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EDITORIAL: Resolve the impasse over Philadelphi corridor

opinionEDITORIAL: Resolve the impasse over Philadelphi corridor

As suggested by the present writer on X (a platform that has been transformed at great cost by Elon Musk from what it was, a propagandist for the then owner during the previous dispensation), US soldiers belonging to the faith most trusted by Prime Minister Netanyahu should control the Philadelphi corridor. Control is needed, given that Hamas has not in the slightest abandoned its resolve to eliminate the State of Israel and to the extent possible its Jewish population. Indeed, such an intent had implicitly been made public from the very charter based on which the terror organisation was founded in 1987.

Any organization, any country that refuses to accept the reality of the existence of the State of Israel is suffering for the people belonging to it. No country, certainly no democracy, will willingly deal with an entity which denies the Jewish people their hard won right to a homeland located in what long ago was Judea and Samaria. Since the exile of the Jewish people from their ancestral home, much water has flowed from the Jordan River into the Mediterranean Sea. During this time, Palestine and its people have become a reality that Israel needs to accept for its own tranquillity rather than seek to deny in the way diehard believers in getting back the territories of Eretz Israel do. Of course, Israel needs to ensure that the land available to it is sufficient for security purposes, but the remainder should form the State of Palestine, with both sides recognizing the need to live in peace with the other. Some of the members of the Netanyahu government believe that Eretz Israel is doable and they are wrong. The violence committed by hardline elements seeking to settle in more and more of the West Bank may convert young people into deniers of the right of Israel to exist, and such settlers are a security risk for Israel and must be removed the way they were in Gaza by Netanyahu.

The error made by Netanyahu is that he did not see the reality of what was happening in Gaza and what was being done by the military wing of Hamas to further their cause of removing Israel from the map. While being blind to the cauldron of terror that Gaza was evolving into since its takeover by Hamas in 2007, Netanyahu focussed his attention and his ire on the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority. As Prime Minister, Netanyahu blocked by his actions any hope of the West Bank becoming prosperous and a partner of Israel. As a consequence, the PA lost legitimacy in the eyes of several citizens in the West Bank, some of whom migrated to Hamas, which was gaining ground in the West Bank with every move made by the Netanyahu government against the PA, and there have been several. All said and done, the PA has accepted on condition of mutuality the right of Israel to exist, which Hamas and other terror organisations have not. The activities of Hamas were ignored in Jerusalem, including the use of material for tunnel construction rather than housing. A formidable inventory of bombs and other instruments of warfare were smuggled into Gaza, without any move by the powerful Israeli Defense Forces to interdict them. In 1941, Stalin made the mistake of assuming that the Nazis would not be reckless enough to attack the USSR. For years, until awakened to reality by October 7, 2023, Netanyahu made the same error of assuming that Hamas would not court suicide by attacking Israel.

By now, almost all the military capability of Hamas has been destroyed by the IDF, and by policing the Philadelphi corridor through reliable forces, reinforcements would be blocked. Netanyahu may be worried that an end to the fighting may signal the start of his prosecution and sentencing. Which is why President Herzog needs to pardon the Prime Minister of Israel of all actions he has done until the start of the conflict on October 7, 2023 on condition that Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire based on policing by trusted US forces of the Philadelphi Corridor. Enough of the loss of life. End the war in Gaza while keeping Israel safe, and ensure that the PA moves into Gaza as well, and is permitted to work to convert the State of Palestine into a moderate, prosperous country as so many of its neighbours are.

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