Ruth Wasserman Lande presents what strikes me as a novel proposal resolution of the Israel-Palestine issue in the Jerusalem Post. Rather than an Israeli state and a Palestinian state side by side she proposes Israel, a West Bank state, with Gaza administered by a coalition of Western countries, presumably France, the United Kingdom, and the United States:
Fourth, by no means can the West Bank and the Gaza Strip be seen as one entity. The potential for that had disappeared the day that Hamas had decided to burst the last bubble of hope nurtured by Israelis. Two Palestinian states, both thriving and prosperous and completely independent, yet unarmed and separate, may be established, one in the West Bank and the other in Gaza.
That is, while a coalition of four Western countries govern the Gaza Strip for the first decade, and manage all its civil, logistic, and military aspects. The reason for having three or four such countries, rather than one, temporarily govern the Strip, is to reduce the tremendous weight of this mission from any one particular country. Egypt, not wishing to take that task for itself, despite being offered it many times in the past, may instead be the beneficiary of many of the tenders released for its rebuilding.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain may also have an honorary seat at the decision-making table, along with Israel and the aforementioned three-four Western states. For that first decade, Israel will have veto power over the overall security of the Strip, yet the day to day security will be managed by the aforementioned Western powers rather than Israel itself. That is to demonstrate that despite needing to protect its civilians against any such heinous acts as were perpetrated on October 7, Israel has no wish to either take over Gaza, nor does it wish to take upon itself the weight of governing the Palestinians in any manner whatsoever.
The idea is merely to stabilize Gaza and prepare it for self-rule. Following this “cleansing period,†which may take several years and even a decade, a new, non-radical and forward-looking local leadership may begin to formulate. The existing leading families cannot currently be tasked with this leadership. One must also recall the immense internal strife that still characterizes the Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, as elsewhere – strife which in the past led, and still leads, to internal Palestinian bloodshed.
Sounds like Western colonialism to me. Let me put it this way. Would you like to “stabilize Gaza and prepare it for self-rule”? I wouldn’t.
Saw someone else suggest something similar a while back. The West Bank has generally been well behaved on the part of the Palestinians. The settlers have been an issue there. Seems like it might be possible to reach some resolution there on the Palestinian end, but I dont see it possible on Israel’s side. They have been putting record numbers of new settlements into the West Bank. I dont see them stopping that after this conflict is settled and I certainly dont see them pulling settlements back. Would take a large change in governance there.
Steve