Q&A: Rehabilitating Gaza
Rehabilitating Gaza
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I heard Dr. Dan Schueftan argue that we should refrain from helping rebuild Gaza so that it will serve as a warning sign to anyone who tries to mess with us. On the other hand, I was thinking that poor living conditions may דווקא lead people to terrorism, and that they can be bought cheaply to carry out terror attacks.
What do you think?
Answer
I definitely think that isn’t practical, but in my view it’s also not right. If there is terrorism there, then go out and fight it and destroy it. If it isn’t terrorism, then they deserve normal lives. On the utilitarian level, it is likely that perpetual distress would encourage terrorism, although the effect of hardship on terrorism is not unequivocal. But in such a situation I have no doubt there would be major encouragement for terrorism, since they would have nothing to lose. The only idea that might work (and even that isn’t certain) is a carrot-and-stick approach. Only a stick or only a carrot are failed tactics.
Discussion on Answer
Sorry, but carrot and stick doesn’t help at all against fundamentalist terrorism.
After all, that is exactly what Israel did throughout the past several years: expand the Gazans’ fishing zone, increase the quota of workers allowed into the country, etc.—based on the understanding that this would cause Hamas to lose the incentive to carry out terror attacks against us. And unfortunately it was proven that this doesn’t help against a people who want to murder you at any cost. Increasing the number of workers actually increased terrorism by giving them better intelligence before the massacre. I hope we draw lessons after the terrible massacre we went through.
Nir,
I think that until now the stick was a dry twig and the carrot a baby carrot.
If there were security control in Gaza and terrorism were dealt with immediately with a heavy hand and total neutralization (until now they mostly just slapped Hamas on the wrist), and on the other hand schools were established there (with supervision over the content), workplaces, etc., and there were a lifestyle that was possible and worth aspiring to…
Maybe, just maybe. But if it’s practical, then there’s nothing to lose by trying.
If the intention is not to leave the residents with no way to live at all, but rather to leave Gaza desolate of its inhabitants, that is a different matter. I completely agree with that, except that it doesn’t seem practical to me.