two wars account for different priorities

Submitted by myth (Germany), Feb 3, 2020 at 18:25

Nick, you are on to two fallacies of this plan.

First, as you point out there is an active war but only with Hamas. How can any plan combine the West-Bank population and the Gaza bunch into one "Palestinian people"? What connects them, if anything, is that Israel does not want to see the West Bank become a rerun of Gaza should the IDF leave. In a way the West Bank suffers the diplomatic consequences of rockets actually fired from Gaza.

Second, there is another war going on in slow-motion with Hizballah in Lebanon. Out of the two wars South Lebanon poses a serious military threat to Israel. Hamas does not but it does cost Israel a lot of defense capacities that may be needed at the northern border.

I have two conclusions: The immediate threat and problem to solve is Hizballah. In comparison The West Bank is downgraded to an IDF policing operation at best. There is no need at all for a West Bank plan. Israel must resolve Gaza first in order to come up with a recipe to apply to the more messy West Bank situation.

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