Israel never learns from its mistakes. What Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to implement in Gaza is a poor copy of previous strategies used by other Israeli leaders. If these strategies had succeeded, Israel would not be in this position.
The main reason for Netanyahu’s lack of clarity about his real objectives in Gaza is that neither he nor his generals can determine the outcome of their futile war on the Strip — a war that has already killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
And no matter how hard he tries, Netanyahu will not be able to reproduce the past.
Following the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in June 1967, Israeli politicians and generals saw eye to eye on many things. The government wanted to translate its astounding military victory against Arab armies into a permanent occupation. The army wanted to use the newly acquired territories to create “buffer zones,” “security corridors” and the like to strangulate the Palestinians even further.
Both the government and the military found the establishment of new colonies to be the perfect answer to their shared vision. Indeed, today’s illegal settlements were originally planned as part of two massive security corridors projected by then-Labor Minister Yigal Allon.
The Allon Plan was predicated on several elements. Among other ideas and designs, it called........