As Israel continues its war against the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing approximately 20,000 people including mostly women and children, it is setting the stage for a future military reoccupation of the coastal enclave. Three Western diplomats, including two ambassadors, told the Times of Israel that – despite the Israeli government’s repeated denials that they seek such a scenario – this is where the policy is ultimately headed.
According to the outlet, the diplomats “explained that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of the Palestinian Authority returning to govern Gaza, his failure to advance viable alternatives, and [Tel Aviv’s] assertion that Israel will maintain overall security control of the Strip are dissuading regional and global actors from cooperating with US efforts to rehabilitate the enclave after the war.”
Netanyahu recently boasted he is proud that he “prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state,” even as he has come under pressure for supporting Hamas as a way to achieve this by isolating the secular Palestinian Authority (PA).
One of the sources speaking with the Times pointedly asked, “We will work to prevent the reoccupation of Gaza, but there aren’t any volunteers to govern there besides the PA, which the current Israeli government is determined to weaken, so where does that leave us?”
The diplomats’ viewpoint reportedly exemplifies that of Western governments which support Israel’s war effort but hold reservations regarding Netanyahu’s plans for the future of Gaza.
Another diplomat speculated that the Israeli apartheid army could occupy Gaza once again for several more years. He hinted, though, there might come a time when that could change – as when Tel Aviv withdrew from southern Lebanon, that occupation having lost public support amid fierce resistance by Hezbollah.
Washington has made clear its opposition to a reoccupation in Gaza, but Netanyahu has declared that after the current war in Gaza, Israel will hold “overall security control.” Concurrently, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz promised “[Israel] will establish full security control over the place, including a territorial seizure that will allow the continuation of the operational effort.”
Israel’s ostensible aim is to create a security buffer in Gaza that would permit the military to conduct violent operations at will in the Strip to root out any resistance pockets left following the war.
“We know that we will have the freedom to eliminate any kind of threat in the future, and there will be no serious military threats against Israel from Gaza… We will conduct any needed operation and military effort in order to secure our future,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said. But Israel “will not control Gaza in any civilian way,” he qualified.
According to the Times report, Israeli officials are privately “[likening] the future status they envision for Gaza to that of the West Bank’s Area B, where Israel maintains security control while not being responsible for civilian services for Palestinians.” The White House insists a “revitalized” PA should “take charge in Gaza once the conflict is over, unifying its administration with the West Bank.”
One diplomat dismissed this plan, saying “No Arab force will agree to enter Gaza under such circumstances,” pointing to the PA’s severe unpopularity. Roughly 90% of Palestinians are demanding Abbas’ resignation. In any case, the PA has clarified they would only return to Gaza in the event of a full withdrawal of Israeli forces as part of a larger initiative to finally establish a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has refused to entertain this idea, vowing to never allow Gaza to become “Fatahstan,” referring to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ party. For decades, Netanyahu’s Likud party supported the Islamist Hamas group both directly and indirectly. This was done strategically to undercut the nationalist PA so Tel Aviv could claim they have no “partner for peace,” perpetually avoiding international pressure to negotiate a Palestinian state and an end to the occupation while expanding settlements in the West Bank.
In 2006, Hamas won a plurality victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections in Gaza encouraged by the US. Then Washington backed the PA in an attempted coup against the Islamist group which led to Hamas seizing control over the Strip. Ever since, Israel has been implementing a full air, land, and sea blockade on Gaza while carrying out bombing campaigns against the Strip, killing and maiming thousands.
Israeli officials have implored Western countries to assist in their plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and the US Congress reviewed a US plan to economically pressure regional countries to accept millions of refugees as well. One Israeli official recently called on the Israel Defense Forces to make Gaza look like the Auschwitz death camp, flattened and emptied of its inhabitants.
During a TV interview, May Golan, Israel’s Minister for the Advancement of the Status of Women, recently proclaimed “I don’t care about Gaza, I literally don’t care. For all I care, they can go out and just swim in the sea.”
Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.
Another Zionist official, May Golan, has openly displayed the primitive tribal mentality, “I don’t care about Gaza, I literally don’t care. For all I care, they can go out and just swim in the sea.”, typical of a stupid, backwards nation, probably usual at the time of Amalek, 3000 yrs ago.
“. . . Israel’s war effort . . .”
Please, everyone, this is not a war, it’s a massacre, overwhelmingly of innocent noncombatants. Calling it a war amounts to helping Israel justify the bloodbath.
Yes, thank you.
“not a war”?? When Palestinians quit shooting at IDF troops and firing rockets into Israel. then make your claim.
I’m not making a claim, I’m stating an obvious and inarguable truth. A nation state is fighting a war when its opponent is at least more or less in the same military dimension as its armed services. When a a national military is bombing a giant concentration camp into rubble, burying victims by the hundreds and thousands, daily, for months, it’s a massacre. And a war crime. And a crime against humanity. And you should be ashamed of yourself, but you are too shamefully shameless for that to penetrate your thick skull.
No, war is defined as a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups. It has nothing to do with the difference in size of the military or capabilities. Hamas shoots at Israel and Israel shoots at Hamas. It is a war. The fact that civilians are dying in the conflict is what happens in war. That does not make it right, but it is real.
Your anti-sematic / anti-Israel view clouds your mind. You have this fantasy that some how this war will end in the demise of Israel. It will not. What you need to penetrate your thick skull is that Israel has been a nation for 75 years and it will continue to be a nation in the future.
How many nations/states have disappeared throughout history?
Is there something different about Israel (which has previously disappeared more than once) that makes it immune to disappearance?
Heard much from the Mamluk Sultanate lately?
I want to make a bumper sticker:
“I am Amalek”
Carthago delenda est …
Just like Hannibal, taking his Carthaginian army over the mountains and destroying every Roman army sent against him, Israel looks so strong … invincible, even.
But its strength is very brittle. At the end of the day, Israel is a very small country in a hostile area that survives on the sufferance of its western patrons.
Rome did not surrender and eventually Carthage was destroyed. Palestinians will not surrender either, no matter what happens this year and next; and history is long …
There are probably 2 or 3 Billion Muslims who are pissed off and concerned that it could happen to them. Israel should cut their losses,give up some illegally acquired territory and make peace. That is not their way and won’t happen.
“concerned that it could happen to them” Out of the 1.8 billion Muslims how many are worried that Israel will attack them?
But…. Will Palestine want peace and be willing to coexist?
Not sure they will. They’ve had opportunities before and turned them down then attacked Israel.
These are the major 3 NOs from the Palestinians.
1. No peace with Israel
2. No recognition of Israel
3. No negotiations with Israel.
Now, which one of you is going to convince Palestine to do otherwise?
All the Times Israel Has Rejected Peace With Palestinians
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/28/israel-palestine-history-peace/
There are 1.1 billion Muslims in the world. It is time for their leaders to acknowledge the Armenian genocide,and the Nabka they performed by evicting their fellow Jews.
Before musing about applying the Warsaw Ghetto model to Gaza; Likudniks should re-read UNR 194, UNSC 2334, and the ICJ advisory opinion on the subjects of return of property, payment for damages, and reparations.
ICJ opinion from 2004:
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-178825/
By becoming unwilling to make a deal acceptable to the Palestinians Israel has placed themselves between a rock and a hard place. Any country with reasonably sane leadership could see a way past their differences. The state of Israel would have to give up the unreachable goal of Greater Israel and some stolen land.i am not totally familiar with the area but it seems to me that the Palestinians should occupy the West Bank and all of Gaza living in peace and proximity to Israel.
Green-line Israel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(Israel)
The 1947 boundries which is part of UNR 181 founding the Jewish State remain the only internationally recognized boundries to this day. (Map Below) 181 is the best hope for a peaceful and secure Jewish State
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2cf3ce75ffa0f1a356aaf6d97628e2ad5106805c4c9485d70b80d7c87dc3a12e.jpg
Completely out of date. That map was destroyed May 15, 1948 when three Arab armies attacked the new nation of Israel. The Arab nations lost.
I would like to know how Israel accepting this map is the “best hope for a peaceful and secure Jewish State”? The Arabs did not accept the map in 1948, why would they in 2023?
When did the massacre of Deir Yassin occur ?
Prime Minister Begin declared that the [President] Reagan Plan was a danger to the very existence of the State of Israel and should be rejected as “a lifeless stillborn,” and procured a 50-36 against vote in the Knesset against it. During the debate, Begin: shouted that Israel would keep unending control over the West Bank and Gaza. “We have no reason to get on our knees. No one will determine for us the borders of the land of Israel.” (The Passionate Attachment, P-129, #66)