Published: 12 July 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THERE ARE STILL many lessons to be learned, and the government especially should not wait for the next violent escalation to find a better strategy for the Hamas-run Strip; maybe it is time to recognise it as an independent state
Israel's policies towards Gaza had not changed in the eight years before Protective Edge, and certainly not since. We can call this policy simply "maintaining the status quo". This means Israel will continue to suffer from burning kites, and daily harassment along the wall that separates Gaza from Israeli territory.
Further, every few months, there is a "round of violence" with hundreds of rockets fired by Hamas and bombing by the Israel Air Force, and then every few years, a large-scale Israeli military operation.
This situation is treated as a necessary evil that cannot be changed. But there are at least four other possibilities.
Major General (res.) Giora Eiland is the former head of the Israeli National Security Council and the IDF's Strategic Planning
FULL STORY Five years after last Gaza war, it's time for Israel to rethink its strategy (Ynet)
Why Hamas changes strategy, privileges arrangement with Israel (Al-Monitor)
SHLOMI ELDAR: Hamas is not interested in a war with Israel, despite the attack tunnel recently discovered by the IDF
READ MORE
Not just Qatari cash: Why violence has subsided along Gaza-Israel border (Haaretz)
Like previous concessions to Hamas, the decision to allow more Gazan to work in Israel was never published by Israeli officials
Hamas conducts massive surprise drill simulating IDF incursion into Gaza (Times of Israel)
Highly rare exercise appears linked to botched IDF special forces raid in November, comes a day after Israel located 18th attack tunnel under Gaza border
Photo: IDF troops leaving the Gaza Strip at the end of the 2014 war (Reuters)
