Guy Bechor
Photo: Niv Calderon
No need to kill them
Non-lethal agitating measures that would disrupt life in Gaza may be the solution
If Hamas
prompts 250,000 Israelis to take cover in their bomb shelters, it feels it won. And if we fire at Hamas and children and civilians are killed, Hamas wins again. Finally, the commission of inquiry that will be established will be our third loss. Hizbullah
understood this three-way approach, and now Hamas utilizes it.
So how can we overcome it? Through completely different kind of thinking that is supposed to address the three problems described above.
Who won past wars? Those who came up with new inventions and used them on the battlefield. The invention of the gunpowder, the tank, and the nuclear bomb, for example. In other words, the winner is the one that changes the existing situation and rearranges the cards; the side that introduces a new and unknown element into the war.
The IDF is capable of destroying the entire Gaza Strip, but it cannot do so because we simply cannot kill the civilian population. Hamas is of course taking advantage of this, and with cruel cynicism turned Gaza’s population into its shield. The elderly, women, and children constitute the strategic depth of the terror leadership; without the Palestinian masses, terror could not continue to exist.
So here is an idea, which can be utilized alongside the current IDF operations: Every time a rocket is launched, Israel will respond against the civilian population – but using non-lethal means.
Tear gas cannons will fire it all across the Strip, with growing frequency. Giant speakers will make terrible sounds – sirens, screeches, and loud explosions – first it would last 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, and eventually hours. This could also include Israeli music, or chants of “Hamas is doing this to you,” just like a brainwashing campaign, time and again, and everything at very high volume that does not allow for normal functioning.
Spray them with red paint
During large Palestinian gatherings, planes will spray thousands of Hamas supporters with red paint. The world will ask “why red paint?” and that would enable the “Color Red” rocket alert system, as well as Sderot’s and Ashkelon’s plight, to take front stage.
This should be supplemented, of course, by complete disengagement from Gaza – at the very least, we should cut off the supply of fuel to the Strip that we transfer through a private Israeli company, or the trucks filled with duty money that we transfer every month.
In my estimate, after 10 days like that, with Gaza citizens sleepless, their eyes burning from tear gas, their ears ringing, and covered in red paint, they would stop anyone firing rockets at Israel with their own hands.
And this is what’s special about the idea: Nobody would be able to blame Israel, because the one pushing the button every time and in fact turning on this series of bothersome measures would be Hamas itself, the moment it fires a rocket. And if the world complains – well, these Israeli means don’t kill; those are well known crowd dispersal means.
Every rocket launched, and today there are dozens of those a day, will cause the Palestinian side endless disruptions. That way, Hamas’ rockets will affect its own people as well.
