Israel and the Palestinian Rockets

Israel and the Palestinian Rockets

The fundamental assumption here is that what Israel really wants is to stop the rocket attacks from Gaza onto the surrounding communities. If Israel’s main goal is to topple Hamas, this document is not relevant.

Is Hamas the problem? It is easy to see why the Palestinians democratically elected Hamas to be their government. Arafat and Fatah were a bunch of corrupt crooks. Millions and millions of dollars have gone missing with none of the western donor governments caring where they went. Arafat’s strategy seemed to be to try and please everyone, yet keep baiting and switching to keep everyone off balance. He was a multimillionaire, yet kept his people in poverty so that they would start the Intifadeh. Hamas was elected democratically, hooray! Yes, the USA preaches democracy and forces it on the rest of the world everywhere, except where it doesn’t suit them – e.g. Egypt, Algeria, Gaza, etc. Israel can stand with Hamas as being against corruption and the impoverishment of the Palestinians.

The Current Situation: The Effect of the Rockets

A Palestinian fires a rocket and blows up a house in Sderot. He becomes a hero to his people. Israel retaliates by invasion, bombings or by closing the border crossings. Israel makes the general populace suffer and so Israel becomes the hated enemy to Palestinians. Israel and Gaza are cast into the David and Goliath role, with the Palestinians being the oppressed underdog. Palestinians are happy to suffer and die to cause pain to their enemy. All over the Middle East young Arab men volunteer for suicide attacks against Israel. Israel is vilified around the world. The news media report on every bystander killed – especially women, children, hospitals, etc. Everyone feels sympathy for the underdog. One might suppose that Hamas is using the public as human shields, but it seems to make no difference to the news media. (This is exactly what Hezbolah did in the summer of 2006.) It should be totally obvious to the Israeli decision-makers that their strategy is a total failure – especially after the defeat by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel again was justly condemned for using cluster bomblets that can remain undetonated long after the conflict is over. Israel’s strategy seems largely ineffective militarily and is a public relations disaster.

The Solution

The solution is a different strategy. Place artillery divisions around the northern part of Gaza. For every rocket attack on Israel from Gaza, fire a rocket back. This is a proportional response (and follows exactly the “eye-for-an-eye” principle). Now, in order to be a deterrent the Israeli rockets should cause more damage than the Palestinian ones – it should be no problem for Israel to use bigger rockets.

The new strategy must be declared publicly in advance to the Palestinians and to the whole world: “Beginning next week we will start our new response to the rocket attacks. For every rocket fired on Israel, we will fire one back. Since the Palestinians just randomly target Israel, so our rockets will likewise randomly target them.”

At the end of each day, record the number of rockets fired, and then tell each artillery group how many rockets they should fire back (adding up to the total). The artillery commanders can use their own judgment as to where to aim exactly.

This strategy must go hand in hand with another policy: open trade with Gaza. Israel needs to open the border crossings to trade; it needs to allow goods in and out, electricity, medical supplies, food, etc. Israel does not need to treat Gaza as a charity case, providing electricity and medical supplies below cost, but it should deal fairly with them (economically). The rocket attacks should not affect this trade. By allowing trade Israel is helping the average Palestinian to have a better life. You are helping the society to become more affluent. Someone who is making your life better is no longer your hated enemy. The animosity towards Israel should decrease (except from the rabid fundamentalists).

Results:

Israel needs to use its media to push this message: We have nothing against Palestinians or Hamas. We are happy to sell you food, concrete, etc. We are not the bad guys, we are the good guys, happy and willing to help you. The bad guys are those who launch the rockets. If you don’t want to get your houses destroyed in turn, all you have to do is to stop the rocket launchers.

The whole idea is to get those who launch rockets to be seen as the problem, as the bad guys. Then the Palestinians themselves will exert pressure to stop the launches. This is far superior to Israel trying to stop the launches. Israel should be seen as the good guy. The response is measured and is totally predictable. If you want Israel to fire back 10 rockets, then shoot 10 at Israel. If you want Israel to fire back no rockets, then fire none at Israel. The control is completely in the hands of the Palestinians.

The same strategy can be used in the future with Hezbollah in Lebanon. This strategy gets around the use of human shields that the rocket launchers love so much, because it ties the hands of Israel, forcing ground invasions.

Possible objections and problems:

1. Israel may not have the guts to deal openly with Hamas since Hamas has called for the destruction of Israel. The government may be too weak to pull this off. And yet, the strategy outlined here is the best way to stop the rocket attacks. Engaging with Hamas will lead to a depolarization of Hamas and may eventually change its nature.

2. The world may condemn this strategy as inhumane as “innocent” civilians are being targeted and killed. (How innocent are they when they are allowing rockets to be launched from their houses and nursery schools?!) However, Israel can say two things to the rest of the world: (i) we are only doing exactly what they are doing to us. It is a measured response, and totally in the control of the aggressors. If they really don’t like our response, all they have to do is change their actions. (ii) Please suggest an alternative strategy that will be better than this one, that does not result in us being targeted month after month, nor the dissolution of our State.

3. Allowing open trade with Gaza will result in more suicide bombings. Not so. Israel is doing a good job of preventing them already. It can just continue the same methods that it is using now. Allowing trade does not mean that free passage of Palestinians into Israel is allowed.

Possible modification: one way that this strategy can be tweaked is to say that Gaza, being the aggressor, must pay for the damage done to Israel – the cost of rebuilding the houses and farms destroyed. Obviously, Hamas is not going to send money to Israel, so what Israel should do is just sell off the gasoline tanker trucks that take fuel to Gaza to pay for the damages. If Gaza wants more fuel, they will have to buy more trucks. However, the other side may counter that Israel needs to pay for the destruction that it causes in Gaza too.