After the terrible failure of the 19-year experiment of relying on sensors and walls instead of holding onto the ground, we are now returning to another old experiment, conducted between 1967 and 2005: Military bases between Gaza and Rafah. 

Those who focus on the tactics of the yes-or-no Philadelphia axis or the micro-tactics of trenches on the Netzerim axis as a substitute for IDF forces are missing the broader issue. This is exactly the presence Netanyahu means when he talks about Israeli military control and civilian control "of other parties". 

That's why A two-lane freeway is currently being paved in Philadelphia, that's why entire divisions are located where Rafih Yam, Netzerim, Eli Sinai, Nisnit and Dugit (Israeli settlements pre-2005) were once.

This does not mean that there will be no deal, it can be carried out as a reprieve, a temporary withdrawal, an improvement of backward positions for a certain period. 

But the negotiations only emphasize how much Israel opposes a total withdrawal from the Strip. There remains the small, negligible question of ruling over two million Palestinians (assuming that the number is not inflated, and there is such a suspicion). 

Another possibility is that there will be less than two million: Open an alternative crossing to Rafah and allow emigration from Gaza, by sea or air. The Civil Administration surveys and the Telegram and X accounts of the residents of the Gaza Strip indicate a great desire to leave. Both options are not so realistic in the foreseeable future.

The Israeli experience of being military without a civilian presence is not encouraging. That is why Israel withdrew from the security zone in Lebanon in 2000, and that is why it left the Philadelphia axis after the evacuation of the settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005. 

The skeptics on the left will wonder if this is not a prelude to the establishment of a re-newed Gush Katif, especially when half a coalition came to the conference in the winter in favor of renewing the settlement in Gaza. 

Rest assured, Gush Katif will not return. It is more likely that a more sympathetic American administration would perhaps tacitly agree to the establishment of Nahal outposts in the northern perimeter, near Ashkelon, an area whose evacuation was puzzling back in 2005. 

Since all this belongs to the more distant future, if at all, there is a more pressing question: the northern Gaza Strip. 

Ministers in the government are pressuring Netanyahu to order a total and complete evacuation of Gaza City from its last inhabitants, between one hundred and two hundred thousand. The security justification is the removal of the threat to the Netzerim axis from the north. 

The real justification is the shock and despair that this will sow in Palestinian public opinion, when Gaza falls.