BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

 


The area known today as the Gaza Strip was allocated in the 1947 UN Partition Plan for a prospective Arab state. Its borders were based on the ceasefire line that ended the fighting after the 1948 War of Independence. The failure of further diplomatic efforts to end the Arab-Israeli conflict turned, what was intended to be a temporary armistice line, into a de-facto boundary, and the Gaza Strip into a distinct geopolitical entity.

Locked in one of the world’s most densely populated areas, along with unsettled political status, Gaza has always been a focal point of the Israeli-Arab conflict. It has also been, perhaps, the most controversial and  divisive issue in Israel itself.

In the 1956 Suez War, David Ben-Gurion, who was then the Defense Minister, ordered the IDF to capture the Gaza Strip and most of Sinai. His own Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, opposed the plan to take over Gaza. Because of international pressure, Ben-Gurion felt forced to give up his plan to incorporate the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. He  wrote a heartfelt apology to the southern settlements (situated close to the Gaza borders) which, for the first time, had been able to work their fields in safety  and  to sleep peacefully.

The chairman of the opposition Herut party, Menachem Begin, wrote: “Sisters and brothers in the Negev,  my heart goes out to you…. The chairman of Mapai (Labour Party), has withdrawn and abandoned you, your blood will flow like water….. Your settlements will no longer be protected.”

Not only Begin and the Herut party objected to the Gaza withdrawal. General Yigal Allon, a brilliant military leader and a member of Ben-Gurion’s Labour Party, declared in 1956: “Gaza is Israeli no less than Jaffa. Let us rightfully be prepared to defend the Gaza Strip as we would be to defend Be’er Sheba.”

Major General Aharon Doron, commander of the battalion slated to take over Gaza gave an inspiring speech to his soldiers: “Gaza, a living organ in the body of the State of Israel, which has been torn from it………. Gaza, Khan Yunis and their inhabitants are an organic part of the state…”

Three years after the Six-day War the Southern Commander, General Ariel Sharon, declared: “Holding on to the Nahal post in Kfar Darom is vital, not only for security reasons, but to disillusion the Arabs in Gaza that we will leave Gaza any time in the future.”

In 1972, a resolution accepted  by the government of President Golda Meyer stipulated: “A safe border between Israel and Egypt necessitates changes in the previous international border,  taking for granted that we will hold on to the Gaza Strip in Israeli territory.”

For once there was almost 100% consensus between all parties that the Gaza Strip must be part of Israel. It didn’t last for long. This was followed by a fiery debate in a conference which took place within the far-left Zionist party. The few hundred participants  included the  Mapam Party and several left-wing kibbutzim situated close to the Gaza Strip. The “moving spirit” in the debate which took place in kibbutz Nir-Oz, who was opposed to taking over Gaza, was one of the kibbutz members, Oded Lifshitz,  (today one of the hostages being held by Hamas).    

Arguing with him, was also a member of the same party from kibbutz Beit Hashita, who was strongly opposed to the idea of withdrawing from Gaza. He declared: “Even if we agree that Gaza is a cancerous growth, and we operate to remove it from its body, it will remain a cancerous growth and will be more dangerous outside. It is a problem we must solve, and there is only one solution: to integrate it into Israel.

The proposal of withdrawing from the Gaza Strip is not a more humanitarian solution but bad, not only for us, but also for the Arabs. In another few years we will have to return and take over the Strip, and spill the blood of Jews as well as  of Arabs. If we return it today, there will be a next invasion - which will not be initiated by us, but we will be forced into - harsher and crueller.”

This was said in 1972. There is still a long way to go until 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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