Some people tend to see the world in black and white: If terror continues, why give terrorists a reward? Those same people also cannot differentiate between Arabs, Hamas, the Palestinians and terror groups. To them, they are all The Enemy.
We must disengage from this simplified point of view immediately. The Gaza withdrawal will not help lessen terror imposed by groups like Islamic Jihad. Only
the IDF and the security services can do so, and they will continue fighting terror even after the pullout, and may even find it easier to do it then.
But not withdrawing from Gaza will also not stop terror.
The pullout will strengthen the moderate factions in Palestinian society, which do exist. True, those who strive to reach a real agreement with us, a kind that recognizes the existence of Israel as the Jewish State, are in the minority. But should we therefore boost them or weaken them?
Those who think as I do, that Palestinians will continue to hold on to terror, must “disengage” the “disengagement” from terror. Pulling out of the Gaza Strip won’t hinder our real capabilities to fight terror.
Fewer Gaza attacks
Terror activities in Gaza have lessened in the past two years as a result of the fence that winds around the coastal strip and through targeted killings of terrorists, mainly by the air force. The decrease in attacks has nothing to do with our presence in the settlements.
Only one source can really limit the IDF’s war on terror - the Israeli government, which must sometimes restrain itself due to international pressure, especially from the United States. The Gaza pullout is meant to help in this aspect as well, and increase the international legitimacy of our actions.
Israel is, unfortunately, in a complex and dangerous strategic territory. We must avoid consolidating an entire world view into a slogan of one or two words. The older generation cannot be like those same youngsters whose world views are expressed through sole words on T-shirts.
To those who cannot “disengage” from the West Bank and Gaza, I must say that security-wise, we must leave the Gaza settlements, because controlling that territory does not contribute to our security. It only burdens it.
- Professor Yitzhak Ben-Israel is a major-general in the IDF reserves and head of the Security Studies program at Tel Aviv University
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