Yair Lapid
Gaza’s new line of defense
Huge sums of money donated by West will make it harder for Israel to bomb Gaza
A total of $4.4 billion was collected
in the recent Sharm conference dedicated to rebuilding the Gaza Strip. At this time of a global economic crisis, this is an incomprehensible sum. For the sake of comparison, the entire total of the famous American aid to Israel does not exceed $2.4 billion per year.
Yet the identity of the donors is no less important than the sum of money donated. Our best friends put their hands deep into their empty pockets. Italy’s Berlusconi contributed, and France’s Sarkozy did too, and so did Angela Merkel, and the European Union, and dozens of human rights groups.
And of course, Ms. Clinton made a contribution as well, on behalf of President Barack Obama.
The donors emphasized, of course, that all this money will only be earmarked for humanitarian purposes. It will be used to rebuild roads, schools, hospitals, public buildings, and residential homes.
The money line
It all sounds very positive, until we recall that we are talking about the roads and buildings that we destroyed. Very quietly, without us noticing it, a new line of defense is being established in the Gaza Strip: The money line.After all, these good people did not donate billions of dollars just so the IDF’s list of potential targets can be expanded later on. If they are willing to spend such huge sums in Gaza, it means they are assuming that we do not intend to dispatch our F-16 fighter jets to the Strip yet again.
So the next time we wish to launch a military operation, we will have to ask ourselves whether we can afford to destroy the “Shifa-Berlusconi” hospital, bomb the Carla Bruni school, or raze the “Clinton Center for Culture and Arts.”
