Gaza 2.0
Palestinians are their own worst enemy and that must be fixed
Israel has mostly defeated Hamas and its satellite monsters. But destroying the military arm of this particular form of murderous hate will be just a lull in the hate and murder until it can be rebuilt. Unless Gazans learn to reject their hate. Out of fear at first. But then by hope, habit, and belief.
ISW notes the truth of the situation that Israel has achieved:
Military conditions are being set in the Gaza Strip that could lead to the defeat of Hamas, but these conditions will fail to achieve an enduring end to the war without a political solution. The military defeat of Hamas is an essential precondition for the establishment of a new government in Gaza that will be willing and able to make and keep an enduring peace.
And it is—or will be—an achievement. I didn’t think Israel would have this long to destroy Hamas and then turn on Hezbollah. I believe I said Israel’s counter-attack would last months rather than weeks like October 7, 2023 was just another usual terror attack. But I did not imagine this many months. And Israel is doing this even as it copes with the Houthi and other smaller jihadi groups controlled by Iran in Syria and Iraq.
Not to mention Iran itself, the Terror Prime Gordian Knot that weaves the strands of hate together. And which directly involved itself by firing two missile barrages from Iranian territory aimed at Israel this year, but which were thwarted by effective air defenses by Israel and varying help from allies—especially the United States.
The time Israel has had to tear apart Hamas without interference speaks to the reality that in the Arab world the Palestinians are no longer Queen of the Victim Prom. The infamous “Arab Street” stayed quiet in the Middle East. No Arab government is being pushed to wage war on Israel out of fear of an angry populace that demands a war to protect Palestinians from their bad decisions.
Credit the war on terror for revealing that reality, eh?
And the campus and usual suspect leftist “street” in America (when you see the black on yellow protest signs, you know you are seeing the usual ANSWER suspects trying to be the vanguard of the proletariat by glomming on to protests, from Occupy Wall Street through this war on Iran’s proxies of hate) and the West isn’t nearly as scary.
It’s more disgusting coming from Western countries. But it has been no brake on Israeli action.
But I digress.
As Israel deals with Hezbollah as a military problem, what is to be done with Gaza to exploit the victory over Hamas and its ilk? To prevent the enduring hate from being the primary raw material to rebuild the rockets and tunnels and recruit new murderers and rapists?
Early in the Last Hamas War, as I optimistically called it, I called for a long-term post-major combat operations project that would create a New Palestine in northeast Gaza. In time I hoped it would be a normal state:
By holding the "evacuation area" after the large-scale ground operation ends, Israel could create an option to create a new Gaza in that evacuation area centered on Gaza City--New Palestine--that can be created by Israel, built with Saudi and other Gulf Arab money, and inhabited by Palestinians recruited from rump Gaza in the southwest, the West Bank, and the Arab world.
These Palestinians allowed to enter New Palestine would be screened to keep out terrorists or those with known terrorist sympathies by the Israelis and Arab peace partners who have no love for pro-Iran Hamas and who sign on to the Abraham Accords. And numbers of residents could be kept down until the economy and infrastructure can support more immigrants in more than poverty. Israel and its Arab allies would oversee both the building of New Palestine and the containment of rump Gaza.
Israel would turn the power and water back on for New Palestine indefinitely and for rump Palestine for a period of 10 years. So build water and power plants before then. Otherwise, let Iran and Russia pay to sustain rump Gaza.
The very existence of New Palestine might free Arab states to make peace with Israel, by pointing to a new hope for progress, the core of a Palestinian state, and real peace.
Israel and Arab allies can define this New Palestine as the first step for a larger Palestinian state without defining its ultimate form. But in practice, the unstated assumption can be the 2000 peace plan, assuming Palestinians are cured of their maximalist, genocidal goals. Israel and its Arab allies would have built a stunning contrast to the hate and poverty that rump Gaza will no doubt continue to display.
It may seem cruel to leave part of Gaza to fail. But that’s what too many Palestinians actually prefer based on their votes and opinion polling. Even now after spending a year suffering as human shields for Hamas. To persuade the Palestinians outside of Gaza that building a better home is better than seeking an opportunity to kill every Jew from the river to the sea, dividing Gaza would inevitably display a contrast to show what the old attitudes create.
Think of it as a Middle East version of this:
North Korea started out as the more advanced, industrialized part of Korea in contrast to rural and poor South Korea. It took decades to create today’s contrast in favor of freedom.
Gaza will take time, too. Time to build a prosperous half of Gaza as a positive example. And time to demonstrate the negative example of what a death cult creates. Along with the negative example of Israeli military and security action within Legacy Gaza and the West Bank against those who resist learning.
And more time will be needed to then apply that lesson to the West Bank, Legacy Gaza, and the “refugee camps” in the Arab world that are really just cities with the descendents of refugees living in them. We need an “awakening” of enemies who see the futility of being enemies and want the opportunity of being allies. Could my virtual state notion in some form have a role in this education of the wider Palestinian world? Wouldn’t that honor the Palestinian demand for a “right of return” to Israel by making the “return” a virtual journey rather than a demographic war on Israel in the disguise of human rights?
With a successful New Palestine demonstrating that Israel isn’t behind their poverty and misery, proving that Palestinians have been their own worse enemy is key to lasting change. That path will be clear in Legacy Palestine (what I originally termed “rump Gaza”) left on its own to remind Palestinians everywhere of what they have done to themselves.
Is this feasible? I hope so. I haven’t seen better options offered except hoping that we can find a “moderate peace partner leader” who will help Palestinian murderers magically come to their senses if only we give them enough concessions.
If not my suggestion, something different must be done to destroy the murder factory in the minds of Palestinians that turns children into adult murderers and rapists who happily call their proud parents to boast of their atrocities.
This is a rescue plan not just for Israelis, but for Palestinians, too.