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Why Israel can’t give up the Philadelphi Corridor Righteous anger risks undermining smart strategy

Israeli vehicles drive through the Philadelphi Corridor (EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli vehicles drive through the Philadelphi Corridor (EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP via Getty Images)


September 12, 2024   4 mins

What’s in a name? Only 350 feet wide and nine miles long, the “Philadelphi Corridor” is little more than a speck. Yet it has, in recent weeks, assumed outsized proportions. Before October 7, this tiny sliver of land separating Egypt from Gaza served as a key conduit for arms and cash flows to Hamas. Today, it is the primary roadblock in a deal between Israel and the terror group Hamas.

Under the proposed six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages, the IDF will have to withdraw from the Corridor. But this throws up a conundrum. Vacate the line, and it will be déja vu all over again. Hamas will reconstitute and rearm, waiting for a better day to go after the diabolical Yahud (Jew) again. And Israel will be back to square one.

This is, after all, the lesson of history. Loath to re-occupy all of Gaza after its withdrawal in 2005, the IDF has regularly returned to “mow the grass”, as an Israeli quip has it, to cut down Hamas’ war-making potential. Yet grass grows back quickly. After each IDF incursion, Hamas rebounded with better gear and training. The “Islamic Resistance Movement” used the breathers to build fortified tunnels that accommodated trucks loaded with hardware coming in via Egypt. Cairo could not or would not stop the flow — as it won’t when the IDF does pull out.

Does this make keeping the Corridor a no-brainer? Strategically speaking, yes. But not in a vibrant democracy like Israel, where hundreds of thousands took to the streets after the cold-blooded murder of six hostages, while 101 still remain in Gaza. No doubt, if among the murdered six hostages were my own children, I would march to liberate Yahya Sinwar’s remaining pawns. Anything to “bring them home now”, as the demonstrators demand, and set aside any strategic priorities held up by Netanyahu.

Yet righteous anger does not crack Israel’s harrowing dilemma: save lives or defang Hamas, secure a ceasefire or keep the Corridor? Let’s not forget that Sinwar, a leader whose tactical savvy is matched only by his inhumanity, is not eying a lasting stand-off, let alone a modus vivendi. The point is to restore Hamas to power.

On the tactical level, the cruel point, which might escape a tortured nation, is obvious: Hamas will not release all 101 hostages. For the simple reason that the value of each remaining Israeli will rise. What is more likely is that they will dribble them out and keep the remainder as human bargaining chips to maintain pressure and trade lives for concessions. This game will not end.

Despite knowing this, defence minister Yoav Gallant continues to dismiss the Corridor’s strategic value. A retired major-general, this old hand should know better. Likewise, opposition leader Benny Gantz argues that the IDF could always return, which is true. But how often has the IDF surged into Gaza in vain? The “grass” has always grown back, while the Qassam Brigades have grown stronger with more sophisticated hardware.

History, too, does not favour the optimists, who are convinced that a 42-day ceasefire will produce stability. The multi-year Arab-Israeli truce of 1949 granted only a pause to this accursed region, which then segued into the three Arab-Israeli wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973. An armistice, after all, only works when a beaten enemy can no longer fight, as was the case of Germany in 1918. More importantly, the “Islamic Resistance” isn’t interested in a durable deal, and neither is Iran, which uses Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis as helots in an unending war against the “Zionist entity”.

“The Islamic Resistance isn’t interested in a durable deal — and neither is Iran.”

And there is also a lesson here for Washington, for Iran’s ambitions dwarf Gaza by an order of magnitude. With its proxies, Iran goes after the Little Satan Israel, but the real target is the Great Satan America. Hit Israel, its only reliable ally, and you damage the US. Gaza is not a local mano-a-mano, but the “Great Game 2.0”, to recall Britain vs Russia in the 19th century. And yet, the US is lobbying for a ceasefire.

None of this is to say that Joe Biden or his successor will have an easy decision to make. Desperate to stay in power and out of prison, Netanyahu insists on clinging to such shameful characters as Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The former heads the “Jewish Power” party that would “cleanse” the West Bank of Arabs; the latter leads “Religious Zionism” and believes that starving two million Gazans is “justified and moral”. But spearing Netanyahu’s domestic agenda does not erase strategic issues where he has a valid point.

For argument’s sake, let’s sketch a scenario where Israel vacates the Philadelphi line. Billions of dollars would pour into the Strip for reconstruction. Re-embedded, Hamas would determine who gets what from this cornucopia to restore control and allegiance. With Iran at one step removed, the “Resistance” would rebuild tunnels, re-arm and prepare for the next strike. So far, so bad for the Jewish state — a familiar remake.

Now, contrast this with Israel’s long-term control over Philadelphi, with the Navy patrolling the coast and the Air Force the skies. With its southern flank secured, the Army could concentrate on the far more potent Hezbollah threat in the north. Reliable deterrence would sober up Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon and Ali Khamenei in Iran. All of which is good for the US, as well.

And what of the wider Arab world? Its rulers do have to keep an eye on the “Arab street”, but it is no secret that they want to neutralise Iran’s Hamas stand-in. Though mumbling to do so, Egypt will not tear up a 45-year-old peace treaty, while the “Gulfies” plus Riyadh are not eager to shred the Abraham Accords — an insurance policy against Iran. Not even those 40,000 Gazan dead hawked by the Hamas Health Ministry (and not checked by Western media) have ruptured the tacit alliance. Such is the icy logic of power politics. Yet in a democracy like Israel, exhaustion, angst and anger about slain hostages can overwhelm the reason of state.

Tyrannical regimes such as Hamas and Iran suffer no such constraints. Just regard their murderous game. Hamas wanted to sacrifice its own multitudes to rouse the world against the Jewish state. Part one worked perfectly: Israel is isolated, sanctioned and abhorred. Now we are in phase two: Hamas murders hostages to demoralise and immobilise Israel. That deadly gambit is bearing fruit, as well. But how could Israel give in?

“The state is the coldest of cold monsters,” Nietzsche once wrote. And no state, least of all beleaguered Israel, genuflects before the God of Goodness. It must act morally when it can and avoid foolish wars when it must. Nothing is more important than strategic necessity when the security of the nation is at stake. And it doesn’t take a Clausewitz to figure out why the diminutive Philadelphi Corridor is so critical in this new Great Game.


Josef Joffe is a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University and the publisher of Die Zeit.


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Chris Whybrow
Chris Whybrow
1 month ago

They can and they should, and while they’re at it they can throw Netanyahu in prison where he belongs.

Jürg Gassmann
Jürg Gassmann
1 month ago

The problem is that everyone know why Israel wants to take control over the Philadelphi Corridor – in contravention of the Camp David Accords.
As soon as Israel has control, the Palestinian survivors of Israels relentless onslaught will be pushed into Egypt. Gaza will finally be “cleansed”, and Jared Kushner can build his beach resorts.

Brett H
Brett H
1 month ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

The moment you threw in Jared Kushner I realised you’re not serious.

Jim C
Jim C
1 month ago
Reply to  Brett H

There’s no question Kushner was very involved in ME policy under the Trump admin. And there’s no question that the Zionists would like to get their hands on Gaza, to complete their ethnic cleansing, acquire valuable seaside real estate, and control the valuable gas fields offshore.

The only question is whether Trump will get in again.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 month ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

“Gaza will finally be “cleansed”
A bit like Pakistan was cleansed of Hindus, Turkey was cleansed of Christians, Iraq of Jews, Iran of Parsis….none of those non muslim minorities carried out repeated terror attacks, unlike the Palestinians.

Mike Dearing
Mike Dearing
1 month ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

Contradictions abound. Surely, one of the objectives should be to prevent the smuggling oot of hostages to Egypt and beyond.

Josef Švejk
Josef Švejk
1 month ago

Israel has no choice with Philadelphi. Giving it up for short term gain will ensure Hamas regrouping quickly. Most Israelis realise there will be no peace. Jewish arms and Arab rulers being paid off will make for a tolerable life. That is the most that Israel can expect. A tolerable life.

Jim C
Jim C
1 month ago
Reply to  Josef Švejk

I guess that’s what happens when you set up a colony of racial supremacists surrounded by 400m people who consider them land thieves and genocidal murderers.

Once the West goes bankrupt, who will keep Israel afloat?

If I were an Israeli I’d leave.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 month ago
Reply to  Jim C

“racial supremacists”
Should Israel treat it’s muslims the same way those 400m loveable people treated Hindus, Parsis, Jews, Yazidis and Armenians?

“consider them land thieves and genocidal murderers”
Around the same time a tiny sliver of land with a Jewish majority was allocated to Israel, a far bigger piece of land with a muslim majority was allocated to Pakistan.

The number of muslim refugees from “Palestine” in 1948 was (apart from being less than the number of Jewish refugees driven out from Arab lands at the same time) less than a tenth of the Hindu / Sikh refugees murdered or driven out of Pakistan.

Israel today has about 15% Muslim, who are treated equally under law.

Pakistan has just 1% Hindu, treated as sub humans.

So, any comments on muslims in Pakistan?
Or, say, the Turks, Iranians and Egyptians?

Gordon Black
Gordon Black
1 month ago
Reply to  Jim C

From the seventh century on, the middle east seems to have had lots of land thieves and genocidal murderers … nothing new.

George K
George K
1 month ago
Reply to  Jim C

No. No choice. The Zionist project has been planned with ethnic replacement in sight. Even though they’ve always been very vague about the practical details, always improvising as it went. In the end it has to be either genocide or ethnic cleansing. But it feels like this time the massacre and reverse massacre last year opened eyes to many people ( me included)

Philip L
Philip L
1 month ago
Reply to  Jim C

After the ethnic cleansing of Judea by the Italians (commemorated on the Arch of Titus in Rome, if you want contemporaneous documentation), many of the “racial supremacists” returned to their ancestral home after an attempt at a true genocide that capped two millenia of persecution. The 400 m people around them had a problem with that, fought several wars to try to consolidate the completeness of their own 7th C land theft, lost and are now pretending to be the victims of genocide.

Jürg Gassmann
Jürg Gassmann
1 month ago
Reply to  Josef Švejk

Israel does not currently have control of the Philadelphi Corridor. The Camp David Accords are specific on that – Egypt is in control of the Corridor.
Israel is currently allowed a small monitoring contingent, that’s all.
Israel is not being asked to “give up” anything. Israel insists on getting something.

Sun 500
Sun 500
1 month ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

Israel has control of it now as no arms are getting through to the Islamist terrorists. It must keep it forever. Slowly starve them out.

Josef Švejk
Josef Švejk
1 month ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

I would agree with Sun 500 ‘s reply. Control is what matters. The Camp David Accords are not relevant, nor any previous “deal”. In matters of survival superiority in arms is a much better guarantor of a peaceful existence than a piece of paper. Israel controls Philadelphi and the Egyptians are irrelevant.

Jürg Gassmann
Jürg Gassmann
1 month ago
Reply to  Josef Švejk

So we are now back at “might makes right” or, as our sagacious departing chief diplomat and gardener Josep Borrell said, “the decision will be made on the battlefield”.
I presume, therefore, that you will accept the decision, whatever it may be?

Stewart Cazier
Stewart Cazier
1 month ago

The constant warfare between the various tribes of Abraham is the biggest reason that I might yet buy an electric car and play a small part on eliminating our dependence on oil. If we did manage to do so, provided that the Suez Canal remains open and there isn’t mass immigration into Europe, they can fight each other to their heart’s content, each side persuaded of the unique virtue of its cause.

Direct Democrat
Direct Democrat
1 month ago

Islamism is the single most anti-democratic force throughout the world today. Western Liberalism, Left and Right, is its craven collaborator.
Democratism, in the form of Swiss Direct Democracy, is the force that will defeat both Islamism and Western Liberalism, if it is implemented. Coming soon.

Judy Englander
Judy Englander
1 month ago

The cold calculation the state of Israel (indeed any state) must make is: under 100 (and diminishing) lives saved now or untold numbers of lives lost in the future. Also, must it say to the families of soldiers killed and maimed in the current war that their sacrifice was in vain?
The state must view these choices with an eye on the collective good, whereas it’s understandable that the families and friends of the hostages are emotionally caught up in the fates of their loved ones. I would be. But this is a situation where the collective good and the future must take priority over the good for hostages in the here and now. Otherwise there will be more hostages, more deaths, more grieving families a few years down the road.

A D Kent
A D Kent
1 month ago

Your square one was still a violent occupation you nasty little genocide apologist.

As for the 6 shot hostages – after the massacre at the Nusreirat camp when the Israeli’s used the US jetty and dressed as aid workers to free a previous batch, Hammas made it very clea what would happen if the IDF tried that again. They did and they died. Horrible yes, tragic yes, but hardly shocking.

A D Kent
A D Kent
1 month ago
Reply to  A D Kent

And given you’re so upset about that half dozen deaths, I’d be fascinated to hear your view on the Hannibal Directive as implemented on October 7th. See Haaretz, ABC Australia or Al Jazeera for details – our Establishment media seems rather coy about reporting on it.

Tony Plaskow
Tony Plaskow
1 month ago
Reply to  A D Kent

There he is! A barrel of lies vomited over facts and reliable information. You still haven’t provided any actual evidence of a genocide, despite me requesting such (a la South Africa’s ongoing failure to) on multiple occasions.
Think about your first comment there and how utterly ridiculous what you are saying is – you are suggesting that Israel’s clever tactic to save civilian hostages from barbaric, actually-genocidal terrorists, is a justification for Hamas killing more. You are a truly decrepit disgusting person, I assume paid off by Iran or similar.
The fact you are quoting such anti-Israel, antisemitic, ‘news’ sources as ABC Australia and Al Jazeera as a source of news is so ludicrous as to require no real specific reply.

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
1 month ago
Reply to  Tony Plaskow

I completely agree. With one caveat.
It (aka “kent”) is not being paid off by anyone. It’s just that immoral by nature.

Jim C
Jim C
1 month ago
Reply to  Tony Plaskow

You’re not very bright, are you?

Last time Israel rescued half a dozen hostages they killed well over 200 Palestinians in the process, the vast majority of them women and children.

So Hamas made it clear that the next time the IDF got anywhere near rescuing hostages, they’d kill them.

Hence no more raids to rescue hostages… potentially saving thousands more Palestinian women and children.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
1 month ago
Reply to  Jim C

The immorality of hostage deaths to save civilian meat shields has nothing to with brightness.

Mike Dearing
Mike Dearing
1 month ago
Reply to  Jim C

The vast majority were involved in the fight to prevent the rescuers escape. But sure, go ahead, applaud their murderous tactics of the death cult for which the dead are variously martyrs or servants of satan.

A D Kent
A D Kent
1 month ago
Reply to  Tony Plaskow

The South African case was detailed and IMHO sailed over the relevant UN thresholds. Since they brought the case Spain, Belgium, Turkey, Chile, Colombia, Libya and others have either applied to join them or expressed their intention to do so.

Read the UN convention and get back to me on how you think the bombings, systematic demolitions, targetting of aid workers and blockades don’t meet the respective thresholds.

Mike Dearing
Mike Dearing
1 month ago
Reply to  A D Kent

It’s dead in the water because they could not provide evidence and wanted more time. Do keep up.

Jim C
Jim C
1 month ago
Reply to  A D Kent

Yes, they keep repeating the lie that “Hamas murdered over 1200 Israelis, mostly civilians” despite all the evidence that the majority were killed by the IAF obeying orders and using dozens of Apache attack helicopters to mow down anything heading towards the Gaza strip.

This is widely known about in Israel, but – oddly – never gets a mention in the Establishment media here in the West.

Mustn’t upset Zionists with the fact that their leaders are perfectly happy to kill them as well as the hapless Palestinians.

Mike Dearing
Mike Dearing
1 month ago
Reply to  Jim C

A horrendous lie, based on the existence of the Hannibal directive. The IDF were tragically absent for hours, and in all the video evidence there is no sign of air strikes by helicopters or anything else, yet you prefer to schill for terrorists and other assorted murderers and rapists.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
29 days ago
Reply to  Jim C

Jim, you just don’t give up, do you?

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 month ago
Reply to  A D Kent

15% muslims in Israel, 15% in India…

1% non-muslims in Pakistan, 6% in Bangladesh, 0% Jews in Iraq, 0% Parsis in Iran, 0% non muslims in Turkey..

Who is the “nasty little genocide apologist”?

John Tyler
John Tyler
1 month ago

Of course they have to keep a firm grip on this and any other routes for smuggling in arms. Unfortunately, that won’t stop USA, UK and most other liberal democracies from trying to help Hamas revive both by funding “reconstruction”, “educations”, healthcare” and all the other sources of Hamas funding and by keeping open their smuggling routes. Why we are so self-destructive is beyond me!

Jeff Carr
Jeff Carr
1 month ago

Unfortunately the US seems to have only a limited understanding of their interests in this regional conflict.
Similarly, the US left continually demonise Saudi’s actions in the Yemen effectively providing succour to the Houthi cause.

Bernard Brothman
Bernard Brothman
1 month ago

Hamas built tunnels large enough to drive trucks through when Israel did not control the Philadelphi corridor or land border with Eqypt. Through these tunnels came weapons, ammunition and equipment to attack Israel or to build the infrastructure to attach Israel. Egypt is complicit in this as all the stuff came through the Sinai. So Israel cannot trust or rely on Egypt to prevent smuggling into Gaza.
Sinwar has stated that he wants to do October 7th over and over again until the Palestinians rule from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea.
The Shalit hostage deal turned out to be one of the worst deals ever. Over 1000 prisoners, including Sinwar were released to Gaza for one soldier. No more hostage deals like that again, please. As Hamas murders or executes hostages, is loses bargaining chips. We are also starting to see the conditions in which Hamas treats its hostages.
I feel Israel need to keep the border. Yes, it may lose the hostages, and each day Hamas gets a little weaker. Hopefully one day Israel will get Sinwar and perhaps more of the Hamas leadership. Then it can focus more on Hezbollah.

Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke
1 month ago

The 40,000 dead figure being “hawked around” by Hamas in the words of this nasty piece of writing is probably a considerable underestimate. As somebody else frequently tweets about Ukraine, make peace you fools.

Mike Dearing
Mike Dearing
1 month ago
Reply to  Michael Clarke

Make peace with an organisation dedicated to the destruction of Israel and beyond? An organisation that clearly does not want peace, representing million of Palestinians who would mostly agree with them, and would repeat the 7th of October again and again. Technically, a ceasefire had reigned for nearly two decades, but it it did not look like peace because the attacks (and retaliation) kept on coming due to the flow of arms and money.
Regarding the actual number of deaths in Gaza, the only thing to be sure of is that is all on Hamas and its backers.

Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke
1 month ago
Reply to  Mike Dearing

Make peace on the basis of the only settlement that will work, a one state solution, one person one vote, a post-apartheid state to be known and recognised internationally as Israel/Palestine, which would consist of today’s Israel, the West Bank and the destroyed Gaza Strip. Other than that, the Palestinians will certainly fight on but can you blame them? Israel is engaged in an act of genocide in Gaza and something the same on the West Bank. As for the casualties, they are so disgustingly high it is unseemly to discuss them but it is probably much, much higher than 40,000.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
29 days ago
Reply to  Michael Clarke

I don’t think that would work so good ….

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
28 days ago

long live the palestinian resistance

Vito Quattrocchi
Vito Quattrocchi
28 days ago

“Desperate to stay in power and out of prison, Netanyahu insists on clinging to such shameful characters as Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The former heads the “Jewish Power” party that would “cleanse” the West Bank of Arabs…”
I’m not sure why the desire of some Israeli leaders to kick all the Arabs out of the West Bank make them “shameful characters.” How many more times does this same story have to play out until Israel is forced to clear the West Bank and Gaza for its own safety? The Arabs simply won’t leave the Israelis alone. They do nothing but plot incessantly to kill them. If the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza would leave the Israelis alone, then it wouldn’t be necessary to evict them. Many people who know the Arabs can’t be reasoned with instead see a softer target in the Israelis who, with their desire to be accepted by Western democrats, can be reasoned with. When you have people who can’t be reasoned with and don’t want anything you can give them except your life, you have to remove them from your vicinity so they can’t hurt you. When this is done to individual people, it’s called prison. When it’s done to entire hostile populations, we call it “ethnic cleansing” and the people who carry it out are thought of as monsters. I’m not saying the Israelis should kill all the Palestinians. What I am saying is that to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity. They have to crush Hamas and reannex Gaza. Anyone who wants to leave should be allowed to if they can find a nation that will accept them as refugees. If they want to stay, they have to live under even tighter surveillance than before. The Gaza experiment is over. It was, as expected, a total failure.
Israel has an identity crisis. It wants to simultaneously be a Jewish ethno-state and a Western-style liberal democracy. It can’t be both. Jews unfortunately can never be safe anywhere but in their own nation and for them to be safe within their own nation, on their ancestral land, they can’t have millions of people that hate them living within their borders or, unfortunately, even in an adjacent state.