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How the Gaza War Changed Israel's Vision of Security

(Newsweek) Yaakov Katz - On March 27, 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 30 Israelis who had just sat down for a festive Passover Seder, after a month which saw more than 100 Israelis murdered by Palestinians in attacks across the country. That same evening, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Israel Defense Forces to come up with a plan to change the paradigm. Two days later Israel launched a full-scale offensive in the West Bank known as Operation Defensive Shield. The results of the offensive, which saw the Israeli military return to all the Palestinian cities it had evacuated a few years earlier as part of the peace process, have been felt now for 22 years. Israel did not defeat Hamas and Islamic Jihad back then. What it did was create a new security reality in which it can operate with freedom when and where it wants to. This is worth keeping in mind when thinking about a possible end to the ongoing war in Gaza. What Israel has essentially done is create the conditions needed to be able to continue to operate in Gaza in the months and years ahead, just as the IDF has been doing since 2002 in the West Bank. The U.S. and Europe will not like this, but will need to understand that Israel does not have a choice. The war, forced on Israel by the brutal Hamas massacre of 1,200 people, changes the way that the Jewish state will conduct security going forward. Israel no longer believes in the idea that high and thick fences will protect it or contain a threat like Hamas. Today it understands that security requires a strong offense just as much as a powerful defense. The writer is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute.
2024-02-08 00:00:00
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