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Why doesn't Israel occupy the Egypt-Gaza border?
They already have a fence around nearly all of Gaza - why not 14 more km? It would be in Gaza, could have secure crossing points and no tunnels.
As Darkal says "Hamas won't smuggle weapons and will be forced to negotiate peace."
Happy to accept Nobel Peace Prize nominations.
If we understood why, we might be able to get past slogans and propaganda and get to the real reasons for the war.
Maybe Israel fears casualties from keeping the border secure. However, it already has hundreds of kilometers of fences and several crossing points with Gaza just as vulnerable to attack and a few more kilometers would make little difference – especially if the end result is no more rocket attacks once stocks were exhausted.
Maybe Israel does not like to occupy another people's land – even if it would bring peace. Given Israel's history, I think we can discount this one.
That leaves one possibility – Israel does not wish to control the Egypt-Gaza border, even knowing this will result in rockets in southern Israel, and a war in Gaza causing hundreds of deaths. Of course Hamas and Egypt also want the border officially closed but open to smuggling, an example of what Israeli supporters call sharing the same viewpoints as terrorists.
So why not?
3 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavourite answer
I just saw a think tank article with this exact same suggestion. I'm going to be useless here & not remember what the complication was. I'll see if I spot the link again.
It's an international challenge. Eygpt has to agree. It was considered a step towards evacting by withdrawing from it & is part of formal agreements from the evacuation that Eygpt has it. I am sure it's come up in back room negotiations going on right now. So you know if it's a viable option it will happen.
That wouldn't fix the underlying problem -- that Hamas wants no end to the conflict until Israel disappears. So, Israel can't negotiate peace with the Palestinians while Gaza is controled by Hamas & Fatah has WB. Something has to give that way if anything is going to move forward.
- darkAILv 51 decade ago
Actually, this is a part I must admit I lack knowledge in. For now, I can only say that Israel used to be in control of the Rafah border pass and there used to be constant terrorists attacks on them there. I don't quite recall how it was passed to Egypt, I think it was somewhere before or while Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Anyways, Israel prefers to avoid Gaza as much as possible. It fears that entering it again might cause an impression of Israel trying to take over territories, when it's infact in the process of giving them back and cause a negative impression.
That's why When Egypt suggested that as part of the current ceasefire agreement, an international force be put over the egyptian border to prevent smuggling Hamas refused. For obvious reasons.
- 1 decade ago
Why dont mexico claim Califorina, N Mexico, Arizona and Texas, and for france to claim lousiana, oklahoma, colorad. let us dismantle it.
