President Donald Trump’s preposterous proposal to solving the future of Gaza was rightly greeted by most reasonable and rational actors as a total non-starter. Gaza is not a real estate development project nor are the people of Gaza board game pieces from Axis and Allies. While the extremist elements in the Israeli Government and their supporters in the West—as well as Trump’s Republican backers--may envision Trump’s proposal as beyond their greatest dream, most observers saw this idea as another “Trumpian” half-baked idea. In fact, it is a proposal which could actually torpedo any possibility for the next phases of the Gaza peace-hostage talks to succeed.
The negotiators between Israel and Hamas still have miles to go to insure the completion of phase one of the agreement to return the hostages and end the fighting in Gaza, to say nothing of sustaining the agreement through phases two and three. For President Donald Trump these details are too difficult to address. It is much more “fun” musing over an incongruous set of proposals to build a “riviera” in an ethnically cleansed Gaza.
For President Trump, it was precisely another “deal” he was making and now left to the rest of the parties to implement. When the deal collapses, it will be the fault of the diplomats and inept government officials who failed to bring the proposal to fruition. It never is the fault of the person who pretended it could work.
Leaving aside all the obvious problems and the implausible solutions being suggested by the President about the future of the Gaza Strip, it is past time for Israel and creative global and regional leaders to develop actual, practical solutions. To date, all the scholars and regional experts are focusing strictly on the political and military issues. They must consider what are the necessary steps to facilitate positive movement for the Palestinian people who have begun returning to the rubble which was once their homes in Gaza.
While the regional and global leaders endeavor to extend the cease-fire, the lives of approximately two million Palestinians need to be addressed. These are not the multi-million- and multi-billion-dollar projects that are being conceptualized, these are the genuine needs to sustain life.
Before roads are built and fields plowed, the immediate life-sustaining processes need to be put in place. While major construction must be planned, in the interim, water and food delivery systems need to be reestablished, not only hundreds of trucks delivering supplies. Basic temporary, electrical generators need to be in place. Medical clinics and health facilities—prefabs—must be established. Marketplaces will emerge but sanitation must be effected. Schoolchildren must be taught in make-shift caravans and areas cleared out for recreation.
All of this must be supervised by a multi-lateral/multi-national security force dedicated strictly to insuring the delivery of basic services. If Hamas and the Palestinian Authority don’t like it, then let them demonstrate now that they are prepared to handle these basic needs. These military-political entities cannot be permitted to obstruct the re-construction effort.
Both the President and the Prime Minister did not appear to have addressed an actual exit plan from Gaza. Furthermore, the President alluded to the fact that within four weeks he will have something to “say” about the question of Israeli “annexation” of the West Bank. If this “aside” is taken seriously, it may be far more important news than the absurdity of his Gaza “development” program. This may well be the only substantive news to emerge from this White House meeting.
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It is time to blow the whistle on whatever the Israeli Government has instructed the IDF to do on the West Bank in general and specifically in Jenin. The picture that is emerging suggests that efforts are being made, not even very slowly, to drive the Palestinians out of Jenin. The apparent underground network of tunnels, weapon caches, and trained terrorist fighters that Israeli forces have exposed, present a major challenge for Israel if it seeks to uproot these forces while avoiding a repeat performance of what they had to address in Gaza. Now, however, it is just trying to rout out Palestinians living in Jenin.
While Jenin, Hebron, and other towns and villages on the West Bank have active cells of Hamas fighters and potential terrorists, even a Trumpian acquiescence to Israeli annexation of the West Bank will not placate the current growing turmoil on the West Bank. There is a vital need for attention to be directed at these seemingly isolated raids and incidents. If Palestinian security--aided by specifically trained IDF troops and Israeli police forces—are unable to manage the increasingly dangerous situation on the West Bank, the extremist elements in the Israeli coalition will aggressively drive the Netanyahu Government to flatten some of these Palestinian towns, and villages.
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