Graham Bacon

At least one Israeli parliamentary member is advocating that the only logical solution to solve the problem of rockets from Gaza on southern Israel is Israel’s complete capture of Gaza. In addition to that, it is the eventual outcome envisaged in Obadiah’s prophecy.

Likud MK Yuval Shteinitz, who chaired the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee in the Sharon government, says that with the breakdown of the border between Gaza and Egypt, Israel’s lone option remains the same: “We must take over Gaza.”

In an effort to force Hamas in Gaza to stop the rocket fire into Israel, the Jewish state had imposed an isolation policy by closing all the entry points for supplies into Gaza. But Hamas and Egypt had co-operated in breaking down the Gaza-Egypt fence, allowing hordes of Gazans to surge into Egyptian border towns on shopping sprees. This released the pressure that Israel hoped would stop the bombardment of her southern towns.

It is interesting that Egypt does not want too close a relationship with Gaza which is trouble town on a large scale. Egypt closed all Suez Canal bridges to prevent Gazans reaching Egypt proper.

Likud MK Shteinitz can see no way other than a complete Israeli takeover of Gaza to stop the rockets. The present weapons are primitive short range missiles with a range of around 15 miles/25km.

But the potential for highly dangerous upgraded missiles is frightening and, sooner or later, Israel will have to take drastic steps to remove Gaza as a launch pad for rockets into all parts of Israel including Tel Aviv. The only way to do that is to take it over completely.

“This is the big lie,” Shteinitz said, “…Egypt is a moderate country that is allied with the West. They fight against extremist Islam only when it bothers them. Egypt is not acting like Jordan, which liquidates the smuggling networks and prevents quantities of arms from reaching the border. Egypt has no intention of allowing the Arabs from Gaza into Egypt proper,” Shteinitz said, “and not even past the El-Arish area [in north-west Sinai]. In the in light of the new open Gaza-Egyptian border, he said, “as I have been saying for a while: Conquer Gaza. That’s the only way to stop the Kassam rockets.”

In verses 19 and 20, under its ancient name of Philistia, the prophet Obadiah foreshadows the takeover of Gaza by Israel in the time of the end. “The South shall possess the mountains of Esau, and the Lowland shall possess Philistia. They shall possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria. Benjamin shall possess Gilead.” Here other Palestinian frequented areas are mentioned as well but the conquest of Gaza is now becoming more inevitable every day. The Israelis, one day soon, will have to do it. Shteinitz anticipates Obadiah.

Right now, in the south Israeli town of Sderiot, up to ten Hamas rockets a day explode in the town over a period of a year. Schools are closed. Only a few Israelis have been killed but many injured. Imagine the uproar if US towns along the Mexican border were subject to this kind of thing. How long would it last if British towns were bombarded across the Channel? Or Canada? Australia? Russia? NATO took over in Serbia/Bosnia in recent years, so why should Israel have to endure such treatment? The answer is that the current intolerable situation doesn’t last forever. Obadiah shows the conclusion of the matter.