Israel Must Restrain Terror Reaction
By Louis Sallerson, Columnist
It’s the recurrence of a familiar memory that I have tried hard and continuously to forget. Fragile faced men in skullcaps walking near bodies supported on gurneys, a crowd gathering on a beige-stoned Jerusalem street, waiting with frightened expectancy for a body count. Tragically, these images have returned to Israeli and world newspapers, in the form of last week’s terrorist attack on a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem. A man whose identity is still being determined walked into the library of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva and opened fire with an automatic weapon. After killing eight students and wounding nine others, according to The New York Times, the gunman was shot dead by a security officer.

This attack is obviously a devastating event for the people of Jerusalem and Israel. The pain that it caused will not be easily healed. The shooting is also significant for other reasons. Since the end of the second intifada, there has not been a major attack on any civilian area in Israel. This has been due to the tireless efforts of the Israel Defense Forces, and the cooperation it has received from the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas. There are two initially worrisome implications of such an attack. Firstly, the chance exists that the anti-terrorism effectiveness of the IDF is now questionable. Additionally, in the wake of the trouble that is taking place in Gaza, the Abbas administration may be becoming slightly complacent in how it tries to curb terror.

But, apart from these considerations, Israel is now faced with a very frightening decision. Intelligence suggests that this attack was orchestrated by Hamas, and Israel must find some way to make sure that an event like this cannot be perpetrated again. To deter future terrorism, many Israeli policy makers have proposed a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip to attempt to displace Hamas. This solution, though seemingly the most likely to be taken, would have many awful consequences. The first is the death toll. Since Gaza is a highly populated area with a regime that is dug in for an Israeli offensive, this incursion would lead to scores of deaths for Israeli soldiers, Palestinian militants and Palestinian civilians. Mass Israeli casualties in such an incursion would be a show of weakness for the IDF. It would result in a further loss of Israel’s deterrent power, which has already been reduced because of the inconclusiveness of the 2006 Lebanon War. Fear of the IDF would sink to a level so low that the operation would create more terrorists than it would kill. Also, the loss of civilian life in an incursion would no doubt prompt a large amount of international criticism, which could have a negative effect on future negotiations with the Palestinians and foreign aid from the U.S. In addition to the consequences of civilian fatalities, this proposed operation would probably not effectively debilitate Hamas in the long run. In the short run it could possibly destroy Hamas’ infrastructure, but without a long-term occupation, which Israel is clearly not prepared or willing to institute at this point, the organization will be able to bounce back over time.

The only solution to this situation is to wait. If Israel delays a response to Hamas and, in the meantime, works toward a peace accord with Abbas’ Fatah faction in the West Bank, the Hamas regime will be further delegitimized in the eyes of the international community and the Palestinian people. An agreement would cause the Hamas Gaza regime to either implode or lose the support of the populace, destroying the organization.

Unfortunately, at this time, the Israeli public is demanding an immediate response. The people of Israel, who have seen their fellow citizens tormented continuously by Qassam rockets and terrorist bullets, want a show of force that will signal to them that the government will retaliate for their suffering. However, the calls for government involvement will do nothing to relieve the plight of these people, as a military response will only exacerbate the situation. The Israeli populace, under the guidance of its government, must understand this fact, and choose the course of restraint and an indirect solution to the Hamas issue through negotiation. There is no doubt that many of the people directly affected by the attacks will contend that the absence of an immediate and harsh response dishonors the memory of the students who died. In actuality, though, their memory will be in vain if it leads to a strategy that will only create more bloodshed and conflict for Israel and its neighbors.

Issue 20, Submitted 2008-03-12 02:45:02