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After Hamas Is Destroyed in Gaza

(Commentary) Richard Goldberg - If Washington and Jerusalem share an end-state objective of a Gaza that can never again pose a terror threat to Israel, the question about its future needs to be reframed to ask: What cannot come next? First, Hamas and other terrorist organizations cannot be part of Gaza's future. Demands for a ceasefire in Gaza before Hamas is dismantled would guarantee that the territory remains a base of terror operations indefinitely. Hamas apologists will try to persuade us there is no military solution, only a political one. That is a lie that Israel's military can expose if given the opportunity to finish the job. Second, Israel cannot repeat the mistake of unilaterally abandoning security control of Gaza. Israel gave up security control believing it would get peace in return. Instead, it got 10,000 rockets and a metastasized Hamas threat on its border over the subsequent 15 years, leading to the massacre of Oct. 7. Israel's long-term security control over Gaza - alongside Palestinian civilian control - is the only viable path that safeguards the objective of preventing Gaza from reemerging as a staging ground for terrorism. Third, no political party or governing authority that pledges to destroy Israel, promotes terrorism against Israel, or pushes economic warfare against Israel can be part of a post-Hamas Gaza. This principle excludes the Palestinian Authority (PA) from any role in Gaza. The PA pays people to carry out terror attacks against Israelis and promotes the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign of political and economic warfare against Israel. The writer is a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
2023-12-13 00:00:00
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