Why is victory necessary in the
conflict with the Palestinians? In a well-functioning country this
question would not be raised at all, for when so harsh, fateful, and
protracted an armed conflict is forced upon a country as the one that
has been forced upon us, the natural and rational inclination is to
respond with total war until clear victory. However, that is not the
situation in Israel. Foolish, fundamentally erroneous statements,
alleging that it is impossible to defeat terror with military force, are
heard here night and day notwithstanding that they have no factual
basis. If anyone still has any doubt on this score, let us say that
Israel’s security situation is intolerable and cannot be allowed to
continue. In the present situation, Israel must achieve a military
victory because any political alternative is based on inhibiting the
assault, but not on putting a decisive stop to it.
Today it is argued that there must
be a “political horizon”. That horizon, at whose center is a Palestinian
state, is said to inspire them with hope and induce them to scale down
and cease the distressing terrorism. This argument, however, is
pathetic, considering that the Palestinians had much more than a
“horizon” in Barak’s concessions, and could have received all they
(purportedly) desired on a silver platter. But the Palestinians rejected
this because they wanted to subjugate Israel in blood and fire and expel
it from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to the last centimeter, just as
Hizbullah had expelled the IDF from Lebanon.
Indeed, before the “Authority” was
established, it was claimed that doing so would lead to peace and
coexistence. But the terror and murder only got worse, turning our lives
into hell. That is because peace and compromise do not exist in the
Palestinian lexicon, and because for them, terror and violent struggles
are not just a strategic choice, but also a kind of “natural right”
(like the right of return). If under conditions of closure the Authority
became a terrorist entity, what will it be as an independent state? It
will be a hundred times more difficult to deal with, since it will be a
state that has been legitimized by the nations—whereas today it still
has only an embryonic government. And, overall, has the experience with
establishing the Authority been so successful that it is wise to go on
and gamble the whole pile, stepping straight into the abyss?
The existing situation of a war of
attrition entails certain costs, including: the intolerable numbers of
dead and wounded from the ongoing terror; the loss of Israel’s deterrent
capacity; an escalation in weaponry that is aimed against us; the
erosion of the national fortitude; the danger of a change in the United
States’ position toward Israel.
Anyone with eyes in his head can
see that if we do not act quickly and resolutely to defeat the
Palestinian Authority and its terrorists, we will never have a secure
future, let alone peace. If the Palestinians do not absorb a crushing
defeat, they will again resort to a violent, ferocious struggle whenever
their demands are not fully satisfied. And, indeed, it is not possible
for those demands ever to be fully satisfied, whether in the framework
of a permanent settlement or some other settlement, while any such
settlement will improve their position and worsen ours.
Achieving victory over terror,
notwithstanding the voices that are heard among us, is possible and has
been proved to be possible in different parts of the world. One example
among many is Turkey’s victory over the Kurdish PKK, which was achieved
resolutely and involved a threat of war against a state providing
patronage to terror (Syria), making a pact with a military ally
(Israel), and capturing the head of the organization, Abdullah Oçalan.
The Turkish success contains important lessons for Israel. The first is
the maintenance of alertness and resolve by the Turkish government and
army in struggling against the Kurdish terrorism with their full force
and without compromises. The second is the unequivocal preparedness to
go even to the brink of war with a neighbor-rival when a vital national
interest is in great danger; and so fateful a measure indeed paid off.
The third is the realization that apparently only the removal of the top
of the enemy pyramid can solve ongoing terror.
We need to
stop and ponder – has the time not come for us, too, to apply the
successful Turkish model to the miniwar that the Palestinians have
imposed upon us for this year and a half, and achieve victory?
