By Chuck Warren
As Israel prepares for the invasion of Gaza, it has called for the evacuation of Gaza so it can proceed with its war aims while minimizing civilian casualties. As has always been the case, the Palestinian leadership will try to get as many Gazans killed as possible to blame Israel for cruelty, and the mainstream media and the left always give the terrorists their desired victory. In the colonialism narratives, the left rudely looks at all Arabs as the same, and it doesn’t bring up the policies of Arab governments—Hamas and others—toward Gaza because Arab oppression of Arabs doesn’t fall within the narratives of colonialism, therefore, it is acceptable. It is only a problem if Jews act in self-defense.
The United Nations should be in charge of this evacuation, but there are two Arab governments that are complicating it, expecting that, again, Israel will get the blame—as it always does. Israel will not allow Gazans in during wartime, which is reasonable. But Egypt has refused to open its borders to the Gazan refugees, too, while Hamas has issued a declaration for Gazans to stay in their homes and not leave Gaza so it can use them as a human shield and blame Israel for it.
Gaza’s history is a complicated matter, but its facts today are not. Yet mainstream media continue to misrepresent both to put all the blame on Israel and absolve Palestinians and other Arabs of any blame. Here’s a brief story of Gaza’s past and present.
Gaza was first a part of the Ottoman Empire. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, it became a part of the British Empire. The British Mandate ended in 1948, and an autonomous Palestinian government took control over it. The head of that government was Hajj Amin al-Husseini. Al-Husseini had escaped a British arrest warrant and sought refuge in Germany, where he worked to recruit Muslim fighters for the SS.
Amini was the head of this government while living in exile in Egypt. A look at the map below shows how this was possible. Egypt had land access to the Gaza Strip, a small piece of land, through the Sinai desert, so the territory could be easily administered from Egypt. Eventually, Amini lost his influence in favor of the Egyptian government, and Gaza eventually fell under the official control of Cairo.
During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel won control over Gaza. The Israeli occupation of Gaza continued until the 1970s. Following the resounding defeat of Egypt, Egypt eventually shifted policy. In 1978, President Anwar al-Sadat visited Israel and set off peace negotiations. U.S. President Jimmy Carter eventually brokered the peace treaty at Camp David.
Gaza’s fate was disputed. Sadat wanted Gaza back, but he didn’t want Gazans. He was so opposed to taking the Palestinian occupant of Gaza back that he allegedly was willing to let go of the peace treaty. Amini’s Nazi government and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict had created a distinct Palestinian identity in Gaza, and the Egyptian government wanted nothing to do with it. So Gaza remained under Israeli control. Israelis began moving there, their numbers reaching into thousands.
The Israelis were not happy about the situation. Gazans had become so ungovernable that the cost of security was becoming unbearable for Israel. For some time in the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority controlled it, while the Israeli military provided the security. But eventually, Israel decided to unilaterally withdraw. In 2005, the military not only left Gaza, but it removed Israelis there, with young soldiers crying as they forcibly evacuated their fellow Israelis from their homes against their wills.
In 2006, elections were held in Gaza, and Hamas joined Fatah, the main Palestinian party, to form a government in Gaza. Soon after, Hamas members began throwing Fatah members off the roofs and took full control of Gaza. It was now under the full control of a terrorist organization whose patron was the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Israel and Egypt, both of which share borders with Gaza, had to react. Here’s where facts of the day are misrepresented. We hear of the Israeli blockade against Gaza, but the blockade is a joint Israeli–Egyptian project. Hamas is an offshoot of Muslim Brothers, the Egyptian Islamist party which Egypt considers a terrorist organization. The last thing the Egyptian government wants is closer ties, flow of supplies, and training between Hamas and the Muslim Brothers. Both Israel and Egypt, not Israel alone, view Hamas and the Gaza population as a security threat, and they have the same border policy.
Israeli and Egyptian militaries control what comes in and goes out of Gaza. Because of Gaza’s location on the Mediterranean Sea, this is even more difficult and requires coastal patrolling.
The challenge is greater for Israel. Gaza doesn’t have a vibrant economy or major industries, and it is hardly sustainable as a place to live without foreign assistance. While many blame Israel for the situation, a look at any terror group disguised as a government—the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Taliban, North Korea, Cuba—suggests that the economic problems of Gaza are the fault of its government. So Gazans too often need to seek work elsewhere. Raf’ah, a town with a population under 100,000, is the closest populated area in Egypt to Gaza. Furthermore, Egypt’s own economy is hardly an attractive destination. Finally, Egyptians have little interest in allowing in Palestinians. In fact, the highway that goes to the east of Egypt stops before reaching Gaza. This is purposeful to make travel to and from Gaza difficult. Israeli cities, meanwhile, are much closer, more in search of workers, and with better benefits. So Israel, at least until Saturday, routinely issued work permits for Gazans to enter Israel as day workers.
Both Egyptian and Israeli militaries have created checkpoints on their borders and heavily regulate exports and imports. In addition to military personnel at the checkpoints, walls also protected the border, which gave Israelis peace of mind to focus on greater threats to their north and in Iran.
The walls were deceptive. Many civilizations were fooled by it, from Athenians to Byzantines. Palestinian bulldozers took those walls down on Saturday, while many terrorists who had just been issued work permits the day before entered Israel legally to kill Jews.
When the war started, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gazan civilians to leave, and many progressives rhetorically asked “where to?” because there is no way to go for them. They implied that this is just Israel’s fault, entirely ignoring that Gaza also shares a border with Egypt, which is even more insistent on not letting anyone from Gaza into its country.
What is next for Israeli security against Gaza is a big question. It is likely that no more Gazans will be allowed to go into Israel to work anymore. From experience, Israel knows how expensive it is to redeploy its military to Gaza, though there might be a decision that it is a price worth paying. Others have suggested rebuilding the walls and adding a buffer zone so terrorists could be neutralized before reaching those walls. If we have learned anything, it is that, whatever Israel decides, everyone will soon forget what the Israelis went through and return to attacking Israel for how it treats the Palestinians, and how Israel’s national security policies are cruel.