Why Israel MUST retain control of the Philadelphia Corridor to achieve peace

How the distinction between terrorist intent and capability is the key to achieving a durable ceasefire in Gaza

The Gaza ceasefire debate displays all the maturity of a student conference after-party. Be it in halls of power or the streets of Chicago, all that seems to matter is politics. Whether the Israeli far-right will bolt the coalition. Whether the Biden administration will achieve a ceasefire before the election. Whether Michigan will go Republican. Whether Keir Starmer can appeal to his Muslim voters. And when we’re not condemned to purile political positioning, we are forced to endure a media-led discussion-less frenzy via the medium of emotional blackmail. Not an hour goes by when we’re not creating policy based on the latest (supposed) death count, the latest heart-wrenching image from Rafah or the latest appeal from the hostage families that their considerations are the only ones that count. Well I’m sorry to dissent from the madness. Instead of images or statistics, I am going to apply cold, hard logic.

Allow me to begin by saying what we all agree with: that nothing like this must happen again. Never again must a terrorist faction be able to commit barbaric carnage on an Israeli community. Never again must we allow hostages to be taken from their homes by barbarians. Never again must Israelis or Palestinians be forced to evacuate from their homes. Never again must thousands upon thousands of Palestinians be killed and their property be destroyed. Yes, the blame lies squarely with Hamas for launching rockets from hospitals and setting up bases in schools. Yes, Hamas’ cynical policy of hiding among civilians is causing untold devastation to its people and perpetuating a catastrophe. And yes, the civilian-to-terrorist death ratio is the lowest in human history. But nonetheless people are suffering. Innocent people are suffering. So I repeat: The events of this last year must never be allowed to begin anew.

But what the fools calling for “Ceasefire Now” don’t seem to grasp is that merely stopping the fighting will fail to achieve this objective. Everyone knows that given the time, Hamas - or some similar bunch of anti-human barbarians - will emerge once more, filled to the gunnels with Iranian weapons and ready to launch war anew, armed with their unquenchable passion for death (both Palestinian and Israeli). We don’t need a ceasefire. We don’t even need a “long-term” ceasefire. We need a permanent, unbreakable, “never again” end to the fighting. Israelis must feel safe to return to their homes. International Arab partners need to feel secure investing in Gazan infrastructure. So how to achieve this?

It really isn’t that complicated. As any British teacher who has gone through Prevent training knows, terrorism requires two elements: Intent and capability. The Gaza war has been criticised on the basis that you can’t destroy an idea. And they are entirely correct in this. Just as murder, sexual perversion and torture are ideas that remain as vivid as ever in the mind of your average psychopath, so the destruction of Israel is an idea that the Hamas-infected mind will never forget. But just because we are unable to defeat intent, doesn’t mean that we cannot (easily) defeat capability. A terrorist-sympathiser without guns isn’t going to cause 9/11, blow up a bus or cause havoc in the nightclubs of Paris.

So to defeat terrorism in Gaza is as simple as not letting the weapons in. Granted they can use water pipes to create some home-made rockets; and they are old hands at stirring up the odd riot. But ultimately Hamas will be no more. Stopping the weapons coming in isn’t rocket science. Israel needs to permanently control the so-called Philadelphia Corridor so that both weaponry and weapon parts cannot be transported through the smuggling tunnels. Egypt said that they would prevent this happening. They failed. They have continued to fail. Perhaps their soldiers aided in the smuggling, perhaps they were bribed or perhaps they simply turned a blind eye. Doubtless all three. But in any event the Egyptian authorities were unable or unwilling to stop the import of weaponry into the Strip. [Curious really, because the Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood alliance are the sworn enemies of the Egyptian military regime.] 

Israel, by contrast, can obviously be trusted to put an end to this weapons import industry and thereby end the capabilities of the Hamas terrorism machine. Its foot soldiers will then be as dangerous as your average loner with a grudge. So it is incredible that the embattled Israeli government - and the ever-more desperate US Democrat administration - would even consider handing this tiny, yet valuably strategic, strip of land back to the Gazan authorities ie an international terrorist group. I say this not as an Israeli right-winger; because I am neither Israeli nor a supporter of her rightist political parties. I say this as a person with more than one brain cell. If your aim is a forever ceasefire; if your objective is no more Israeli or Palestinian lives to be needlessly lost again; then no more weapons can enter Gaza. Period. Terrorist capability must go extinct like the dodos. If the consideration for a ceasefire is giving Hamas the Corridor - and thereby the ability to import weapons - then the truce isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. To misquote the clichéd commentary on the Treaty of Versailles, the causes of the Second Gazan War will lie in the unsatisfactory resolution of the First. To end the bloodshed, Israel must control all the borders.

Now one would do well to consider why Israel ceded control of the Philadelphia Corridor in the first place. Why was it that Ariel Sharon gave up this crucial territory under the terms of the 2005 Disengagement?  Was he naive? Of course not. He knew perfectly well of the dangers involved. His miscalculation didn’t concern the Palestinians, whose desire for peace was made perfectly clear through the medium of the Second Intifada. Instead, he tragically misunderstood the mindset of his international Western partners. He understandably believed that should Israel withdraw entirely to pre-1967 lines; should there be no quarrel about the occupation of Gaza having ended under the terms set by the international community; then the Gazan government alone would be seen as culpable for any cross-border incursions. Henceforth any terrorist attacks from Gaza would be seen as an invasion from a foreign land. The Occupation slur would no longer be able to be thrown at an Israel that had so dutifully withdrawn from every square inch. And at long last, the Palestinians would be treated as adults: with agency and with consequences for their actions.

Alas he was wrong. For even today, nearly 20 years after Sharon’s momentous actions, student protesters are still saying that the evil of Hamas is a justified response to - quote - “occupation”. And not only them. Ignorant government ministers from Ireland to Spain are claiming that Gaza was under occupation on October 7th. When it is pointed out to them that the occupation of Gaza ended 20 years ago, they reply that Gaza is “under siege”. When it is noted that Arab Egypt borders Gaza and is either a) part of this siege or b) letting weapons through and that in any case a “siege against weapons” is clearly justified by the fact of Hamas’ actions, they can do little but ignore you because you’ve won the argument. Unfortunately their small-minded sense of self would collapse if they admitted you were right. 

Israel gave up its Philadelphia Corridor  security in 2005 for one reason and one reason alone: to permanently expunge the hated “Gazan Occupation” label from the Western lexicon. Predictably though, Israel’s occupation-parroting “allies” failed to live up to their side of the bargain. So Israel is forced to give up hers. The contract has been broken. If Israel will be accused of Occupation and siege in any event, then let her take matters into her own hands and control the Egyptian-Gazan border forever.

Now it may well be the case that Ben Gvir and Smotrich are incapable of agreeing to any ceasefire deal short of Israel setting up Jewish settlements in the Strip (a bad idea). And Netanyahu may be in an unescapable trap of his own making, so beholden is he to Jewish extremists for his political survival. But I would counsel the Israeli Prime Minister to remain in full charge of the Gaza-Egyptian border even if he were in coalition with Meretz and Ra’am. As a matter of pure, hard logic, it is the only way to destroy Hamas’ capabilities and thereby improve the chance of lasting peace for Israelis and for Palestinians. 

By the same token only Israel must remain in charge of the border between Jordan and the West Bank. This isn’t a messianic-religious wet-dream, but mere applied common sense; at least for all those of us who want a permanent end to death in the Levant. Whilst full Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza is still entirely possible (be it in the form of a State, a State-lite or some other formulation beyond the scope of this article), the borders must be controlled by Israel alone to ensure total demilitarisation. It would be lovely if we could snap our fingers and switch off the terrorist intent lurking in the minds of far too many of the Palestinian population. It would be lovely if the Palestinian education system could be changed overnight with its citizens taught to live in eternal peace with her Israeli neighbours. But if we cannot (in the short term) end intent, we most certainly can end capability. And if for generation after generation the men of violence are unable to to bring their violent aims to fruition, then perhaps one day, only plowshares, doves and fig trees will fill the minds of the people between the river and the sea. 

I believe in peace. But peace isn’t wishful thinking or magic wand waving. It is controlling the supply of arms. It is placing the control of external borders in the hands of those who can be trusted. Only then can the checkpoints be removed and the internal walls be torn down. Only then can Palestinians and Israelis lead their lives without fear. And only then will a light shine forth from Jerusalem to bring hope to the world.