It is quite likely that police personnel have more security control over the New Jersey Turnpike than the Israeli government has over the Gaza-Samaria corridor. One need only remember all the fuss that was created over the capture of the Karine-A arms-smuggling ship – and then consider that the current weight of arms shipments between Palestinian areas might well sink a whole fleet of Karines.
And then there was the Gaza disengagement, in which Sharon became the first commander-in-chief to turn a Jewish army against its own people. And again, for what purpose? Well, there were various explanations – most of which have since been totally discredited. Instead of a peaceful and more secure border, Israel is under even stronger and deeper attack than before, with rockets now falling in Ashkelon, not just Sderot. And they are being launched from fields we once cultivated with prize-winning tomatoes in the thriving settlements of Northern Gaza.
The only remaining justification for disengagement is supposed to be demographic: that by withdrawing from Gaza Israel postponed the day when Jews become a minority in their own country. It has always been my understanding that demographics have to do with the location of living people. But the process of disengagement has emboldened those who seek to rid the area of living Jewish people. From the closer range Israel has gifted them, their rockets are targeted to kill Jewish men, women and children.
I say that, like common charity, demography begins at home. Protect Jews from being massacred and the demographic problem will take care of itself. With stronger leadership and a government more committed to the welfare of its own people than confidence-building measures for our sworn enemies, Israel will surely boost its own Jewish population through greater aliyah.
Perhaps the most telling thing is that no one asked Sharon for disengagement. Not the Quartet or even the Palestinians. President Bush was said to have been surprised by the offer. Who would have thought that the territorial depth secured by Israel in a bold preemptive strike in 1967 would be so easily given up by one of the nation’s most brilliant generals in a new strategy of preemptive surrender?
As a byproduct of disengagement, and despite the discrediting of any security dividend, Israel’s most powerful neighbor, Egypt, has regained a foothold in the Sinai. The lukewarm peace we have enjoyed with Cairo since the murder of Sadat has never stopped Egypt’s canal-crossing war games or slowed the massive build-up of its military with the help of $1.3 billion in annual U.S. aid.
How can such aid be justified for a country that is supposed to be at peace with its only powerful neighbor? Especially when that aid figure is not much less than Israel’s own military stipend as a nation surrounded on all sides by powerful foes? And when Cairo is still the world headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ultimate holding company of Al Qaeda?
Al Qaeda has already shown its hand in Sharm-el-Sheikh with a series of bombings and it is only a question of time before they destabilize the government in Cairo. The same goes for Israel’s neighbor Jordan. In the face of this kind of future, can there be any sense in thinning Israel’s borders?
But the new Sharon of the Left appears to ignore all this. Now Israel’s Egyptian friends no longer need practice with pontoon bridges in Alexandria. Sharon has given them the keys to the Sinai in another feat of preemptive surrender.
Which brings us up to the ultimate farce: the Palestinian elections. Mahmoud Abbas, the non-existent peace partner to whom Sharon granted all these concessions, is on the verge of collapse. Why? Well, it’s not just about the popularity of Hamas. Once again you need to look inside Israel for the source of this problem – to an Israli jail cell from which five-times lifer Marwan Barghouti, leader of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, has been allowed by the Sharon government to run a campaign for the PA leadership.
