We told you so

Disengagement warnings fully materialized; only solution is to return to Gaza
by Elyakim Haetzni

We told you that if you eliminate the Jewish settlements in Gaza, rockets will land in Ashkelon. We told you that the Philadelphi Route and Gush Katif are an essential obstacle between Sinai and the Strip, because only from there we can protect the Negev, yet you counted on the Egyptians and on European observers.

We told you that the Egyptians will not be serving an Israeli interest and that the Europeans will only take care of themselves, but you called us radical and fanatic.

Yet there we go, once the Jews were kicked out, the Egyptians cooperated in turning the Philadelphi Route into an arms highway for terrorists and the European observers simply ran away.

We told you there is no substitute for Jewish presence and that “moderate” Palestinians, “peace seeking” Arab states, and foreign forces will not prevent infiltrations from the Strip to the Sinai and from there to the Negev. We told you that the Jewish settlers living in Gush Katif were in fact protecting Eilat and Be’er Sheva, yet you laughed, uprooted, and expelled.

We told you that the few Qassams fired at Sderot and the mortar shells fired at Jewish settlements constitute a tolerable situation as long as the IDF fights the enemy from within the Gaza Strip’s settlement areas and the settlers handle their suffering with restraint because they went their voluntarily. Yet you presented a self-righteous question: Why don’t you have mercy on your children? Let’s see you answer that question with regards to the tens of thousands of children in Sderot, Ashkelon, and the entire western Negev.

We told you that the soldiers are not protecting the wall, but rather, the city which the wall protects. Yet you were still dissatisfied that the soldiers were “sent to guard the settlers.” Does the war in the south cost less? And those who wish to “save the cost” of soldiers sent to seemingly guard the Judea and Samaria communities, do they still fail to understand that these soldiers in fact guard central Israel?

Trapped in a minefield
We told you that there are no Arabs who would accept the “deal” offered by the Left: Take the 1967 lines but let us keep the 1948. It is for good reason that the Palestinians refer to Sderot as a “settlement” and refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Yet you chose to make peace with yourselves and hoped that the tiger will be satisfied with the settlement chunks you’ll throw its way.

We told you that only settlement activity deters the Arabs because these communities create new roots in the land where the Arabs wish to uproot Jewish existence from. We told you that settlement activity and security will always be intertwined, just like the way it was in the days before the State’s establishment.

Today, the government is helpless: Should we be “drawn” into Gaza again? Should we enter, sustain casualties, and leave? And who will come in our place? There is no other way here: A defeated enemy must lose territory, and in the wars with the Palestinians this means new settlements. Up until now, all the sages of the peace camp have not yet found a better means for deterrence, punishment, and prevention of war.

In Gaza, the “land for peace” doctrine led Israel to a minefield where any advancement means death and we can only be saved by walking back, in the older tracks. The Jews used to control 12% of the Strip’s territory. Today, more than ever, this territory is vital for our national security, and the IDF must occupy and hold on to them.

We hope that we will find the righteous people who despite the wounds of the past would be willing to return Jewish life to the Gaza region and get us out of the minefield.