September 11, 2007 ... Taking possession.

It is now six years since Yasser Arafat was obliged to quell the televised public joy of his people over the 9/11 attack on new York City’s Twin Towers. Since then, Yasser Arafat has ceased to be, but his legacy lives on in Gaza-cum-Hamastan with the most recent incident being the rocketing of the military base in Zikkim which has resulted in excess of 25 wounded.

In spite of all the humanitarian aid including funding by the EU for fuel oil, etc., that is supplied to Gaza-cum-Hamastan at the expense of international tax payers. And in spite of the unilateral withdrawal by Israel from the Gaza strip at great cost to the Israeli economy and distress to those evacuated, there has been no let up in attacks towards Israel from Hamas controlled Gaza. Given all of these indicators, it must surely be time for Hamas to be decisively confronted and vanquished, once and for all.

Because incentivisation and limited containment have failed to convince the inhabitants of Gaza-cum-Hamastan to modify their ideology to that which is consistent with the civilised world of the twenty-first century, Israel must now consider the following process to achieve the necessary peace.

1. Seal off all Gaza-cum-Hamastan borders so that rearming cannot occur. And shut down water and electricity supplies from Israel.

2. Engage all armed groups in Gaza-cum-Hamastan, from all fronts, on a take no prisoners basis until their capability to return fire is exhausted. And, at the same time, arrest and place all civilians--for want of more accurate terminology--into temporary containment camps sited within Gaza-cum-Hamastan. This action should also exclude any media reporting and aid-agencies, except for humanitarian aid supplied by way of the Israeli administration.

3. After due processing, those who cannot agree to a life in the area which is not counter to Israeli interests must be forcibly expatriated to neighbouring middle east states, the west bank excepted. Their property relinquished and paid for at some reasonable market value so as to legitimately, as much as possible, acquire ownership in the eyes of international law. And all of Gaza must be assimilated into Israel proper.

The new envoy to the middle east Tony Blair is now engaged on another track to success, his credibility buoyed by the outcome of the Northern Ireland peace process. From that process we have the somewhat dubious result of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness upon the world stage as international statesman and peace negotiator. But we can at least be sanguine to the extent that under such title they are not killing people. However, to use the Northern Ireland peace process as a working paradigm as per the Israeli context, is erroneous. That is because, as detailed in T. E. Lawrence’s ‘7 Pillars of Wisdom,’ the Arab mind works on very different principles to that of Israelis and contemporary westerners.

It took 37-years to convince the combatants in Northern Ireland to choose a different ideological track, and they were westerners. Since T. E. lawrence’s observations of almost a century ago, and which still hold true for the majority of middle east states, there is zero likelihood of an ideological shift any time soon with respect to the inhabitants of Gaza-cum-Hamastan. According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Arab world is proud to proclaim that their mathematicians discovered the zero. It’s unfortunate that the middle east state Arabs have failed to get beyond the zero. Over decades this may change, but Israel doesn’t have the luxury of such a span of time. So the preceding solution is the only realistic answer for Gaza-cum-Hamastan.