Yehonatan Pollard: Victory and its Aftermath

Jonathan Pollard: 

We must seek leadership which will implement a decisive solution to the threat posed by a radicalized Arab statelet in Gaza. Opinion.

When the guns fell silent at the end of the 6 Day War, Israelis woke up to a new geographical reality. After crushing 3 Arab armies intent on our destruction, we suddenly found ourselves standing atop Mount Hermon-and so much more: We had reconquered our biblical heartland. 

We had achieved the 2,000 year old dream of a reunited Jewish Jerusalem. We had erased the humiliating 7th step barrier separating us from praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. We could once again embrace our mother, Rachel Imeinu, at her Kever. And we had humbled a mighty Egypt, as we gazed across the Canal at a shocked and broken enemy. 

Not since the days of King Solomon had our borders been so great. But, instead of accepting Hashem’s miracle of providing us with more defensible and historically justifiable frontiers, our leaders were confused about what they should do with all the land they had suddenly inherited.

Some, seemingly embarrassed by the extent of our victory, immediately thought of trading much of our reconquered Land for “peace”. Others, appreciating the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we had been given to reestablish our country’s borders along the lines that Hashem had originally bequeathed to us, decided to start a settlement movement in Samaria, Benjamin and Judaea.

But, sadly, the alternative vision of our leaders at the time was not commensurate with the scale of our victory. Tragically, we ended up wasting valuable time that should have been more constructively used by our government to significantly expand the settlement enterprise in the Territories while simultaneously offering the resident Arabs a limited form of autonomy. 

Instead, a succession of our so-called “leaders”, accepted the Oslo lie, brought in Yasser Arafat and his band of thugs, and unilaterally removed our communities from Gush Katif, only to see Gaza eventually taken over by the same Hamas terrorists who just murdered, raped, burned and decapitated our people in the south.

If a reoccurrence of this nightmare is to be prevented we must seek alternative leadership, which will implement a decisive solution to the threat posed by a radicalized Arab statelet in Gaza. Certainly, prematurely assuring the world that we have absolutely no intention of remaining in Gaza is a recipe for disaster. 

It is beyond all reason to promise something which has not yet been agreed upon and probably can’t be until the war against Hamas has ended. This is why all this talk about a definite post war withdrawal sets up expectations that may not be realistic and, worse, may demoralize our soldiers, who don’t want to fight a horrible house to house battle only to turn Gaza back over to a bunch of ISIS wannabes, who will recreate the same Jew hating terrorist enclave from which Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were spawned.

Above all else, we must dispense with the faulty notion that a better, more sophisticated security fence and some type of post war international supervision of Gaza will suffice to protect our communities that exist along the Gaza envelope. Certainly, the idea of returning the PA to run Gaza is totally beyond the pale. 

If the best outcome Mahmoud Abbas could achieve is to reproduce his “pay for slay” PA kleptocracy in Gaza, we should save ourselves the trouble and think of a better solution. This is why, as far as I’m concerned, the only way forward is to annex the Strip and force the pro Hamas resident Arabs to leave. 

I fully appreciate the fact that this sounds harsh and insensitive. But it was pretty harsh and insensitive of these same Arabs to pillage our communities and degrade our captives while they were paraded through the streets of Gaza City.

If we stand any chance whatsoever of rebuilding our Gaza envelope towns and villages, while attracting investment for this region, we must provide an environment that is free of periodic rocket bombardment and cross border raids by blood crazed zombies. 

Putting our faith, once again, in a super sophisticated barrier backed up by strengthened border fortresses simply isn’t going to be sufficient. Indeed, if we’ve learned anything by the slaughter of October 7, it’s that if you yield the initiative to the enemy they will inevitably figure out a way of overcoming your defenses- however insurmountable they may seem to be. 

To forget this simple truth, would be making the same mistake the French made after the First World War when they adopted what was called the Maginot Mentality. The bottom line, then, is that fixed defenses simply don’t work.

Granted, the advocates of our withdrawing from Gaza once we’ve eradicated Hamas are claiming that we can always go back in or strike at will whenever we determine that a threat is materializing there. This sounds reasonable but, unfortunately, it will never work in practice. 

The international community will always condemn us and the terrorists will once again embed themselves with a willing civilian population, which CNN and the BBC will no doubt characterize as innocent victims of Israeli “disproportionality”. If we are ever to get around this particular problem, we absolutely have to remove any and all Arab civilians from the Strip. 

Put plainly, as long as there are Arab civilians that Hamas can use as voluntary human shields, there will always be diplomatic problems limiting our ability to strike them. That’s just a fact of life, not something I’m inventing.

There used to be a time when the thought of expelling Arabs was considered to be too controversial to even think about, let alone seriously consider. But in the wake of October 7, that has changed. This is why it’s critical for our decision makers, as well as our media, to understand that the traumatized Israeli public will absolutely not accept a return to the situation we had before the Hamas onslaught of    October 7. If there is to be a commitment to insure genuine peace for our southern communities, there is no other alternative but to annex Gaza and expel its Arab residents. And if this results in world condemnation, then I think we’re strong enough to slough it off and keep faith with the victims of October 7.

“Never again” means just that: never again will our babies be decapitated or our women raped and murdered by animals based in Gaza. Barbarians, it warrants repeating, who were fully supported by the resident Arab population of Gaza. We are not suggesting doing to them what their “government” did to us. We should allow them to live- just somewhere else.