By Avi Shaked, 16.02.08

I would like to compare the circumstances that caused the second war in Lebanon to the circumstances that currently exist between Israel and Gaza and ask whether or not they present cause to invade Gaza.
In the summer of 2006, an IDF patrol inside Israeli territory was attacked from Lebanon. Seven soldiers were killed in the attack and two soldiers were abducted – Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
Israel could never accept a situation in which the government of Lebanon allows a non-governmental armed body to attack it. The response of the Israeli government to this act of violence came in the form of an attack on the armed body known as Hizbullah.
Following 34 days of fighting, the UN offered a solution to both Israel and Lebanon:
1. To Mobilize the Lebanese armed forces in the southern region of Lebanon;
2. To assemble a special UN force which would also be positioned in the southern region of the country.
These two action points were designed to allow the government of Lebanon to reach a better level of control in its territory so acts of violence similar to those that caused the war in the first place would not re-occur.
In the last seven years, continued acts of aggression are launched from the Gaza territory towards the state of Israel. These acts significantly increased in volume following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005. The results of this situation: 10 killed, 1,000 injured, and a total of 3,000 rockets fired from the Gaza strip to Israel.
No one disputed Israel's right to retaliate in order to protect its citizens. Actions by Israel designed to eliminate the attacks from Gaza are understood.
Should Israel declare an official state of war against Gaza and invade its territory?
No – Gaza is not a sovereign state and does not have an official government which controls it.
Therefore, Israel cannot blame the government of Gaza as the responsible body for this situation.
Israel’s primary interest today is to transform the Gaza Strip and the West Bank territories into one joint country or in case this is not possible, into two sovereign countries. It is not Israel's concern whether the end result will be one joint country or two separate ones. It is also not Israel's concern which one of the two territories will become a state before the other.
Israel's only concern should be that these two entities will become sovereign as soon as possible and thus will be able to be held responsible for the actions coming from their territories. Only after this transformation is completed, will the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have the same interest of stopping all acts of aggression towards Israel.
Israel has lost its window of opportunity which it previously had to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority who once controlled both the West Bank and the Gaza strip and today only represents the West Bank.
In today's reality, Israel’s best course is to remove all opposition to seeing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip become sovereign countries. Only after these steps are taken will Israel be able to re-negotiate an agreement with the opposing governmental bodies of these countries on any issue whatsoever.