Of all the places in the world, Americans are now looking for Gaza's future in Oslo's bloody past. Behind the scenes – you have to pinch your skin hard to believe it – the Biden administration is conjuring up the dangerous adventure that has been absurdly called the "safe passage," the one that even Yitzhak Rabin, albeit belatedly, stemmed from (Rabin was assassinated before the crossing was activated).
The veterans among us have managed to forget, the young people did not get to know: the crossing was operated 24 years ago as a quasi-autonomous Palestinian land transportation route for people and goods. He linked Judea and Samaria to the Gaza Strip and cut Israel within its sovereign territory. Israel pledged to establish it, first in the Oslo Accords A and B and then in the Wye Agreement, during Benjamin Netanyahu's first term as prime minister.
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Originally, there was talk of creating two crossings – one northern, to Samaria, and the other southern, to the Hebron Hills area. These crossings were also supposed to be used by those refused entry into Israel. Discussions about the "safe passage" for Palestinians spanned six years, mainly because Israel feared it would turn out to be an "unsafe passage." Only in September 1999 was the protocol on this matter signed, and at the end of October the crossing was inaugurated. It operated for a year. Israel shut it down as suicide bombers began to explode in its streets, and the skeletons of sooty buses and corpse-strewn cafes became routine. Israel feared that the crossing would further expand the terror and death sector of the second intifada.
When the crossing was operating, Palestinians traveled 47 kilometers on roads inside Israel – between Erez Crossing on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas' wide metro tunnel exposed last week reached almost as far as it, and Tarqumiya, which four days after operating the Safe Crossing suffered a shooting attack at an Israeli bus that injured five passengers.
Palestinian movement took place in Israeli sovereign territory, along Highway 4 to Ashkelon Junction, and from there on Route 35 to Tarqumiya. During its first four months of operation, the crossing was used sparingly, with 115,6 people, 500,1 taxis, 700,2 buses and 100,<> private vehicles. In the following months, until the outbreak of the second intifada, the use of the crossing increased only slightly. Gazans traveled to Judea and Samaria and back within Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat, and within the Hof Ashkelon, Lachish, Shafir and Yoav regional councils.
Negative leverage
The security risk was clear even then. Four months later, the spillover of Palestinians from the route reached 765 people and 52 vehicles. A professional committee that submitted an alternatives report to the political echelon noted the dangers: "the passage of terrorists and unauthorized weapons from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank," "an attack during the passage of Israeli targets and facilities near the crossing route," and even "the spillover of hostile elements into Israeli territory."
Now, after 24 years, thousands of terror attacks and a mass Palestinian massacre of the Jews in the envelope, when the knowledge, capabilities and terror potential of Hamas and Gaza are upgraded many times over, while the "West Bank" rejoices and rejoices in the face of Jewish blood spilled like water - the natural expectation is that terrorism and its supporters will be subjected to heavy punishments and beatings, not bonanzas and rewards.
The return to the "safe passage," even if the American word laundromat finds a different name for it, is the opposite of the punishment. Giving passage to Gazans and Judea and Samaria Arabs in Israeli sovereign territory is a reward for terrorism, and a signal to Palestinians on both sides of the crossing: "Keep going, this is the method."
The cognitive derivative of a trans-Israel Palestinian land connection is even more serious: Israel is currently searching with candles for Hamas's breaking point; The Archimedean point at which he will feel that he has lost the battle. The "transition" or "connection" that Americans seek to establish the day after is a lever that works in exactly the opposite direction.
The establishment of a "safe passage" for Palestinians in Israeli sovereign territory, even if the American laundromat finds a different name for it, is a reward for terrorism, and a signal to Palestinians on both sides of the crossing: "Keep going, this is the method."
Instead of taking from Hamas territory and land (for example, in the northern Gaza Strip), for which it is Islamic holy land that must not be relinquished; Instead of taking from the cities of evil and terror Gaza, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and Hebron the areas of Dar al-Islam, which have been sanctified and dedicated according to their faith for generations; Instead of bringing the Palestinians to the consciousness of real loss, as in the wars of independence and the Six-Day Wars, in which they paid for their aggression with their most precious and sacred currency – land – the Americans are concocting the opposite move, insisting on speaking "Western" to those who understand only "Gazan" and "Islamic." From the Palestinian point of view, the passage between Gaza and the West Bank is a presumption in every respect, and even land ownership in the heart of Palestine.
Pigeons of terror
This concern also has legal references. Already in the first incarnation of the "crossing," the political echelon was warned against the possibility that Palestinian use of it within Israeli sovereignty would create a "right to the land for their benefit." This is, it was explained, "a right that is created in the land as a result of its continuous use; A right that has independence outside the framework of the agreements, a right that cannot be revoked except through the beneficiary party – the Palestinians." That legal opinion cited examples from around the world of rights of passage that were created by way of an agreement, and created rights in the land.
This crossing between Gaza and Judea and Samaria must therefore be killed when it is still small. The heads of the councils in whose jurisdiction this route of movement or "connection" is supposed to be established, were shocked when they heard about the revival of the "crossing." From the perspective of Itamar Revivo, head of the Ashkelon Beach Council, "The era of crossings is over, and now only checkpoints are being considered. For years, we were instilled with a concept of cooperation, but on 7 October we realized that there was no difference between Hamas and the Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. The idea is delusional, and we will not allow it to happen. We are the ones who live here, not the Americans. We will not stand idly by against those who try to implement it. After all, there are not doves of peace blooming from Gaza and Judea and Samaria, but doves of terror."
Tamir Idan, head of the Sdot Negev Council, also clarified: "We are the ones who suffered 1,400 losses, the Americans do not live here. I strongly oppose it. There's no way things like this will happen now, it's not even worth discussing. Our children are more important. The whole story of cooperation, crossings and joint industrial zones within the State of Israel is a thing of the past."
Strangely, what helps the Biden administration raise the issue of the land connection between the West Bank and Gaza is the fact that the idea was also incorporated into Republican President Trump's Deal of the Century, which was so friendly to Israel, in the form of an investment of about $4 billion in building roads and railways to support the flow of goods and people between Gaza
Even then, the idea was dangerous, and today it is even more dangerous – practically and consciously. The crooked logic that guided the US State Department on the issue of employing workers from Judea and Samaria in Israel – it is good that the cabinet rejected this – also guides it on the issue of the "connection between Gaza and the West Bank."
A Palestinian state that is an existential threat to us should not exist, neither in Judea and Samaria nor in Gaza, and the land connection between them is tantamount to "adding to his sin a crime."
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