Young Israeli soldiers are forcing their fellow Israelis to leave behind their homes as Israel evacuates Gaza and hands it over to the Palestinian Authority, at least in theory. In practice, there really is no “Palestinian Authority”, just a recognized body with a name masking the anarchy and terror of Palestinian life. Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, those are the real powers struggling for control, a struggle so deadly for so little.
It’s a grim task, the removal of “settlers”, people who brought what little material prosperity there is in Gaza. Sadly, were the Palestinians able to cobble together any manifestation of a civilization, were they able to demonstrate any tolerance for their neighbors, this tragic day need never have happened.
We need to understand why it is necessary for the Israelis of Gaza to leave behind their homes to the bulldozer. To stop the targeting of Israeli citizens, the state of Israel has erected a security barrier and has begun to withdraw behind it. How dare Israel defend itself from us! And the Palestinians rage from beyond the barrier, deprived of their opportunities to send women and children as human bombs to kill innocent civilians.
More effective than any “agreement” with the Palestinians, more effective than any “road map,” the security barrier saves lives. But it also means Israel has to pull back from areas they can no longer protect. These are the areas being ceded to the nominal control of the Palestinian Authority.
Americans tend to think of borders like we think of our own border with Canada. A flash of some paperwork and a smile for the customs officer and we’re on our way. Maybe we think of Mexico, where the crossing is slightly more complicated, the border crossing leading to a more alien world. A few Americans have experience with a border crossing in Europe. Again, a flash of the paperwork, maybe a bit more hassle, and then we’re on our way. Not a thought is given to the amount of civilized behavior required between states to make such a crossing of national boundaries so orderly or normal. Even a long history of hostility and suspicion between the United States and Mexico has given way to mutual cooperation (though recent experience indicates there is much work to be done).
The Israeli experience with borders is entirely different. From the beginning Israel has found itself surrounded by hostile states. Internally, the partition of Palestine and subsequent wars with Israel’s neighbors has created an internal population relatively alien and even hostile to the modern Western state of Israel, even as this alien population enjoyed the benefits of not being ruled by Israel’s despotic neighbors.
Israelis experience two types of borders: the external border of barbed wire and armed sentries; and an imaginary line that separates Israel proper from the “occupied territories.” The “occupied territories” were those taken by Israel in the 1967 war, commonly referred to as the West Bank and Gaza, but to many Israelis the West Bank was the ancestral homes of Judea and Samaria.
When I visited Israel in 1985 (before the Palestinian Intifadas) crossing over into the West Bank was less significant than crossing the Wisconsin-Illinois border. To curb Palestinian violence, first came security checkpoints. Then those weren’t enough. And now, the pull back and the security barrier.
Americans need to understand, too, what would happen if the Israeli army pulled back and left the settlers behind. The settlers would be slaughtered – man, woman and child.
Contrast that with Israeli behavior. After the Israeli borders are secured by the pull back and the completion of the security barrier, there will be no mass expulsion of Israeli Arabs. There will be no government-sponsored reprisals against Israeli Arabs. They, too, will have the benefits of living under the protection of the Israeli flag. Their fellow Arabs across the barrier will not know such peace.
Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups are celebrating today. Across the Gaza territory a darkness is about to fall with the end of civilization there. The rest of us should weep.
