Defeating Hamas should technically be an easy job, but only if done intelligently. The first step is to separate Hamas from its civilian base. Part of Aza is currently under Israeli control; this must be solidified by building a strong barrier between the two sections and ensuring that there are no pockets of resistance left in ‘Free Aza’. Secondly no supplies of any kind will be allowed into ‘War Aza’. There will be carefully guarded transit passages between the two areas. Hamas fighters, who wish to, may surrender at one of the passages after which they will be incarcerated for a period of about 1 year. Women and children and civilians who have no connection to Hamas will be allowed to pass from ‘War Aza’ to ‘Free Aza’. It may be necessary from time to time to destroy Hamas military installations in ‘War Gaza’ if they attempt to build and fire rockets into Israel, but this can be handled by the air force with minimum risk to Israeli lives.
Reconstruction will be limited to ‘Free Aza’ where many of those who have transferred will be employed in the reconstruction process. All humanitarian aid which may be contributed by other countries will be limited to ‘Free Aza’.
It is known that Hamas has accumulated vast supplies of food and fuel and other necessities in hidden warehouses, hence it may take a year or more before all Hamas fighters will have surrendered, but we can afford to wait as long as is necessary.
All of the above is technically feasible and simple to operate. The difficulty will be resisting international pressure. This is where Israel must be completely firm and must exhibit a unified stance, requiring the cooperation of all parties, regardless of petty differences, from the rabid right to the luny left; from the hill-top youth to the Haredim in Meir Shearim. This may be the biggest difficulty. As Benjamin Franklin said in 1776, “we must hang together otherwise we will assuredly all hang separately”.
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