I will try to review, in brief, the history of the Gaza Strip since 1948 and then describe the relationship with Israel over the years. These facts will be the basis of my opinion and interpretation of the war that started on Oct. 7th and the debate of a possible future.
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Gaza is an ancient town, one of the 5 Philistine towns mentioned in the bible. The Philistines were a Greek tribe that reached by the sea from Crete in the 12th century B.C. and lived in a neighborhood of the Jewish kingdoms in Judea & Samaria until the 6th century B.C.
It was, then, inhabited by Jews, Greeks, and Arabs over the years. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were in Gaza about 15000 people, mostly Arabs and a small Jewish community.
According to the November 1947 partition resolution of the U.N. of the British Mandate area west of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip was part of the Palestinian state. At that time there were 70,000 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly farmers. The Palestinian leadership denied the U.N. resolution and opened war against the Jewish community, together with all Arab states. They lost the war, the Israeli Independence War, and according to the Armistice agreement, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule. During the 1948 war, 170,000 refugees fled to the Gaza Strip, thus creating the problem of today. The U.N. established the UNRWA administration to help the refugees with food, housing, and education. But unlike the rest of the world where such aid was given only for the first refugee generation, in this case, it was forever because the Arab States would not take responsibility to help their brothers. This caused continuous economic dependence, prevented any future development, and created a poor society with no future, one of the poorest in the world.
Gaza Strip was occupied by the Israeli army during the 6 days war in 1967 and was ruled by a military administration until 1993, when the civil government was delivered to the Palestinian Authority, according to the Oslo Treaty.
In 1967 the population was 356,000.
In 2005, the Israeli army left the Gaza Strip leaving the total rule to the Palestinian Authority. Until 1993, 90% of the Gaza Strip economy was part of the Israeli economy but since then it deteriorated to 10 – 15% by the pressure of the P.A. The Gaza Strip is still dependent on Israel for most of its electricity, fuel, water, and import–export.
In 2007, the Hamas movement took hold of the Gaza Strip by a military coup, killing and arresting hundreds of P.A. administrators and political supporters. They established a cruel Islamic tyranny, killing any opposer and isolating the Strip.
Hamas was founded in 1987 by Ahmad Yasin, an Islamic fanatic, as a branch of the Islamic Brotherhood movement in Egypt. This movement is active in many Muslim countries and communities and believes in establishing a religious Muslim regime in the world, subject to the Koran rule of the Sharia. Democracy and liberalism, or individual rights are not part of these beliefs and should be oppressed and eliminated. Hamas, as the Palestinian branch, added to the general ideas the specific wishes for them, namely – a Palestinian state "from the sea to the river", eliminating Israel and sending the Jews back to where they had come from. Following this policy they started terror attacks in 1987 such as bus explosions, and suicide bombings in Israeli public centers. Controlling Gaza, they built up military power by organizing an army, of 20,000 strong, developing rockets, and building a huge infrastructure of underground tunnels and war rooms under Gaza. It became the largest underground fortification in history, with about 500 kilometers of tunnels. Their rocket's arsenal reached 15,000 units. All this was financed by billions of dollars contributed by countries like Qatar, Emirates, and Turkey which were donated for the farewell of the civilians but were confiscated by Hamas and left the population as one of the poorest in the world. The population in 2023 is about 2,000,000 half of them under18.
Hamas started terror actions immediately after 2007 and Israel retaliated with attacks in the Strip causing a lot of damage and succeeding in getting quiet intervals but not a change or a real retaliation against Hamas. During these years Israel closed the border with under and over-ground fences to prevent Hamas from attacking the settlements near the border.
Until Oct. 7th, 2023.
The savage attack with the purpose of killing and taking captive Israeli civilians with the result of 1,300 killed and about 300 taken prisoners, including 35 children, some of them younger than 1 year, was too much. It was the greatest pogrom since WW2.
This time there was a consensus, following our vow – never again, that the Hamas regime and leadership should be physically eliminated, all their arsenal destroyed and the Gaza Strip completely demilitarized for good. For Israel, it is a matter of future existence, and therefore, not negotiable, exactly as it was in the war of independence in 1948.
With the support of the liberal governments on the one hand and the terrible anti-Semitic propaganda and demonstrations on the other hand, it is even more clear that Israel has to win this war without question, how much it takes.
The Israeli army, failed to be prepared and to defend the population, exactly 50 years after the Yom Kippur War (Oct. 6th, 1973), and for similar reasons, recovered very quickly.
Within a few days, most of the intruders were killed or captivated, the reserve army was drafted for training and the air force attacked targets in the Strip. After 3 weeks the army invaded the Strip in a ground battle which had never been fought before.
Until now, it has been proven that Hamas was using hospitals and schools. U.N. facilities and mosques as military bases, using, by force, their population as human shields. They do not mind the total destruction and the human life loss and stick to their fanatic religious beliefs.
The victory over Hamas is essential when we look north to Lebanon where Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran, has the same ideas as Hamas but with a larger army and many more rockets and guided missiles, and place a much higher danger to Israel. It is clear to them that war will destroy the state of Lebanon and that the majority of the Lebanese people are against it, but they are committed to Iran. Therefore, since Iran is a local power, it becomes an international issue to be handled by the USA and other local powers like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
What can happen after the war? There are several possibilities:
- Israeli occupation – nobody wants it, except the Israeli extreme
- A. rule – too weak, unstable, and real concern that Hamas will take over like in 2007.
- Egyptian rule like until 1967 - they rejected the
- International regime, of Arab countries, which will transfer the authority to the P.A. after a long process of
- Similar to 4 but including considerable immigration to host
The international community should commit itself to the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip, under each of the alternatives mentioned above, giving the poor population, at last, hope and future, which was denied by Hamas for so many years.
A remark to the European countries – there are already similar fanatic movements in Europe with the purpose of establishing an Islamic regime according to the Sharia. The Arab minorities are growing fast, they do not absorb the democratic and liberal values of their hosts, and they take advantage of the generous welfare, without contributing back. They prefer countries like Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and Holland. Pay attention that in countries like Poland, Romania, and Hungary there are no Arab refugees. Democracies are committing suicide by not defending themselves.
Michael Dimor 20.11.2023
