by veteran Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman, translated by Hillel Fendel.
One of the questions occupying the thoughts and "expert" opinions of many in the Israeli media, the Government of Israel, and the Biden Administration is what to do with Gaza when the current war ends.
One of the more bizarre ideas being considered is that the Palestinian Authority, led by Fatah chief Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), must make certain changes and then take over the control of the Gaza Strip. These changes include:
- stopping all PA activity against Israel in international bodies such as The Hague
- stopping all incitement against Israel in its media, textbooks, et al
- stopping all salaries and payments to terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons for their crimes
- and of course doing away with all internal PA corruption.
This idea is the fruit of the thinking not only of leading Biden Administration clerks, but also, and perhaps even more so, of the Israeli left. And so I would like to address my dear fantasizing brethren here at home: Please wake up and return to solid ground! The chance that these changes will be made is approximately equivalent to the chance that Iran will announce a unilateral disarmament of its nuclear capabilities, that Nasrallah will destroy the many thousands of Hizbullah rockets he is pointing at Israel, and that the Hamas murderers now hiding for their lives in tunnels will give up their weapons this afternoon and announce that they are immigrating en-masse to Indonesia.
One would have thought that after the total collapse of so many clichés that have supported the peace camp over the years, it would finally come to its senses over the true intentions of our enemies. For instance, they long enthusiastically promoted the concept of "territories in exchange for peace" – which led directly to what has happened in Gaza since October 7th (Simchat Torah). It is now clear to all, or should be, that their dream of peace with the Palestinians, as they envisioned it, will not happen.
Another left-wing cliché that has lost its vitality is "Israel cannot exist as a Jewish and democratic state if a Palestinian state is not established alongside it." Everyone now sees what came of the Palestinian entity that has existed in Gaza since the infamous Disengagement 18 years ago.
How can we be so sure that the Palestinian Authority will not make the necessary changes and become the civilized neighbor for which we have pined all these many years? Because those changes would negate the PA's essential existence. It has not made these changes in the 30 years of its existence not because they are lazy, but because teaching their children to hate Israel, the important value of martyrdom, and supporting terrorist murderers and their families are the fundamental elements of the very foundations of their societal existence and of what they hold dear.
Ever since its establishment as a result of the Oslo Accords of the early 1990's, the PA's media and textbooks have been replete with incitement and hatred against Israel – despite all the many promises of its leaders to change this. For 30 years it has been supporting terrorists and their families with monthly salaries, while all this time its leaders have corruptly shaved off monies for their own personal use. Whoever believes that the PA will suddenly change its stripes, even to receive control over Gaza, is simply floating in outer space.
Another claim that has been heard in Israel these past weeks is this: The Government of Israel must decide right now the future of the Gaza Strip not only because Biden demands it, but also because the IDF cannot continue onto the next stages of its combat in Gaza without knowing the overall national strategy and plans for the area.
The logic of this claim escapes me. The IDF has a clear objective: to destroy the military capabilities of Hamas. This mission has nothing to do with who or what will control Gaza after Hamas is out of the picture. It has only to do with destroying the entire Hamas tunnels network, as large as it is, as well as all of its rockets, and killing as many terrorists as possible, including of course its leaders such as Yichye Sinwar and Muhammed Def. Though these goals might take a while, the IDF can definitely accomplish them, despite the accompanying difficulties, even without knowing what will happen afterwards.
It is nice to know that at least on one point even the Israeli left agrees: the fact that the security control of Gaza must remain exclusively in Israeli hands. No military entity other than the Israel Defense Forces can be entrusted with the responsibility of protecting Israel.
Administrative and civilian control is another story. The questions are many: What civilian entity will run the lives of the Arab populace in Gaza? How much of the area will be under its control? How many Arabs will remain altogether in Gaza? What will be the future borders of the Gaza Strip? How much of the area will serve as a buffer zone between it and Israel?
The plethora of question marks means that it would be a total waste of time and energy to try to predict such a cloudy and unstable future. First let us win – and afterwards we will already know what to do.