Geopolitics in Flux in Israel and Gaza

The temptation of geopolitics is to view the map and its constraints as natural and unchanging, but that would be a mistake. Today, technology and urbanization are reshaping the borders on our maps. It is not that the chessboard we call geography is no longer relevant; rather, geography is infinitely more complex than mountains, rivers, borders and capital cities.

In the past week, Gaza's border has stayed the same, but Hamas has effectively more than doubled its size through its acquisition and use of Fajr-5 rockets. The group's ability to fire a rocket some 77 kilometers (48 miles) from Gaza toward Jerusalem has given the small, densely populated strip of land the power to do serious harm to Israel's population centers, shrinking the distance between Israel's heartland and an untenable threat. The old border is obsolete; new technology and weapons have created a new geopolitical reality.