(Mr. Phillips is president of the Religious Zionists of America, Philadelphia Chapter; Mr. Korn, the former executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, is chairman of the RZA - Philadelphia /http://www.phillyreligiouszionists.org/)
Why are most Israelis reluctant to create a Palestinian state in the Judea-Samaria (West Bank) territories? The interception on March 6 of the Iranian weapons ship bound for Gaza answers that question more clearly than any scholar's book or politician’s speech ever could.
Hidden underneath sacks of Iranian-made cement on that ship were dozens of M-302 surface-to-surface rockets with ranges of 50 to 100 miles. Note: the distance from Gaza to Tel Aviv is 43 miles.
The weapons cache also included nearly 200 mortar shells, and 400,000 rounds of ammunition. In plain English, that's 200 short-range explosives and 400,000 bullets for Palestinians to shoot at Israelis.
Since Israel withdrew all of its forces (and evicted 10,000 Israeli civilians) from Gaza in 2005, the Palestinian Arabs who live there have enjoyed self-rule in every respect but two: they do not have total control of their borders, and they do not have a full-fledged army. If they did control the borders, there would be no obstacle to their importing the weapons needed to equip an army, as the interception of the Iranian ship proves.
It is only because Israel controls Gaza's western border --the Mediterranean seashore-- that it was possible to capture the weapons ship before it unloaded its deadly cargo in a Gaza port.
The same is true for the West Bank territories. Back in 1995, Israel withdrew from the cities where 98% of those Palestinians reside. As a result, they have had complete self-rule, under the Palestinian Authority, except for borders and an army. But if granted a state, they would have both. Statehood would enable them to import all the Iranian weapons they want, and to station their newly-equipped army just a few miles from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Also consider just where Israel's border with "Palestine" would be located. An Israeli retreat to the pre-1967 boundary lines means the Jewish state would be just nine miles wide at its narrow midsection. A Palestinian army would be able to cut Israel in two in a matter of minutes. Today, with just rifles, the Palestinians can't do that. Tomorrow, with tanks, they could.
The fact that Israel controls the borders is the reason it has been able to keep Palestinian Arab terrorism to a tolerable level. Under the current circumstances, the Israeli security services are able to go into Arab towns, when necessary, to capture fugitive terrorists and weapons caches. In recent weeks, a series of such raids preempted another round of major terrorist attacks.
But terrorism that almost took place does not usually make the news, and as a result many of us tend to forget how many close calls there are, and how many times the brave actions of Israeli soldiers or police officers prevented a mass slaughter.
Secretary of State John Kerry has lately been promoting a different message. He claims the Palestinian Arabs are becoming more moderate and engaging in less terrorism. At a press conference in Munich in February, Secretary Kerry claimed that "last year, not one Israeli was killed by a Palestinian from the West Bank." But according to the Shin Bet, Israel's General Security Service, six Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks last year, five of them in the West Bank territories.
Contrary to Secretary Kerry, the Palestinians in those areas, far from embracing nonviolence, dramatically increased their use of violence in the past year: the Shin Bet says there were 1,271 terror attacks last year, up from 578 in 2012. Those numbers would have been far worse if not for the preemptive actions undertaken by Israel's security forces--actions that were made possible only because the Palestinian Authority does not control its borders or have an army.
Give them statehood now-- borders and an army -- and weapons ships like the one intercepted near Gaza this month will be arriving in "Palestine" every day.
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