Gaza redux: 20 years after disengagement, Israel sees what Europe cannot
Israelis now know what Ariel Sharon failed to see: The neighboring Strip cannot be left to Hamas or any radical Islamist Palestinian element.
By Raphael Shore
JNS
Aug 28, 2025
When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulled Israelis out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, he promised it would bring peace and end the violence. He declared that if one missile were fired from Gaza, Israel would have the right to return.
It didn’t take one missile. It took more than 30,000 rockets, mortars and missiles over the course of two decades, four wars and the largest pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust before Israelis were forced to face the truth: Leaving Gaza was not a step toward peace. It was an invitation to war and terror.
For all the world’s accusations, Israel does not lust for conquest. Jews don’t fight unless they have no choice or are faced with kill or be killed.
Our faith and our values drive us to prefer compromise and coexistence. But when survival is at stake, we fight—not for empire but for the defense of our people. If Israel returns to control the Gaza Strip, that is not aggression. It is defense. No sovereign nation can allow a terrorist enclave on its border to fire missiles and butcher civilians at will.
No one expected Sharon—a lifelong hawk—to order a unilateral withdrawal. He uprooted 8,500 Jews living in Gaza and handed over thriving farms and businesses to the Palestinians, receiving nothing in return.
There was no treaty, no recognition, no peace.
The right warned that it was folly. The left hailed him as a visionary. The Israeli media urged to “protect him like an etrog.” But Gaza did not become a model of coexistence; rather, it turned into a fortress of Hamas. Sharon hoped that if things turned bad, the world would recognize that at least Israel tried. He was wrong about that, too.
Billions in financial aid flowed into Gaza over the years, yet Hamas built tunnels, bunkers and arsenals instead of schools and hospitals. Children were indoctrinated to hate Jews everywhere.
People in Sderot, Ashkelon and many other communities in Israel endured constant rocket fire from Gaza, with many of the towns near Gaza having more bomb shelters than anything else. Families lived with knowing they had just 15 seconds to find shelter. Trauma became a way of life, and shame on us, we accepted this “new normal.”
Each round of war ended with Hamas battered but rearming, while the world looked away. The culmination was on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas stormed into Israel’s southern communities, raping, torturing and massacring in medieval barbarity. This was never about borders or settlements. It was about hatred and genocide.
Israelis now know what Sharon did not: Gaza cannot be left to Hamas or any radical Islamist element.
Terror cannot be contained, appeased or reformed. Rather, it must be dismantled—root and branch—and that cannot be done from the outside. To those who cry “occupation,” the answer is simple: Israel already tried withdrawal.
Every soldier, every settler, every trace of Jewish presence was removed as part of Gaza disengagement. And the result was rockets, tunnels and massacres. No one can claim Israel hasn’t given peace a chance. We did. It failed. Enough is enough.
A government’s first duty is to protect its citizens. To allow Hamas to rule Gaza is to abandon that duty. International monitors will never disarm the terrorists. And to withdraw again would betray every Israeli family who has buried loved ones under Hamas fire.
But Israel doesn’t want Gaza. It has no desire to rule over Palestinians. If a real plan existed, one that protects Israelis and frees Gazans from Hamas, Israel would likely consider it. Yet instead of solid ideas, Israel’s so-called allies in France, Canada, Britain and Australia offer nothing but gestures, recognizing a phantom Palestinian state that ignores reality.
Security, demilitarization and civil society are non-negotiable. Until those exist, Israel cannot gamble its survival on wishful thinking.
Paradoxically, retaking Gaza may be the only real hope for Palestinians. As long as Hamas rules, the Palestinians are condemned to poverty, repression and endless war. Hamas does not build homes; it digs tunnels beneath them. It does not heal its people; it hides behind their hospitals. It does not lead to dignity; it chains Gaza to death. Only once Hamas is gone and Gaza is rebuilt under responsible administration will the Palestinians have a chance at peace and a future.
No Israeli wanted this outcome. No Israeli wanted to send soldiers back into Gaza. But this is the reality our enemies chose.
When forced to choose between our survival and their hatred, we will choose survival every single time, regardless of what the world thinks of us.
Israel must return to Gaza not for vengeance or conquest, but because there is no other way to protect our people and no other way to give Gazans a future beyond Hamas. That is why we have no choice. Our future is at stake. We cannot afford to make this mistake again.
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