I am not a military strategist, but I did grow up in a war zone and have a small amount of knowledge in this respect. What I also have, is a brain and it knows how to interpret information in some way or other; this is a trait unique to mankind.
I have done some thought with respect to what is called in Hebrew tzir philadelphi or the Philadelphi Corridor in English.
I have many questions, some of which are based on my own deductions which I believe to be good, but I do stand to be corrected.
It has been more than 50 years since the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, Israel ceding territory that she had swiftly overrun in the Six Day War. Part of the territory that should have been returned to Egypt was the Gaza Strip. Despite the Strip having previously been a part of Egypt, she denounced any territorial claim to Gaza at Camp David, leaving Gaza for Israel to deal with.
Eventually, this led to the Wye Memorandum and the Oslo Accords, where security of the so-called ‘West Bank’ would be maintained by the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
In the light of recent events, ‘facts’ that everybody knew, have come to light. The Palestinian Authority (PA/PLC) has most definitely not been true to that agreement, and have allowed (read: supported) terror cells to multiply malignantly, taking no kind of action to excise them from areas that they were tasked with policing.
In light of further events, it is also abundantly clear that Egypt hasn’t been a particularly good partner for peace either.
Terrible in fact, as evidenced by the literally hundreds of tunnels that have been unearthed, leading from Gaza directly to Egypt. It is further clear that the local Bedouin population has been running a successful smuggling concern, bringing weapons and ‘stuff’ into Gaza.
The Sinai Bedouins have always smuggled. There was a time when I would buy hashish from them, but I’m sure there is much more money to be made smuggling arms for Hamas. There is also strong evidence to suggest that the head of this ring has connections with the upper echelon of leadership in Egypt.
I wonder if he’s paying a ‘tax’ to Al-Sisi and friends? (Withdrawn – Your Honor!)
In hindsight, directly after October 7th, the control of the Philadelphi Corridor should have been priority number one in the war that has subsequently raged for nearly a year to date. I believe that had Israel done that initially, Hamas’ supplies would have been severely reduced and the war may (possibly) have even ended by now.
So here’s the question. Tunnels, supply trucks, roads, tunneling equipment, machinery and other goods must all, at some time or another, have been present in large numbers in the general area of the Egyptian border with Gaza.
Never mind construction that must have taken many years, how did Israel not know that this smuggling route existed? No satellite surveillance? No human intelligence sources? Zip!!!
More than 250 tunnels along a 14 km stretch of real estate; that’s like one every 50 meters – and no ‘intelligence’ operatives in Israel even noticed! Is this Poisson d’avril?
Where have they been for the last 19 years?
In my mind, this adds up to gross negligence on the part of those that were tasked with the gathering of intelligence. Knowledge that is of critical importance if Israel is to stay one step ahead of the terror that surrounds it, like an ill-fitting suicide vest.
Not to say that Israel hasn’t dipped it’s toes into Gazan waters a few times in recent history, but it seems that none of the intelligence gathered, from any of the prisoners taken, has ever amounted to anything!
This is a very difficult pill for me to swallow, and I believe that any intelligent person should have cause to agree.
Who was asking the questions? What questions did they ask? The wrong ones it would appear, no useful intelligence with respect to Philadelphi at all, none!
We’re not talking here of one or two hundred prisoners. Remember that Gilad Shalit was exchanged for 1000 prisoners, one of whom was Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of Hamas, and orchestrator of the October 7th massacre.
I have no doubt that Israel’s willingness to pay such a high price for hostages has resulted in more hostages being taken – it’s lucrative, and nobody knows that better than Sinwar!
Israel is, however, where she is, involved in a hostile hostage negotiation with a bunch of ‘mediators’ that all have ulterior motives. The Americans have an election coming up, and don’t want a war on their hands at the time. They have no understanding of Middle Eastern culture, and hence no idea what they are actually doing. They look at things through through their own cultural ‘lens,’ making no allowance for the refractive index.
The Egyptians (and Hamas, Qatar and Iran) don’t want Israel in Philadelphi. Hamas stand to have their umbilical cord permanently severed, and Egypt(‘s political elite) may stand to lose out on what is likely a very comfortable revenue.
Israel, on the other hand, has an obligation to protect her citizens and many experts believe that maintaining control of Philadelphi is essential. Some say that it can be given up and reconquered, turning all those that died to achieve the objective into cannon fodder.
The Americans lost the war in Vietnam, their tactic of gaining control of an area and then letting it go again was a disaster. It didn’t work then, and it hasn’t worked for Israel in Gaza, where withdrawing from an area often results in it being reoccupied by terrorists.
Were Hamas to regain control of Philadelphi, they would virtually instantly rearm unhindered by Egypt, and continue with ever escalating efforts to kill as many Jews as they can.
I consider this to be a fact, because Hamas has said it many times, as have Hezbollah and Iran from time to time.
It’s okay to ignore a verbal threat, but when said threat is acted upon many times, then it might just be expedient to take it seriously.
Seen in this light, it is military imperative for Israel to maintain control over this area in order to prevent much future loss of life – including those that will no doubt die in order to retake the objective.
Many sections of the Israeli public are being manipulated by those that would destabilize Israel and create a win for Hamas. They call for a ‘deal now’ which means surrender to Hamas, since Hamas won’t release the hostages unless we agree to their terms, tantamount to surrender.
Hamas is playing the same game they’ve been playing for many years now, and I even wonder whether they actually know where all of the hostages are, or if they’re already all dead.
To demand a ‘deal now’ is to throw all the intelligence garnered to date into the trash and to return us to a simpler time, a time when we were all completely oblivious to what was happening in Philadelphi.
Some time on October the 6th. Are they completely insane?
As I said earlier, the ability to interpret information was given to humankind. Animals act on instinct; they tend to panic en masse, they stampede and their behavior becomes more and more frantic and irrational. They spur each other on, creating a self sustaining cycle of fear, driven by adrenaline and pheromones.
I see parallels in the behavior of some and their hysterical, frantic demands for a hostage deal at all costs, but I’ll leave that open to interpretation.
