BICOM

Giora Eiland served in the IDF for 33 years, rising to Major General. He left the IDF in 2003 and in 2004 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked him to lead the National Security Council, a role he held until 2006. He is a former senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Eiland spoke to Fathom assistant editor and BICOM research analyst Samuel Nurding on 28 April in London about the current situation in Gaza and the need for a strategic Israeli response.

Samuel Nurding: Let’s start with the situation in Gaza, where there is a humanitarian/energy crisis. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced that it will stop paying Israel for the electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip, as well as introduce other measures to weaken Hamas. How can this humanitarian crisis be resolved?

Giora Eiland: Mistakes that have been made by many players, including the State of Israel. First, let’s call Gaza what it is: a  a state. It has very clear borders, a central government in Hamas, an independent foreign policy and an army. Now it might be a state of hostile people but it is still a neighbour of Israel and wherever you have a neighbour, even in a state of war, you can share some mutual interests. And when we try to evaluate the interests of Israel vis-a-via Gaza and vice versa we find that the conflict between the two sides is not as big as it seems. Israel does not have any territorial interest in Gaza, nor any political interest or economic interest. The only interest we have in Gaza is security – we simply don’t want them to shoot at us.

When you ask what the interests of the government in Gaza are, its primary interest is to secure its continued control of Gaza. And in order to achieve that they need two things: international legitimacy and urgent economic assistance. When you compare the Israeli interest with the interest of Hamas in Gaza you do not see any real conflict. Hamas and Israel have the same interest: to ensure that Gaza is rebuilt and that financial assistance is given to Gaza to rebuild infrastructure.

Read the full interview in Fathom.