The incidents which occurred in the aftermath of the Shayetet Incursion onto the Mavi Marmara, revealed two deep problems within the Israeli policy of recent years, whose roots stem from the Gaza disengagement.
The first problem has been the lack of a clear and defined policy in regards to Gaza. The second problem, is the almost complete and utter disregard for joint cooperation between the authorities responsible for military operations and the authorities responsible to create immediate public relations efforts on the ground, this includes the army’s own journalists who should have documented and broadcast the events to the world in real time.
Since August 2005 the State of Israel has been talking in doublespeak in regards to the entity of Gaza. On the one hand, we come and tell the world: “we withdrew to the international border, thus we are not responsible for the events in Gaza”, on the other hand, Israel provides the Gaza Strip with electricity, water, food products, pharmaceuticals, controlled border crossings, and in fact, continues to maintain economic and security ties with its hostile neighbor in the south.
Over the last two decades, the IDF has dealt mainly in fighting terrorist groups. From a strategic standpoint, and in terms of long-term vision, the State of Israel cannot acquiesce to have terrorist groups live alongside its borders; as it applies to Hezbollah in the north, it must as well apply to Hamas in the south, and now more than ever we cannot afford to open another terrorist front on our Eastern border.
Instead of using our PR voices to demonstrate how the situation in Gaza is part of the overall failure of the attempted accords with the Palestinians, we continue to fall into the trap of modern terrorists whose greatest strengths lie in the media arena. Today the State of Israel pays a triple price on the doublespeak it perpetuates with Gaza:
Firstly, a terrorist entity has developed and strengthened itself on our southern border which threatens the security of Israeli citizens. Secondly, there are the economic costs of maintaining the Gaza Strip. Lastly, and worst of all, Israel has had to face an unending international campaign of de-legitimization which culminated in Operation Cast Lead.
The fact that Hamas was elected through democratic elections by the Palestinians as their political governing body, has been conveniently forgotten in international spheres. Through this, the international community has allowed the residents of Gaza to evade all responsibility and has disassociated them completely, from their evil terrorist leadership
In a sense, Israel put itself in a catch 22 when she decided to play on the turf of Hamas and its supporters. On their turf, the strong must always lose to the weak, wounded and dead civilians will always arouse international sympathy, and courageous commandos in army uniforms who are trying to defend their own lives will never arouse sympathy. It's a twisted way of thinking, it isn’t just or fair, it is thought which comes solely from emotion and not what’s rational, but this is the world and reality we live in. Israel must confront the Gaza problem in the same manner that it deals with Palestinian arena overall. We must deal with it through security operations which are backed up by massive public relations efforts. In the absence of Public Relations, every operational victory on the ground will turn into an international drama, which through a domino effect will produce diplomatic crises.
My heart is with the naval commandos who operated as required by circumstance, and with the Israeli government who had to make a difficult decision, which would not necessarily be a popular one. But overall we must significantly refresh our approach and way of thinking. That's why there is a National Security Council, and with it I am confident that the current government can rise to meet the challenge.
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