New strategies in Israel

With the latest attack on Israelis by Palestinian terrorists, it is time to re-evaluate Israel's current strategy with regard to the intifada. And it is time for America to re-evaluate its plan for peace in the Middle East.

Israel's strategy under Ariel Sharon has been one of defensive retaliation. Mass movement of Israeli troops into Palestinian controlled areas has occurred only after Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis. It has not been completely unsuccessful. With each incursion, Israeli troops have been able to target and either arrest or kill Palestinian terrorists and scatter others from their comfortable nests.

Still, it hasn't been enough. Sharon, like other Israeli prime ministers before him, returns to the illusion that he can negotiate with the current Palestinian regime. Each time Sharon makes diplomatic overtures to the Palestinians, terrorist groups are immediately given the go-ahead to attack Israelis. It is a never-ending cycle: Israeli incursions followed by a period of calm, Israeli attempts to negotiate followed by a wave of terrorist attacks.

The Israeli government has also made the mistake of naming Yasser Arafat as the sole personage behind the terror. The United States has accepted this idea, calling for the Palestinian people to replace Arafat in a free and open election. Unfortunately, the situation is not as simple as one man. Polls of Palestinians show that the plurality supports the destruction of the state of Israel and continued suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. The Palestinian problem is not one of individuals but of collective support for terror. Terrorism is not a perversion of the Palestinian ideal but an integral part of the Palestinian end game.

It is very clear that the actions taken by Israel and America have not procured any peace beyond the intermittent. If America wants an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict, it must support Israel in the implementation of a tough new anti-terror campaign. Here are three practical measures that can and must be taken to end the violence.

Exile Arafat. This plan has been on the table since Sharon came into office, and it is time that it was used. Israel has consistently targeted the Palestinian leadership but, due to international pressure, has not taken out the kingpin of terror, Arafat himself. Without a leader, terrorist groups like Fatah, Force-17, Hamas and Hizbullah will begin internecine warfare, fighting amongst themselves for control of the Palestinian-controlled territories. Let them kill each other off.

Turn off the water and electricity. Israel has been supplying water and electricity to its enemies since the start of the intifada, free of charge. The Palestinian Authority owes Israel millions in utility bills, yet Israel forgives the debt. If Israel stops supplying water and electricity, the PA will fall. The groundswell of support for terrorist groups among the Palestinian people will dissolve once they realize that their support means they can no longer flush their toilets.

Institute a new land-for-peace deal. Since the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel has forked over land in return for violence. It is time that Israel changed the equation back to what it was supposed to be: land for peace -- if there is no peace, Israel will take back land. After each attack on Israel, Israel should catch the culprits and find their place of origin. The Israeli Defense Force should then broadcast to the residents of that city that they have 48 hours to evacuate their homes and take whatever belongings they need and that after that the Israeli Air Force will destroy the city. Israel should then annex the territory, and take it off the negotiating table -- permanently. Some would call this collective punishment, but the Oslo Accord was a collective treaty giving collective benefits -- if the Palestinians fail to uphold their side of the bargain, they must be collectively punished. Either the Palestinians will realize that violence reaps no reward and return to the negotiating table, or Israel will have its land back and the terrorists will have no bases.

The above measures are hardly extreme. Just listen to the founder of the Oslo Accord, Yitzhak Rabin: "(T)hey know very well that if they use these guns against us once, at that moment the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will return to all the places that have been given to them. The Oslo Accord, despite what the opposition claims, is not irrevocable." It is time that Oslo is revoked.

The above measures are hardly extreme. Just listen to the founder of the Oslo Accord, Yitzhak Rabin...

Heck, listen to what our military has been saying for the last 3 1/2 decades.

Another, similia plan from reputable sources, I think best effected in a single action.

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Center for Security Policy

Thoughtful military experts have for many years recognized the risks for Israel should it no longer be able to control the territories it acquired in the course of the Six-Day War in June 1967. For example, shortly after the end of that conflict, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded that, "From a strictly military point of view, Israel would require the retention of some captured territory in order to provide militarily defensible borders."

The Chiefs made the following specific findings:

"The prominent high ground running north-south through the middle of West Jordan [Judea and Samaria] generally...would provide Israel with a militarily defensible border."

"The commanding territory east of the boundary of 4 June 1967 [the Golan Heights]...overlooks the Galilee area. To provide a defense in-depth, Israel would need a strip about 15 miles wide extending from the border of Lebanon to the border of Jordan."

"By occupying the Gaza Strip, Israel would trade approximately 45 miles of hostile border for eight. Configured as it [was prior to 1967], the strip serve[d] as a salient for introduction of Arab subversion and terrorism and its retention would be to Israel's military advantage."

"To defend the Jerusalem area would require that the boundary of Israel be positioned to the east of the city to provide for the organization of an adequate defensive position."

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These findings are as valid today as they were in 1967. In fact, they have been reaffirmed again and again by knowledgeable military professionals. For example, in October 1988, 100 senior U.S. generals and admirals issued a public call for Israel to "retain the Jordan River line as [her] eastern security border" noting that:

"...If Israel loses this line, it would have virtually no warning of attack, its border would be three times longer than the present one. In the midsection of the country it would be 9 to 18 miles from the Mediterranean. Virtually all the population would be subject to artillery bombardment. The plain north of Tel Aviv could be riven by an armored salient within hours. The quick mobilization of its civilian army -- Israel's main hope for survival -- would be disrupted easily, and perhaps irreversibly."

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In 1991, Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly, the highly respected chief of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Desert Storm, said, "Israel's control over these areas is the only guarantee, however imperfect, of peace. Their loss is a prescription for war." He added that:

"The West Bank mountains, and especially their approaches, are the critical terrain. If an enemy secures those passes, Jerusalem and all of Israel become uncovered. Without the West Bank, Israel is only eight miles wide at its narrowest point. That makes it indefensible."

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Importantly, the Israeli Defense Forces are under no illusion about the abiding importance of strategic analyses like that performed by the Joint Chiefs. As the IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak said in May 1993:

"The 1967 Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum [is] still applicable. The Arab arms are reaching superiority over Israel with a qualitative as well as quantitative edge....If Israel has to retake the territories proposed to be given up, we cannot do it without tremendous casualties."

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The Pentagon Plan - Joint Chiefs of Staff Map (1974)

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