Israel is in turmoil (what’s new?). On the one hand, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has just completed a tour of Europe in which he sought (and failed to receive) support for his long-announced plans for “convergence” – a unilateral withdrawal from most of the West Bank. After European and American leaders failed to back this plan, Olmert changed his tune. He is now saying that he would like to follow the Road Map, skipping Phase I (wait till the Arabs stop attacking us and acknowledge our existence) and going right to Phase II (negotiate, negotiate, negotiate). I have expressed my opinions to this plan in other places. Suffice it to say, for a variety of reasons, I think it is worse than a bad idea.

The Missiles

While all of this diplomatic and political maneuvering is going on, Israel is under fire. Every day, home-made Qassam missiles are fired from Gaza at Israel, focusing on the Israeli city of Sderot. Although the missiles are crude, and not particularly accurate, they do not need to score a direct hit in order to be affective. They hit buildings indiscriminately, whether it be places of work, private homes, or schools. Thank God, there have been no casualties in the most recent campaign. But the city is terrorized. Parents are afraid to send their children to school. A number of times every day, all residents are given a twenty second warning to make it to a bomb shelter. The Qassams are succeeding in completely ruining the lives of the Israeli citizens living in this city (which, by the way, is within the 1948 Israel borders).

Based on public pressure to stop the missiles, as well as a desire to protect its citizens and sovereign territory that is under attack, the Israel Defense Forces have opened a campaign to stop the mobile cells that fire these missiles. For the most part, this consists of firing artillery rounds at locations from which the missiles are fired. They fire this artillery before, during and after the attacks. Although they have scored direct hits on occasion, for the most part the results of this campaign is that the IDF is firing artillery into crowded civilian areas (the firing ground of choice for anti-Israel terrorists), hitting either empty land or private property belonging to civilians. Families have been injured, property destroyed, people killed. Although Israel has a good excuse for all of this (ie: they fire at us, we fire at them), the current artillery campaign does not seem to be effective in stopping the Qassams. The one thing that it does do effectively is hurt “innocent” civilians, and damage Israel’s standing in the eyes of today’s PR-conscious global audience.

Hamas vs. PLO

Finally, we have Hamas and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Hamas won the last elections, and controls the national assembly, as well as the Prime Ministers office. They have always been up front as to their desire to wipe out Israel. In the President’s office, we have Mahmoud Abbas (aka: Abu Mazen). Abbas took over from Arafat, a supposed moderate who desired to make peace with Israel. Abas, a long-time PLO operative and terrorist, who helped to fund the massacre if Israeli athletes in Munich has tried very hard to walk the walk and talk the talk since becoming President. He has been invited to the White House. He has given press conferences proclaiming how he wants peace. He has said that he will stop the terrorism against Israel. However, in more than three years in office, Abbas has accomplished absolutely nothing positive. He has not fulfilled any of his promises to Israel, nor to his electorate.

As a result of Abbas futility (and the corruption of his party), as well as Hamas’ perceived strength at having driven the Zionist Entity from Gaza last Summer, Hamas carried the last election a few months ago. They still refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. As a result of their policies, the world has stopped providing free money economic aid to the Palestinian government. Workers haven’t been paid in month and are close to rioting. They still support (like Abbas’ Fatah organization) terrorist attacks against Israel. They are engaged in a power struggle with Abbas and the PLO. It seems that any day, all out war will break out in Gaza between these two groups.

All the while, the missiles continue to fall, Israel continues to fire back, and Olmert keeps on talking about his grand plans for sabotaging Israel.

So What Should Israel Do?

I did not write all of this in order to be just one more person being critical of everything going on, without making any suggestions for actual steps that can be taken. The above is introduction and background for my ideas, that I would like to present. These ideas are not a final peace plan. The way that things are going right now, I think that it is foolish for anyone to start talking about a final peace settlement right now, as if the different parties could implement any agreement any time soon. Instead, I will present the steps that I feel Israel should be taking immediately in order to protect its citizens and territory from attack, and move in a direction that could eventually lead towards an eventual “peace” agreement.

1) Protect Israeli Citizens

Israel has to make it clear to the world (and to its own people) that its number one priority is to protect Israeli citizens. While an Israeli city is under attack, Israel will use any means necessary in order to defend it.

The following steps will be taken in response to Qassam missiles:

• Based on intelligence (ground, satellite, drone), when a squad of terrorists is seen preparing to fire any ordinance at Israel, they will be blown away. Israel will use tanks, artillery, mortars, ground troops, helicopters and missiles to completely eradicate any group of people that is preparing to fire a missile into Israel. Although this may result in civilian casualties (should the terrorist choose to use someones back yard for a launch area), this is just too bad. Israel is being attacked, and they are entitled to directly respond to these attacks.
• Once it is no longer feasible to score a direct hit on those firing missiles into Israel, Israel will refrain from any further shelling of the areas used for launch. As we have seen in the past month, this tactic does not succeed in stopping the missiles, and it only leads to bad things for civilians and for Israel.
• This does not mean that Israel will ignore missiles launched into Israel. For every missile that is successfully launched, Israel will carry out a targeted assassination of one of the senior members of the terrorist group that carried out the assassination. Israel will publish a list of the next in line for assassinations and make sure that all of the terrorist groups know what will be the consequences of initiating attacks against Israel (the same goes for suicide bombs, and other terrorist attacks). These types of threats have worked in the past, and seem to be the only language that the terrorist groups will understand. And if they think it is a bluff, they had better hide.
• If this does not work, Israel will invade Gaza and physically destroy as much of the terrorist infrastructure as possible

Israel will make it clear (in both word and practice) that all attacks against groups within Gaza end the minute attacks against Israel cease. However, if they persist, Israel’s responses will increase in severity and scope.

2) Provide Material Humanitarian Support to Gaza

Since Hamas has been elected, the people living in Gaza have suffered economically. The foreign aid that had been pouring in has ceased to a trickle (ie: whatever the Foreign Minister can fit in in a suitcase, after he skims some off the top). Although I think that this foreign aid has long been a crutch for its recipients, the immediate consequence of its absence is that many people who are not directly affiliated with the terrorist organization end up suffering. There are claims of lack of food, sanitation, health supplies, etc. A veritable “humanitarian crisis”.

In reaction to this situation, Israel will do the following:

• Using tax money collected on behalf of the Gaza government ($50 million per month, which Israel has not turned over for since Hamas took power), Israel will provide direct material aid to the Gaza residents. This includes medical supplies, food staples, other daily supplies that may be in short order, and tools that can be used to aid the economy in Gaza without supporting anti-israel activities (infrastructure equipment, farming equipment).
• Israel will encourage the other countries of the world to support the Gazans in this fashion (and will try to prevent any plans to funnel money to Gaza through “humanitarian channels“. This has not worked in the past, it cannot be trusted to work now).
• Israel will provide absolutely no support for anything that can be related to attacks against Israel. This includes supplying the PLO with 1,000 rifles and 1,000,000 bullets to use against Hamas. If the PLO and Hamas want to kill each other, we will cheer from the sidelines, but we will not step in to support either side. This is because any weapons and ammunition given to the PLO will probably end up being used against Jews.

In short, Israel will attempt to aid the Gaza residents in all humanitarian areas with material assistance, but will not pass over cash, and will not give any aid that could be turned against Israel.

3) No Negotiations Unless…

Israel has made the mistake in the past of negotiating with individuals or groups that were not really telling the truth when they said that they acknowledged Israel’s right to existence. Nor were they telling the truth when they said that they would no longer support terrorism against Israel. As I view these both as being (obvious) prerequisites for a negotiating partner of Israel, Israel cannot make this mistake again.

• Israel will only negotiate with persons who represent the majority of both the “Palestinian” people and government. Today, that means that they would only negotiate with the leaders of the PLO and Hamas
• Israel will not negotiate with anyone who does not first publicly declare that Israel has a right to exist, they denounce all violence aimed at Israel, and they will oppose anyone who does not agree with these statements (in other words, neither Hamas nor the PLO). This is not something to be negotiated over. This is a prerequisite for negotiations
• Israel will not negotiate while there is any violence being waged against Israel. This includes attempted infiltrations, suicide bombings, Qassam missiles, kidnappings, etc. There must be ninety days of quiet before any negotiations will be initiated. Any attack will reset the count (and will stop any negotiations in progress, as well as cause one of the reactions by Israel as described above in #1).

So, in the meantime, Israel could be waiting a while until negotiations begin. What should it do? If negotiations cannot begin for any reason, Israel will work to strengthen its hold on all areas of “disputed land” that will be the subject of future negotiations. The message must be sent that Israel will not wait indefinitely, remaining under fire, and at the same time dismantling settlements and doing the things that Hamas/PLO wants anyway. Israel’s would-be negotiating partners must know that time is of the essence, and that every day in which they ignore reality, deny and attack Israel, the less potential land they will receive in any future settlement.

Final Thoughts

Many of you who have made it this far will disagree with some or all of the points laid out above. Among the responses I expect in the comments are:

• Israel must not respond to Qassams and continue the cycle of violence
• Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders right now
• Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing, racism, etc
• Global Avoidable Mortality, etc

All of these accusations and suggestions fail to address my main concern: the ongoing attacks against Israel that show no signs of ending. Israel’s chief responsibility is not to look good for the cameras, and it is not for its Prime Minister to get invited to the White House. Nor is it to rush through a “peace” agreement and earn a trip to Sweden.

Israel’s chief responsibility is to take care of its citizens, protect its land and to ensure that it will always remain a home for the Jewish people. I think that the course of action that I listed above is a step in that direction.

(This article was cross-posted on Newsvine. Go there for a more involved discussion of the issues.)