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Stan Goodenough is an experienced journalist who has written about politics in South Africa and the Middle East for such organizations as The Daily Dispatch of East London, South Africa, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post, and the Virtual HolyLand website. He has been a South African gentile resident in Israel for 12 years. Stan is editor of and .
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By Stan Goodenough
December 22, 2005
Ever fearful of negative international repercussions, Israel's leaders are vacillating over what would be the most appropriate response to the unrelenting mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza.
And unrelenting they have been. There has been no diminishing, no letup in the level of aggressive fire at Israeli targets since Israel withdrew from the Strip last August.
In fact, it's getting worse. This past week saw rockets hit the industrial area of the Israeli city of Ashkelon and two military bases, the second -- just hours before this writing --sending five Israeli soldiers to hospital.
It's only a matter of time before the Kassams kill more Jews.
The answer -- a real and effective response that would bring this terrorism against Israel's Negev towns to an abrupt halt -- is a simple one which can be quickly implemented.
Let the IDF retake Gush Katif.
Let Israel send its tanks and troops back into the recently abandoned settlements.
Let its soldiers and helicopter gun-ships drive out the terrorists who have turned the Katif Bloc into a training ground for more of their ilk; using the once Jewish neighborhoods as a launching pad for their rockets and mortars.
Let the uniformed and armed Israelis secure the violated Jewish towns; let them set up camp amid the ruins of the once-lovely Jewish homes and gardens; let them raise the Star of David over the desecrated synagogues.
Then let Israel send a clear warning to the Arabs: Stop the rocket fire or we will take back more.
And let Israel put the Quartet on notice: unless massive international pressure is brought to bear on the Palestinians to stop the terrorism from Gaza, Jerusalem will allow the evicted residents of Gush Katif to return.
They will come back in, rebuild their homes and schools, re-establish their greenhouses, and reconstitute their communities, with government guarantees that they will never be uprooted again.
Let Israel start this process, and we'll see how quickly the world sits up and takes notice.
The sight of Israel's Merkavas rolling back into the Gush will send the international community into shock.
Outrage will overflow; the world's negative reaction will be in direct proportion to the elation it expressed as it watched Jewish soldiers uprooting Jewish families a few short months ago.
But Israel has enough evidence, enough footage of its painful withdrawal to reawaken recent memories, to deflect this indignation away from itself and towards the Arab side.
For Israel did what it promised to do. It brutally drove its citizens out of their homes, flattened their houses, disinterred their loved ones, and turned Gaza's Jews into refugees for whom charity organizations are now trying to collecting thousands of winter coats to ward off the encroaching winter.
Israel went much, much further than the extra mile. It did what no other nation has ever been willing to do, giving away land it controlled to people who remain committed to its destruction.
And in response, what did Israel get from those enemies? No thanks. No appreciation. No reciprocity. No change. Not so much as a nod. Nothing.
The violence continues as if the Jews were still in the Strip.
If this reality cannot expose the bankruptcy of the land-for-peace approach, what will?
Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon, but instead of peace its citizens today stare over their northern border at 15,000 missiles that have been deployed for cataclysmic use against them.
Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip, but instead of peace on its south-western border it has to send its people into bunkers and deploy early-warning systems while waiting fearfully for rockets to rain down on its schools, kindergartens and homes.
Mark my word, if -- God forbid -- Israel unilaterally withdraws from Judea and Samaria as the Kadima Party plans to do, peace will be just as elusive as it is today.
The day after that withdrawal, buses will continue to blow up in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and shoppers will be blasted to bits in Netanya and Haifa.
Nothing will change, except that Israel will be smaller, its people more vulnerable even than they are today.
History has shown this repeatedly -- Israel can give the "Palestinians" whatever they or the world demands, peace will still elude the Jewish people in their homeland.
If the Jewish state is going to be saved, Israel's governments have to start acting like they head a nation under existential threat.
No more "risks for peace." No more "concessions." No more "good will gestures."
Let Israel retake the Gush.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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