The 4-point plan for toppling Hamas Israel needs to effect a strategic change in the region, by conveying the message that those who attack us will lose territory. This plan will effect a strategic change in a language that is understood in the Middle East. By Zvi Hauser
https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-4-point-plan-for-toppling-hamas
The goal of the war as defined by the political echelon is “toppling Hamas.” We must not settle for such vague wording. Clear and measurable benchmarks need to be adopted to clarify the meaning of “toppling.” Otherwise, we will find ourselves in another aggressive cycle with the attempt to create within the Israeli consciousness, not the Palestinian one, the narrative as if this was an overwhelming Israeli victory.
“Toppling of Hamas” has a clear and specific meaning. Israel needs to announce a four-part plan that will make it clear to our enemies and friends that we are committed to the goal we set for ourselves on October 8. Namely, a strategic change in the region. Here are the four points.
1. Hamas’s military wing comprises roughly 30,000 people. Those who survive will leave Gaza permanently, following a similar model to the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon in the 1980s. This should be Israel’s clear and unequivocal position from the beginning of the conflict. The sooner Hamas surrenders, the more of its people’s lives can be spared. This is also the only deal that is feasible in relation to the Israeli captives. When Yahya Sinwar understands that he can leave the Strip “alive or dead,” he and his colleagues in leadership will choose to save their lives and be willing to exchange the captives. The IDF in Gaza in 2023 is more lethal and powerful than the IDF in Beirut in 1982. Israel needs to make sure the region knows this. Around 11,000 PLO members left Lebanon after more than a month of siege in Beirut. The military wing members of Hamas in Gaza cannot stay either, even if it requires a three-month siege. This is also a necessary condition for the return of the people of Sderot and Netivot to their homes. Just like the PLO went to Qatar, so too will Hamas members go to Qatar or Turkey.
2. The remaining heavy weaponry in Gaza, after the battles, will be transported in convoys towards the Sinai Desert. There, Israel can afford to let the rockets “go rusty,” as was hoped during the pre-Oct. 7 massacre and its flawed misconception. Every humanitarian aid convoy that enters will be followed by a truck loaded with rockets that exits the enclave – no more rockets and missiles in Gaza.
3. Gaza will be declared a demilitarized area where the existence of rocket weapons will be prohibited. The term “demilitarization” is the only international term that allows for aggressive action to preserve peace and security. Demilitarizing Gaza from rockets and missiles will remove the Israeli population from the battlefield, where they have been for over a decade. From this point forward, Israel will act disproportionately against any force-buildup activity that undermines the demilitarization principle. No longer will there be sporadic “mowing of the grass” with a new cycle of escalation every few years; instead, a daily weeding of the garden will happen.
4. Israel will pre-announce its intention to maintain a security zone in Gaza to ensure no further ground incursions into Israeli territory. The October 7 events require an Israeli military takeover of the buffer zones between settlements and Gaza, in Gaza’s territory. In the residents’ language, this would be described as “removing Gaza from the border.” Israel must declare its intention to maintain these areas under its control for at least a decade as a guarantee for peace. If calm and tranquility prevail in the area for a decade, Israel may consider a unilateral withdrawal to the current border. It should be remembered that Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in 2005, with hopes of seeing Gaza flourish. Instead, we received rocket fire. Instead of Singapore, we have a violent Iranian Somalia next door. After more than a decade of missile strikes on our towns and cities and 1,400 fatalities in a single day, Israel is entitled and even obliged to reconsider its unilateral step to withdraw to the 1949 border, which did not provide sufficient security.
It should be emphasized that our current agreements with the Palestinians leave the final delineation of the border, including in Gaza, to the last stage of the negotiations. As Israel has withdrawn unilaterally, it can and must unilaterally change the deployment of its forces and prepare more effectively and securely on a different line.
Some of us also contemplate the historical-philosophical necessity for revenge for the bloodbath we suffered because of the enemy on that cursed Shabbat. For those who hold that view, I say that the territorial acquisition, even if its sole purpose is, as mentioned, to secure security and prevent violence, is the most appropriate response in the language of the Middle East to those who raped our women and murdered crushed skulls of our infants near our border. Neither killing the innocent nor extensive property damage will deter them. Our neighbors and enemies must know that an attack on Israel means a loss of their territory.
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