WhatsappThe Gaza Border is on fire – literally. Many think that Israel has to merely deal with unruly protesters. That is not only inaccurate. It is disconnected from reality.
Israel is fighting against a well-funded and rather organized terror infrastructure.
How did we get here?
The Gaza border used to be relatively quiet. It was never a peaceful border. but, it was nothing like we see today. Why not?
In 1948 – 1949, Israel fought back against 5 Arab armies and held on to a small strip of land east of the Mediterranean. The Egyptian army was well on our way to Tel-Aviv, but they were stopped in a few spots. One of them was Yad Mordechai, where a few dozen fighters fought back in hand-to-hand battles. Israel’s nascent air force dropped seltzer bottles on Egyptian forces to scare them away. The Egyptian forces stopped, but the Gaza Strip area was part of the Egyptian occupied territories till 1967.
In the early years of the State of Israel, the fedayeen terrorists attacked Israel over and over from the area of the Gaza Strip. Ultimately, Israel, under the leadership of Ariel Sharon’s 101 Unit, fought back and uprooted many of the terrorists from the area.
Six Day War
The attacks from the Gaza Strip persisted from time to time until 1967. When the noose around Israel from Egypt in the south and Syria in the North tightened, the Gaza Strip was also a clear launching pad for Egyptian forces.
One of the many locations where Israel fought hard and won an outright victory and took over all of the areas of the Gaza Strip. It was clear that Israel had a major minority population issue on it’s hands in Gaza City and other small cities. One of the ideas that Israel developed was to settle parts of the areas of the Gaza Strip in order to have a constant living civilian presence in the area.
Destruction of the Gaza Strip
It took around 20-25 years, but Israel built up more than 15 small communities and around 7,000+ Jewish people lived in the area of the Gaza Strip by the year 2,000.
Meanwhile, the Arab population grew in the area. There is alot of debate as to what the population numbers in Gaza City are. Some lower estimates are around 500,000. Some higher estimates are around 2,00,000. It seems that 750,000 is probably a reasonable estimate. That is a large number – any way you cut it.
Arik Sharon
In the year 2005, Arik Sharon was the Prime Minister of Israel and decided to uproot all of the Jewish settlements and to kick out all of the Jews from the Gaza Strip. This was a very controversial move. It did not have majority support in Israel, but he still pushed it through.
Sharon pledged that if the Arabs dare bomb Israel from the Gaza Strip, they would face a horrible response from Israel.
The kick-out of thousands of Jews was a horrible tragedy. It was not just a humanitarian disaster. It was a national disaster. Israel ended up having thousands of bombs raining down on it’s cities. Israel has already faced 3 rounds of major battles between the Arabs in the Gaza Strip and Israel. All of the areas that were once Jewish towns are now launching pads for attacks against Israel. The border is now a meeting point for all of the terrorist activities from the Gaza Strip.
Solution
There is an effective solution to the mess on the border of the Gaza Strip. Israel needs to take back a long and thin small strip of Land for every attack on it’s land. Yes, Israel needs to keep moving the fences.
This will work. The Arabs understand this kind of language.
It would be a great precedent, and it could be implemented on Israel’s other borders too.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Israel needs to be tough and stand up to terror.
