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| Ariel Sharon was the force behind the disgraced Gaza disengagement. |
Looking Back, the Gaza Pullout Was a Mistake - Sever Plocker
Gaza isn't controlled by the Palestinian Authority, as the supporters of the disengagement - myself included - expected. Gaza was basically handed over to Hamas, which failed to establish a civilian government there. Instead, it established a wild military regime seeking conflicts and lacking any civilian goals.
Immediately after Israel pulled out of there, it turned out the strip wouldn't be like Singapore - but rather like Benghazi. The Hamas militias had no interest in an organized transfer of the production and real estate assets Israel had left behind. They preferred to build training camps in greenhouses than grow tomatoes there. And the PA vanished from the area. That sealed the enclave's fate.
The economic, social, and security situation in Gaza has deteriorated in the years that have passed since the disengagement.
Looking back, the disengagement was a mistake. Had Israel remained in Gaza, the economic gap between the Palestinians in the strip and the Palestinians in the West Bank would have been narrowed, and a solution would have been found for the transfer of goods and people between Gaza and Hebron. The PA would have maintained its rule - and would have even grown stronger. Tens of thousands of Gazans would be working in Israel, as they did in the past, and the level of violence would have dropped.
(Ynet)
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UPDATES:
Gaza Casualties Don't Tell the Story - Aron Heller
A senior Israeli Cabinet minister rejected international criticism of Israel's open-fire policies along the Gaza border, saying the disproportionate number of Palestinian casualties does not reflect the true story.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yoav Gallant, who once commanded the Gaza region, urged the world not to "calculate who is right and who is wrong by the numbers of the casualties."
"In the Second World War, 7.5 million Germans were killed and only 500,000 British. So who was the aggressor, the Germans or the British? The issue is not the numbers. The issue is who is doing what."
(AP)
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UPDATES:
Gaza Casualties Don't Tell the Story - Aron Heller
A senior Israeli Cabinet minister rejected international criticism of Israel's open-fire policies along the Gaza border, saying the disproportionate number of Palestinian casualties does not reflect the true story.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yoav Gallant, who once commanded the Gaza region, urged the world not to "calculate who is right and who is wrong by the numbers of the casualties."
"In the Second World War, 7.5 million Germans were killed and only 500,000 British. So who was the aggressor, the Germans or the British? The issue is not the numbers. The issue is who is doing what."
(AP)
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- Efraim Karsh
- The perception of Palestinian violence as a corollary of Gaza's dire economic condition has dominated the discourse on the situation there. Yet this is not only completely unfounded but the inverse of the truth. It is not Gaza's economic malaise that has precipitated Palestinian violence; rather, it is the endemic violence that has caused its humanitarian crisis.
- Countless nations and groups in today's world endure far harsher socioeconomic or political conditions than the Palestinians, yet none has embraced violence and terrorism against their neighbors with such alacrity and on such a massive scale.
- There is no causal relationship between economic hardship and mass violence. In the modern world, it is not the poor who have carried out the worst acts of terrorism and violence, but rather the militant vanguards from among the better educated and more moneyed circles of society.
- The 9/11 terrorists were not impoverished peasants or workers driven by hopelessness and desperation, but educated fanatics motivated by hatred and extreme religious and political ideals.
- In short, it is not socioeconomic despair but the total rejection of Israel's right to exist which underlies the relentless anti-Israel violence emanating from Gaza and its attendant economic stagnation and decline.
- Only when the population sweeps its oppressive rulers from power, eradicates endemic violence from political and social life, and teaches the virtues of coexistence with Israel can Gazans look forward to a better future.
The writer, director of the Begin-Sadat Center, is emeritus professor of Middle East and Mediterranean studies at King's College London.
(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)
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3 comments:
The Hamas stranglehold is fuelled and perpetuated by the religious conflict, as any believer can see. Do they worship the same God as the Jews and the Christians? Many find the question absurd - 'of course they do' goes up the cry.
I beg to differ.
When the Israelis calmly handed over Gush Katif in 2005, they did so against a backdrop of leftwing manipulation and right wing cowardice. How many lives would have been saved if the murderers were not given control? It is precisely because the UN and all the other decision making bodies are blind to the real role played by religion that they insist diplomacy will ultimately work. After all, it did in South Africa. Eventually.
I was there, and the degree of grassroots opposition to the pullout was overwhelming, certainly in Jerusalem. They won't make the same mistake again, after two intifadas and three wars against the very people to whom they donated land and resources, free, gratis and for nothing.
To hear such from King's is refreshing, to say the least, since there are many in its ranks who are rabid Israel-haters and supporters of BDS.
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