A moment before next war

The tragedies in Beit Hanoun Wednesday and in the southern city of Sderot during the past few years indicate that Israelis and Palestinians should no longer be left alone.

The rise of fanatic political Islam in the Territories has made any political solution or even a partition impossible because it has been proven that any territory vacated by Israel, whether in Lebanon or in the Palestinian Authority, is immediately seized by terror. It is violent, destructive and unrestrained terror that stops at nothing to inflict harm on us.

From this point of view, we have no choice but to admit that even transfer of territory to the Palestinians in an orderly fashion, as in the Oslo process, or abandonment as in last year's disengagement from Gaza, has not proven to be beneficial.

Gaza – a no man's land

There is no law and no order in the Palestinian Authority; it is a land rife with street gangs, clans and organizations who view the rampant terror in Iraq or the arrogant leadership of Ahmadinejad as a role model worthy of imitation. Gaza has turned into Somalia or Djibouti, or in other words, a no man's land.

It appears that the Palestinians are planning a large scale military maneuver against Israel that is likely to be executed in about six months from now, after the tons of ammunition they are accumulating in the Strip reach a critical mass of missiles smuggled via Egypt.

At such a time, they are likely to plan a wide-scale military operation and claim victory, despite knowing the price they would be forced to pay, namely, occupation of the entire Gaza Strip.

Following such a war, the world would finally get into the thick of things, as it did in the south of Lebanon, and then it would dispatch a strong peacekeeping force such as UNIFIL. Dispatching such a force would stabilize the situation, but would not provide any guarantee against future Palestinian attacks. What the peacekeeping forces are doing in Lebanon and what they would do in the Territories as well, would be to get the Palestinians or the Israelis into trouble in the international arena if either decides to launch an attack - and this is enough to serve as a deterrent.

On second thoughts, in wake of the terrible incident in Beit Hanoun Wednesday, perhaps the international peacekeeping forces should be dispatched as of now. This way, according to the evaluation presented here, the war planned for spring could be prevented.

Peacekeeping forces in Gaza as well

The deaths in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, and the incessant rocket fire towards Israel's southern cities, is cause enough for the Security Council to become involved and to propose a peacekeeping resolution similar to the one implemented in Lebanon.

It's not much, but compared to the vacuum reigning there today, which presents a broad breeding ground for gangs of terror, it is a lot.

In such an event, the Gaza Strip would become the responsibility of the world, both from a military and a humanitarian point of view. Finally, the disengagement would take on the real meaning of disengaging from Gaza; the Palestinians would become an international problem, which in turn would limit rocket fire towards Israel significantly.

In such an eventuality, Gaza would remain part of the Arab world as its border with Egypt would remain open, but would no longer be linked to Israel – the border between the Palestinian Authority and Israel would remain closed forever. What happens inside Gaza – if the Palestinians gain independence – would be the international community's responsibility, the same community that is currently condemning Israel.

If this move goes well, a similar model can be applied to the West Bank, Israel's last border that is yet to be put in order. This way the separation fence would serve a purpose. An international force would surround Israel from the north, the east and the south and would hopefully stabilize our borders for years to come.

Despite the promising disengagement, Gaza has remained Israeli and the world has been watching it from afar, via its TV screens. It is high time for Israel to sit back and watch the international community take control of Gaza. Those criticizing Israel in the western world would do well to contribute. The time for this has come.