Every few hours, another occasional "former" goes on the radio or television, shouting how come they don't deal with the "day after."
How did the State of Israel enter a war process without thinking and deciding what will happen the day after, they wonder. Well, as someone who believes that it is very important to set strategic goals and draw a picture the day after, I want to dispute this strange claim.
On 7 October, the State of Israel embarked on a war that was forced upon it. For years we defended ourselves and confused ourselves into knowing, we did not respond to the provocation and aggression of the other side - until it lashed out at us, raped, kidnapped and murdered. We went to war with no choice, so the claim that we should not have gone to war without thinking about the day after is absurd, and even infantile. Did the Allies know in advance, before embarking on the Nazis, what the "day after" would be? Of course not. They set out to eradicate evil from the world, and thinking about the day after World War II took shape in the later stages of the war.
Does that mean you don't have to talk about the day after? Not. It is worthwhile and even desirable to plan it. Both matter-of-factly, for ourselves, and also because we don't live in a global vacuum, and all eyes are on here. However, the discussion of the "day after" must not stop the warlike process of destroying Hamas. Hamas, with its Nazi characteristics, must disappear from the world, first of all during my war. We must not think twice, for example, about whether it is worthwhile to control the territory of Gaza, just because we are afraid to control the civilian population of Gaza.
But the "day after" is actually the day. The IDF has already declared that it controls the northern Gaza Strip militarily and security, it has already withdrawn some of the forces after they cleaned up most of the area, and it has even released entire reserve brigades. The fighting is currently focused on the central camps in the Gaza Strip and in the southern Gaza Strip, so the "day after" is no longer knocking on the door, but entering.
An issue that we must address urgently, for example, is the return of the civilian population to areas in the northern Gaza Strip, where the IDF may be in control, but the area is not completely free of terror, and Hamas terrorists manage to survive there, even launching rockets from there.
Here is one stone in "The Day After": The return of the population to the northern Gaza Strip is a red line. Moving the population south is an important lever, which also enables freer activity in the northern Gaza Strip. There is also an important message here: destruction for those who made October 7 for us. One of the pictures of victory will be when the residents of the envelope return to their homes and the residents of the northern Gaza Strip do not. The army may be able to push for this or hesitate to do so, but in the end the decision and direction must come from the political echelon.
Contrary to what the leftists of yesteryear are pushing for, here we do not need a holistic plan, as they thought when they put forward the disastrous "two-state plan." It is possible to assume principles of action, what is absolutely forbidden to do? Dispatch the Palestinian Authority to Gaza
This is just one of the issues of that "day after" that it already is. The reluctance that exists at the political level to hold such discussions even before we have ended the fighting is understandable, but there are things that do not suffer delay. So, what you should do is sketch out the do's and don'ts. Contrary to what the leftists of yesteryear are pushing for, here we do not need a holistic plan, as they thought when they put forward the disastrous "two-state plan." It is possible to assume principles of action, what is absolutely forbidden to do? Send the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, create an "enhanced" Palestinian Authority or import arch-terrorists like Mohammed Dahlan from abroad. Nor should Qatar be given a foothold again, economically or politically.
On the other hand, it is worthwhile to outline principles of what should be done. Do we aspire to control Philadelphi, will there be a security zone, perhaps it is even worthwhile to divide the Gaza Strip into parts, where the Gaza population should not return to its home, whether and how to encourage voluntary immigration, what foreign actors, if any, to bring into the picture – and more.
These are issues that must be discussed with a sober perspective and with political guidance. The army must remain a galloping horse, and the political echelon must give direction, because the day after is right now.
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