Weekly Commentary: Would you buy a peace plan from the 100 meter wide
Philadelphi gang?
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 7 April 2011

The critical element of the Israeli Peace Initiative (IPI) launched today by
a collection of ex-brass and former heads of the security services is the
assertion that Israel’s security can be safeguarded via various
international forces and arrangements that substitute for defensible borders
and for Israeli security control of the West Bank and the inclusion of the
Gaza Strip in Israel’s security envelope. ( Koby Huberman, one of the
drafters of the IPI even told me today that the IAF won’t be able to fly
over the West Bank without Palestinian approval under their plan).

The group behind IPI argue that we should defer to their records in active
service in the military and intelligence and simply accept their assertion
as a given.

But we know who these people are. We know their records.

They are indeed people who held key position in the military and
intelligence services.

But while these Israelis have been involved in some very impressive and
important operations for which they most certainly deserve our nation’s
praise and gratitude we also know that these same Israelis were intimately
involved in the design and implementation of a series of security
arrangements in the last decades that cost us many lives.

Let’s keep this simple with an intuitive example that doesn’t require any
particular expertise in military affairs to appreciate:

Israel set the width of the Philadelphi Corridor running between the Gaza
Strip and Egyptian Sinai to 100 meters and declined to widen it when the
opportunity presented itself to do so in the various stages of Oslo
negotiations.

Many of the top people behind the IPI were directly responsible for this.

The 100 meter width made it child’s play for the Palestinians to turn the
Corridor into an ongoing killing field and in turn an area where Israel
found it extremely difficult to effectively prevent the digging of smuggling
tunnels between Sinai and Gaza and their operation

The 100 meter wide Philadelphi Corridor is only the tip of the iceberg.

Again, while these Israelis have indeed been involved in some very
impressive and important operations for which they most certainly deserve
our nation’s praise and gratitude we also know that these same Israelis were
intimately involved in the design and implementation of a series of security
arrangements in the last decades that cost us many lives.

Caveat emptor.

This group is going to have a to a lot more than flash their brass to
convince us that Israel’s security can be safeguarded via various
international forces and arrangements that substitute for defensible borders
and for Israeli security control of the West Bank and the inclusion of the
Gaza Strip in Israel’s security envelope.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il