Is the Next Gaza War on Its Way?

April 26 2016

The IDF has recently made public its discovery that Hamas has once again been constructing tunnels for infiltrating Israel and killing soldiers and civilians alike. This news, David Horovitz writes, suggests that the terrorist organization might decide that it must attack soon, before Israel finds a way to defend itself:

[P]repared or not, Hamas may now believe it has an urgent incentive to attack Israel again in the near future. It was widely and quite credibly argued, during and in the aftermath of 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, that Israel had narrowly avoided a devastating Hamas onslaught through the network of tunnels the terror group had set up at the time. It was suggested that Hamas had been planning to send hundreds of gunmen through those tunnels, to attack military and civilian targets, to massacre Israelis, to seize hostages—to remake radically the balance of power. It remains unclear to this day why Hamas chose not to attempt such an attack. . . .

With the cessation of hostilities, even as Israel was grappling and continues to grapple with the international community’s failure to understand what it faces from the Gaza terror state—step forward Bernie Sanders, BDS, et al.—Hamas went back to concerted tunneling and rocket manufacture. It has been gaining strength at a “surprising” pace, [an unnamed] senior IDF officer acknowledged in last week’s briefing. And it has been utilizing some 1,000 tunnelers, working around-the-clock six days a week. . . .

Perhaps, Hamas may be asking itself, Israel has been making gains of its own in this relentless battle of wills. Perhaps it has found technologies to combat even Hamas’s well-constructed, deep, and reinforced subterranean attack routes. (Israeli security sources were indeed quoted Monday talking about new “technologies” being utilized to find the tunnels.) . . .

Hamas, which insists on continuing its efforts to destroy Israel, and which demonstrates such supreme indifference to the well-being of the people of Gaza (and doubtless much cynical amusement at the naïveté of the international community), may feel that, fully ready or not, now is the time to attack.

Read more at Times of Israel

More about: Bernie Sanders, Hamas, IDF, Israel & Zionism, Israeli Security, Protective Edge

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula