Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (ret.) Dan Halutz gave a radio interview this week in which he laid out an ingenious idea to solve the conflict with Hamas in Gaza. He said we need to talk with Hamas, because you hold dialogue with enemies, and create a reality in which they have something to lose. They currently don't have anything to lose, he said. Halutz is not the only one who is sure that this will solve the Gaza problem. Many people in Israel think that if Hamas only had "something to lose," they would want to start peace negotiations.
Reason says that if a major industrial zone is built there, with factories that will provide employment for Gaza residents, the tension will dissipate. If a long beachside promenade, with fountains, is built – along with playgrounds, cafes, and restaurants – Gaza will experience economic growth that Hamas would be afraid to lose. Air and seaports open to the world, not to mention a power plant that will provide electricity to the entire Gaza Strip – to be built with help from Israel and the nations of the world – would all be sites that could not be lost. Needless wars would only cause heavy damage, and of course painful losses.
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The crucial question we need to ask ourselves is why hasn't that happened already? Billions of dollars have been poured into Gaza, which were soaked up by private bank accounts and buried in concrete tunnels dug toward Israel. The money could have been put toward vineyards and fields, schools, colleges, hospitals, the foundations of a massive tourism industry, and import and export trade; why wasn't it? Hamas' simple answer is that it would have been a horrible waste on unimportant things that according to some twisted Western logic must not be lost. Gaza reasons otherwise. Differently.
Israel has many cities, outside of which lie busy industrial zones that are home to factories, machines, raw materials, and even customers. The Ashdod, Haifa, and Eilat ports are flourishing and don't need to be built from scratch. And what's so bad about Ben-Gurion International Airport or the new Ramon Airport in Eilat? They already have runways and control towers and flight routes to everywhere in the world. All that needs to be done is to transfer them to new owners. That is a kind of reasoning that Israel doesn't understand, and until we do, we will continue to take a beating and get bogged down even further. There is also the danger that eventually, we'll be the losers, no matter how enlightened.
There are also those among us who entertain the utterly impossible idea of creating separation between Hamas and the population of Gaza. That's a dangerous game that would lead to bloodshed. An organization that does not hesitate to use women and children as human shields will take no pity on rebellious civilians. The reality in Gaza is a hard one, and we need to take in the process of reasoning by which in the Middle East, only those who can withstand destruction and loss of life win. That is the Hamas logic.
Hamas members train hard from the time they are in preschool, with a single goal in mind: to die as martyrs. International TV stations will do the rest of their work for them. We also can't wage war against Hamas without harming some civilian bystanders, and their pictures will be broadcast on all the news shows everywhere in the world. If we add to that the fact that Israeli society is very sensitive to casualties, wounded, and abductions, we'll start to understand that we have to start thinking differently. Completely differently.
