It is corrupt to its core, and has no real interest in the development and welfare of its people. It's foolish to believe it can be fixed.
But even the illusions of the Americans (and perhaps also our officers who are now dealing with this in the Defense Ministry) that the PA can be repaired do not deviate from the basic idea of the Oslo Accords that gave rise to it. Those with these illusions adhere to the evil idea of an Arab army called the police. Without this, we were once told and will now say, how will they control the territory? The answer is that they must not control the territory, because from their rule grew the Hamas regime, and because the army of the hostile authority, which the Americans trained, is itself a constant danger to Israel. After all, many PA officials celebrated the massacre. Why shouldn't they try to imitate it with a more dangerous military force close to our population centers?
On 7 October, we learned that an armed Arab army in Samaria was a danger to Emek Hefer. In Binyamin he is a danger to intelligence. Qalqiliya and Tulkarm could be springboards for a military attack on Kfar Saba, Netanya, Herzliya and Tel Aviv
The idea that any order in the country could be based on the existence of an Arab army between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River began with Menachem Begin's idea of a "strong police" during the autonomy negotiations. Peres and Rabin took the legitimacy of this idea and adopted it in the Oslo Accords.
But on 7 October, we learned that an armed Arab army in Samaria was a danger to Emek Hefer. In Binyamin he is a danger to intelligence. Qalqiliya and Tulkarm could be springboards for a military attack on Kfar Saba, Netanya, Herzliya and Tel Aviv. Officers who explain in an authoritative baritone that things will be okay will no longer convince us.
Therefore, our main conclusion from the horror of Gaza is not only vehement opposition to the PA's "transplantation" into Gaza. More important is the more general conclusion that we cannot accept the threat of any Arab army between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Whatever the pattern of Arab self-government in the country, it can never be based on either a "strong police" or an army. It follows that in Judea and Samaria as well, and not only in Gaza, we must dismantle any such organization. This means that the Palestinian Authority must be disarmed.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us