The debate in Israel for the past 15 years on whether the disengagement from Gaza Strip has proven detrimental or beneficial to the country is essentially political. Almost everyone involved in it holds the same opinion as they did before the 2005 move to pull IDF troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip, and everyone is juxtaposing it with what could potentially happen in Judea and Samaria in the coming weeks.
The opponents of the pullout are convinced it made Israel weaker. The unilateral eviction taught the Palestinians that Israel succumbs to pressure and terrorism and will give in even more if pushed a little further.
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The proponents of the withdrawal are convinced it made Israel stronger, as instead of investing resources in useless missions, it only fights for what is essential.
Both are as right as they are wrong. After all, anyone who believes that Jews should settle anywhere in Israel will not understand the logic of the disengagement; and those who believed Israel's presence in Gaza was a political and security burden will never understand why fewer than 10,000 Israelis insist on living among some 2 million Palestinians.
Without addressing the political decision itself, the disengagement was problematically executed both in terms of the actual eviction of civilians from their homes by IDF forces and later the state's treatment of the evacuees, but also in the very decision to withdraw unilaterally.
In a sense, 2005 was reminiscent of the 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon, which was perceived as Israel "running away." Worse, instead of bolstering Israel's allies in the Palestinian Authority with a land swap that was conditional on meeting certain terms, Israel gave the area for free – and got Hamas in return.
Hamas has taken advantage of its newfound freedom to increase its weapon arsenal, but the disengagement is not solely to blame. The first rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip as early as 2001 but the breakthrough in their production was made possible by the near-free flow of experts and weapons from Sinai to the Strip, which took place even when the IDF held the Philadelphi Route. It was accelerated after the disengagement but that might have happened regardless.
But Hamas' military buildup is just one aspect. At the same time, Hamas usurped control of Gaza and as sovereign, it is responsible for the welfare of its residents. Gaza Strip is one of the densest areas in the world, and the burden of ensuring the water, electricity, sewage, health, employment has become a liability to Hamas.
The terrorist group's leaders once thought that their military power could protect Gaza, but it might also spell its ruin. That is why since the 2014 conflict Hamas has been wary of launching fresh hostilities.
But Israel is not free of failures in the post-disengagement age. The pledge that any aggression from Gaza would meet a forceful response soon proved hollow. Even the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit ended five years later with a prisoner exchange deal that only encouraged more abductions.
The military-legal-diplomatic leeway Israel earned from the pullout was used to generate only partial deterrence.
Israeli policy had progressed very little over these past 15 years. In fact, Israel never truly defined what its policy on the Gaza Strip is. On the range between peace and utopian co-existence on the one hand and the occupation on the other, every answer is correct.
There has never been an earnest attempt to determine what Israel's objectives in Gaza are or an attempt to achieve them.
The result is that Israel has contributed to the removal of the Palestinian Authority from Gaza, and as a result – to Hamas' power there. In dealing with Hamas, Israel has strived neither for a decision nor an arrangement, and even when it acted – it considerably restrained itself.
The result was always partial and sour and in the absence of clear policy, there is no reason to assume that future operations will end differently.
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