Halkin Declares War, But Will Israel?

Hillel Halkin has an article in today's New York Sun, proposing An End To Ambiguity. No more using the "T" as if it were some sort of shameful condemnation that the world recognizes and joins in on. Instead, the time has come to openly admit that a state of war exists--and act accordingly.

Here is Halkin's proposal:

"An act of terror," Israel's chief-of-staff Dan Halutz called the Palestinian raid on an Israeli military outpost on the periphery of the Gaza Strip last Sunday, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed, several more were wounded, and one, 19-year-old Gilad Shalit, was captured and is now being held in Palestinian territory.

It was in fact anything but that. If terror consists of randomly killing and maiming non-combatant civilians for the purpose of sowing fear and insecurity, Sunday's raid, carried out by the military wing of Hamas, was the antithesis: A well-planned and well-executed attack on a strictly military target that was chosen long in advance and reached through the laborious digging of an underground tunnel half-a-mile long.

Why, when geologists can detect relatively minor underground tremors deep in the earth, Israeli scientists have been unable to develop equipment to detect the digging of tunnels, which have been widely used by Gaza Palestinians for the smuggling of weapons and occasional raids on Israeli positions, is a question in itself. What is not in question, though, is that if Israel and the Palestinian Authority are in a state of war, the attack in question was a perfectly legitimate act of war.

...the Israeli response to Sunday's raid should not be Chief-of-Staff Halutz's. Rather, it should be: "Fair enough! You fought this time like soldiers rather than like terrorists - we will treat you this time like soldiers rather than like terrorists."

The overall consequences of treating the situation as a war are twofold, according to Halkin:

1. Prisoners will be swapped, but only exchanging Palestinian prisoners who acted as soldiers and attacked Israeli soldiers--no terrorists would be released. According to Halkin there are a small number of prisoners in Israeli prisons who fit that description

2. The PA and Israel are now at war and Israel will act accordingly. Hamas has disassociated itself from those who fire Kassam rockets into Israel, but those were Hamas 'soldiers' who kidnapped Shalit.

a. All borders will be closed

b. All services being provided by Israel will be cut off

c. All branches of the Palestinian government and all those on the Palestinian side who is contributing to the Palestinian war effort are legitimate targets.

d. All civlian Palestinian civilians will not be harmed--and the PA is expected to reciprocate.

It is a deceptively simple strategy, but it still boils down to whether Israel--and it's leadership--have the wherewithal to commit themselves to following through. Once she admits it is a war, Israel has to take those options Halkin suggests, and find others, to push towards some kind of real clear resolution. Israel may not lose such a war, but if the war goes on for too long, it will be a more visible defeat once Israel has redefined the decades-old conflict as a war. Conflicts have lulls, but for the overwhelmingly stronger side in a war it is weakness.

The Palestinians should be careful what they wish for.
But so should Israel.

Israel and Hamas and Palestinians and Operation Summer Rains and Halkin.