The Gaza-Egypt Smuggling Tunnels Must Be Closed
by Dore Gold, The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 14, 2009
When Israelis look back on what caused the current conflict in Gaza, they point to their government’s decision in September 2005 to leave the narrow “Philadelphi Route” that runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. More than Israel’s disengagement from the Strip as a whole, the abandonment of this strategic area made full-scale war inevitable.
The 1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization placed this 100-meter wide corridor, which separated the Egyptian side of the town of Rafah from the Palestinian side in Gaza, under Israeli military control. (The Israeli army gave it the code name “Philadelphi.”) By 2000, local Palestinians, many of whom worked with Hamas, dug underground tunnels between the two halves of Rafah. The tunnels allowed for a lucrative smuggling trade that included weapons.
Admittedly, there were rocket attacks on Israel before the Gaza pullout (the first Qassam rocket was fired in 2001). However, the scale of the attacks totally changed after the withdrawal. Rocket attacks increased by 500% (from 179 in 2005 to 946 in 2006).
The range of Hamas’s rockets also increased following the withdrawal. Locally manufactured Qassams, which could reach targets seven kilometers away, gave way to Grad/Katyusha rockets supplied by Iran that can hit as far as 20 kilometers. These were first used in 2006. During 2008, rockets with a 40-kilometer range came through the Gaza tunnels and into Hamas’s weapons cache. (Continue to Read this Article)
Israel should annex the corridor to Israel and re-establish Jewish settlements there. The Arabs must never be allowed to threaten Israel again. They had their chance and they blew it. They cannot be trusted to keep any agreement they make. Its time to change the rules.
Comment by NormanF — January 14, 2009 @ 2:36 am
Egypt is the real target or should be, they are the facilitators. pretending that this isn’t so only creates an illusion of Egypt as an honest broker or party to our dispute with Gaza. Keep the tunnels and push the Gazans out through them.
Comment by yamit82 — January 15, 2009 @ 4:54 am
But it isn’t and it could be. If not now then when?
Kadima party members should be forced to retire to settlements there. Whatever state it is in, Kadima has earned it.
Comment by Max — January 15, 2009 @ 6:43 am