Israel-Hamas war is a clash of civilizations for a new Middle East - opinion

On October 7, 2023, the war of civilizations broke out. 

Actually, it didn’t break out, it was a break-in. They broke into our communities, our kibbutzim, and our IDF bases on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

In this war of civilizations, we paid a very heavy price. The sadness, grief, and shock will not be forgotten by a single Israeli – not for the rest of his or her life.

On October 7, Western civilization lost and the barbarians prevailed. But have no doubt: It was a temporary loss.In the most despicable, inhumane ways, it mirrors the Middle Ages and other brutal wars in history. But even animals have rules. And even in the Middle Ages there were rules.

There is no nation in the world that can or should pass by in silence in response to such a massacre. In this test, what was is not what will be.

The concept of containment as an option completely collapsed on the morning of October 7. It is no longer possible to contain – as Israel and the Western World have tried to – the struggle of civilizations that we are facing. It collapsed and shattered under the threat of irrational forces. 

Iran in the centre of the web

The axis of terror was activated, armed, trained, and financed by Tehran. If we have learned anything from recent history, it is that if there is a regime that says it seeks your destruction, you better believe it. Don’t underestimate it, don’t dismiss it, and above all: Dive deep down into its dirty shoes and twisted heads, and eradicate it.

The bowing of the heads of modern Western culture, and Israel within it, have fallen victim to ignoring all warning bells, and yes, also to a great deal of appeasement, and the infamous “intersectionality.” Two different worlds that will never meet: The modern West versus the murderous jihad.

“Understanding the motives” of the other side puts us all in existential danger: Israel on the front lines and the West to follow.

THERE IS no longer and should never have been “containment” of a single missile, or rocket, fired at Israel. The first was fired in that spring of 2001, on the city of Sderot. The continuation was the 2005 unilateral withdrawal of Israel from the entire Gaza Strip including Gush Katif, as well as from northern Samaria. But it actually all began with the Oslo Accords.

Until the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1993 by the Oslo Accords, we stood bravely against all terrorist organizations of radical Islam and secular pan-Arabism.

This is the point where the rules changed to our detriment. What began with the introduction of Yasser Arafat, a terrorist redeemed with the blood of hundreds of Jews murdered by him, with the massive release of “security prisoners” (a white-washed name for terrorists) and the creeping transfer of our security into the hands of Arab “subcontractors,” ended with disengagement, with an evacuation from Lebanon, with a demonstrable disregard for all provocation, from all the humiliation our forces suffered, just to maintain quiet.

In the struggle of civilizations, all these measures were seen as a serious weakness.

Now, a fundamental change of the concept is required. Not a “Palestinian Authority,” not buying fake silence through money transfers, not even under the tightest mechanism. Certainly not a return to the dangerous plan of “two states.”

Apart from the historical fact that Israel is the national homeland of the Jewish people, it has already been proven, and more than once, that unilateral withdrawals do not bring peace – they bring war.

A murderous de facto “Palestinian state” was established after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from the PA in 2007.Its horrific results were revealed to us, with the height of cruelty, on the recent holiday of Simchat Torah several weeks ago. Tunnels to the outskirts of Sderot, drones, a huge inventory of anti-tank weapons, mortars and qassams, thousands of kalashnikovs – all of these were directed against Israeli citizens from the Gaza Strip.

A dangerous bet for a similar idea in the name of a “Palestinian state” would intensify the immediate and imminent threat without any strategic territory for the defense of the State of Israel. We must have defensible borders, with the strategic depth of the Jordan Valley.

Tunnels to Kfar Saba and Netanya would be just the beginning of this nightmare. The terrorists would be able to easily reach Ra’anana and Hod Hasharon and Ben-Gurion Airport in the center, Be’er Sheva in the South, and the Jezreel Valley and Afula in the north.

This is the wrong idea for the “day after.” It must be immediately and decisively removed from the international agenda. We must not, as a country that desires life, have an erroneous concept imposed on us. A huge majority of the Israeli population will stand strongly against the establishment of a Palestinian terror state in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

In the New Middle East, Hamas rule – both military and civilian – will be removed from Gaza. 

And no, the PA – which pays salaries to terrorists who murder Jews and teaches Jew-hatred and martyrdom in their school textbooks  – must not control Gaza either. The head of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, has still refused to condemn the heinous terror attacks of October 7th.  And just recently, the Palestinian Authority under his leadership claimed that Israel brought the attack upon itself and suggested that IDF helicopters took part in the attack on the Nova Festival. This is equivalent to Holocaust denial. It’s reprehensible to deny these attacks – especially since Hamas filmed them on GoPro cameras. Therefore the idea that the Palestinian Authority would have any role in the future of Gaza is completely off the table.

It is true that we have a tough and challenging international case in this matter, but with joint efforts, we will succeed in achieving our goal.

So what’s next? And what constitutes a victory in this war of civilizations?

First, the Gaza Strip must be completely demilitarized. When the residents of southern Israel return to their newly rebuilt homes, there will no longer be a threat of terrorism in their vicinities. There will be no more rockets fired from Gaza. There will be no more Hamas training camps in places imagined by some as “vacation villages”.

Within the Gaza Strip, as part of a long-term interim arrangement, there must be administrative control by international bodies that consist of a variety of apolitical groups: The UN, the World Bank, and aid organizations of foreign countries in the West. There must be a new order in the strip. These international organizations would have control over all civil matters, or to put it bluntly: Everything except for security.

There is only one force that can guarantee our security: Israel itself.

There must be long-term security control by the IDF in a security barrier that surrounds the population centers in Gaza. To the North, there must be a barrier of 2-3 km. In the east of the Gaza Strip, along its entire length there must be a security barrier where there is no exit and no way out for any Gazans. In southern Gaza, we must establish an axis that separates the South of the Gaza Strip from the Egypt-Israel border.

Peace is achieved through strength. 

Through this new security arrangement and the new order in Gaza, demonstrating our strength and our unity, the peace we have long awaited will arrive in the near future.

The writer is Israel’s minister of innovation, science and technology.