The Middle East Forum’s Israel Victory Project has released an unprecedented in-depth policy paper challenging Israel’s passive “mow the lawn” Gaza policy, instead presenting a path toward Israel Victory.
Brigadier General (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of the Israel Defense Force’s Research Division and former director-general of Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry, wrote “Disarmament of Gaza” for the Middle East Forum.
Jonathan Spyer, the director of research at the Middle East Forum, summarized Kupperwasser’s paper:
“Israel has in recent years allowed a situation to emerge in which it has accepted the emergence on its southern border of an Islamist statelet committed to its destruction. Currently, Jerusalem’s stance toward the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip amounts, as the author of this paper puts it, to seeking “the longest possible intervals of relative calm between major eruptions of violence.” That is, Israel seeks to achieve a kind of live and let live situation vis-à-vis Gaza. This is maintained via a system of inducements – such as the Qatari financial assistance which Israel permits – and occasional punishments. This policy is not the result of careful formulation and planning on the part of the relevant Israeli bodies. Rather, it has emerged as a de facto response to events since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007.”
“In this paper, Yossi Kuperwasser attempts for the first time to examine and challenge the assumptions behind this policy. He asks if Israel has ceded the initiative to the rulers of Gaza and in so doing permitted a dangerous situation to emerge in which Hamas is continually improving its capacities and arming itself with more sophisticated systems, while this situation is accepted by Israel in return for periods of quiet. Kuperwasser proposes that Israel rid itself “of Hamas’s threat by disarming it, prohibiting its rearmament, and demonstrating conclusively that threatening Israel is indisputably against its interests.” To do this, the author suggests a series of pro-active steps and initiatives that Israel should implement.”
In the introduction, politician Zvi Hauser describes the disappointment following the 2005 disengagement from Gaza. Expected to bring peace, the forcible removal of Jews from Gush Katif led to four operations against Hamas.
“Demilitarization should become the overriding goal of Israel’s military strategy vis-à-vis Gaza,” Hauser wrote. “The most powerful army in the Middle East must immediately remove the threat from a far weaker terrorist organization and achieve a decisive victory after fifteen years of inconclusive fighting.”
General Kuperwasser demonstrates how Israel has in recent years allowed a situation in which it has accepted the emergence on its southern border of an Islamist statelet committed to its destruction.
The author attempts for the first time to examine and challenge the assumptions behind this policy, and to ask if Israel has ceded the initiative to the rulers of Gaza, and in so doing has permitted a dangerous situation to emerge in which Hamas is continually improving its capacities and arming itself with more sophisticated systems, while this situation is accepted by Israel in return for periods of quiet.
In the policy paper, Gen. Kuperwasser calls on Israel to rid itself of Hamas’s threat by disarming it, prohibiting its rearmament, and demonstrating conclusively the cost of threatening Israel. He lays out a series of initiatives, including:
– Militarily – operating from the air, sea and ground using “intelligence intensified warfare” (LOCHAMAM is its Hebrew acronym) against the ruling and operational infrastructure in Gaza, as it does in Syria, with no immunity for Hamas leaders.
– Economically – conditioning the money and economic assistance on Hamas’s ending all efforts to arm itself and attack Israel.
– Culturally – completely ending indoctrination of hate and incitement to violence against Jews and Israel, in school textbooks, mosques, media, posters, and beyond.
“Israel has ceded the initiative to the rulers of Gaza, seeking the longest possible intervals of relative calm between major eruptions of violence,” said Gen. Kuperwasser. “This permits Hamas continually to improve its capabilities and arm itself with more sophisticated systems. Israel needs a new, decisive strategy forcing Hamas to accept rules that rid Israel of this threat.”
Zvi Hauser, former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, writes in his introduction that “some doubt the possibility of disarming Hamas, thinking this either not feasible or that it would exact an intolerable cost to Israel.” They are wrong, as Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 proved: “Israel can destroy terror infrastructure in densely populated areas at a much lower human cost than initially feared.”
“Because Israel’s security establishment relies on Hamas to keep order in Gaza,” observes MEF President Daniel Pipes, “it desists from defanging the organization. In contrast, Gen. Kuperwasser boldly calls for disarming and perhaps eliminating Hamas. In the process, he reminds his former colleagues of their mission to win, not passively to preside over a calamity.”
The Israel Victory Project steers Israeli policy toward backing an Israel victory over the Palestinians to end the over 100-year-old war against Jewish sovereignty. This paradigm seeks to convince Palestinians that the Jewish state will endure, drawing on Israel’s earlier and successful strategy of deterrence.
To read the full policy paper, please click on the link:
