Diane Francis: Hamas left Israel with no good options
The Palestinian problem must finally be addressed or all bets are off, writes Diane Francis. Read more. Israel is reportedly planning to invade Gaza to destroy its Hamas government and then leave the territory completely. The Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, stated that Israel has no intention to occupy or reoccupy Gaza and has no desire to rule over the lives of over two-million Palestinians. The question is also whether Israel will govern Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians once its Hamas "government" is removed and Israel seals the borders. Egypt has stated that it will not take any Gazan refugees, while Jordan is already caring for displaced Syrians from their own civil war by Iran and Russia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning a massive ground invasion of northern Gaza, despite warnings and hazards. The success of this planned invasion is uncertain due to Hamas's false allegations that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza and killed 500 civilians.
Pubblicato : 2 anni fa di Diane Francis in Politics Finance
Markets and oil prices have begun to react to the possibility of a drawn-out conflict in the Middle East , lasting years and not just months. Hopefully, this won’t be the case but it appears that Israel intends to invade Gaza to decimate its Hamas government then exit the territory altogether.
Israel’s eventual withdrawal was discussed by Michael Herzog, Israeli ambassador to the United States, who told CNN that, “We have no desire to occupy or reoccupy Gaza … we have no desire to rule over the lives of over two-million Palestinians.”
The question is: who will govern Gaza’s 2.3-million Palestinians once its Hamas “government” is removed and Israel seals the borders? Regional and western leaders have been in Cairo to address these questions and to find solutions.
The potential of Palestinian refugees flooding into Egypt is one of the reasons why Cairo is cautious about opening its land border with Gaza. Egypt has firmly stated that it will not take any Gazan refugees. As has Jordan, which is already looking after 660,000 Syrians uprooted from their country by a civil war perpetrated by Iran and Russia.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hellbent on conducting a massive ground invasion of northern Gaza despite warnings and hazards. Israel’s military is the most powerful in the region but the success of its planned invasion is far from guaranteed.
I suspect that the surprising release last week of two Americans held hostage by Hamas was designed to give the terrorist group more time to booby-trap northern Gaza and move its fighters, equipment and the remaining hostages elsewhere. If so, Israel could end up sustaining heavy casualties but achieve little when it comes to destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.
Worse, as the tanks roll in, Hamas will broadcast fake depictions of Israeli atrocities to generate terrible headlines and further alienate Arab states. This is what happened last week concerning false allegations that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza and killed 500 civilians.
Soon after, western governments said the bombing was the result of a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket aimed at Israel. But fact-checks days later don’t move the dial. Disinformation is the new weapon of choice and that concocted “war crime” allegation generated negative headlines about Israel and enraged the Arab street.
The culprit behind all of this is Iran. Its goal is to destroy Israel, and the West, by deploying two weapons: terrorism and the perpetuation of the Palestinian problem. The Oct. 7 massacre by Iran’s proxy, Hamas, was mounted to derail the U.S.-brokered deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia because it would have improved relations and addressed the Palestinian situation. The deal is now off the table, but must somehow be resurrected.
Who can take over the governance of Gaza? There are no alternatives. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank cannot govern the place, Arab nations won’t and Russia will veto any attempt to get the United Nations to send peacekeeping forces there to keep the peace.
Thomas Friedman, a Middle East expert and influential New York Times columnist, argues fiercely against an immediate full-scale Israeli invasion, instead calling for surgical airstrikes and special forces sent in to free hostages and assassinate Hamas leaders.
“If Israel goes into Gaza and takes months to kill or capture every Hamas leader and soldier but does so while expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank — thereby making any two-state solution there with the more moderate Palestinian Authority impossible — there will be no legitimate Palestinian or Arab League or European or UN or NATO coalition that will ever be prepared to go into Gaza and take it off Israel’s hands,” wrote Friedman in a recent column.
“There will be no one to extract Israel and no one to help Israel pay the cost of caring for more than two million Gazans — not if Israel is run by a government that thinks, and acts, as if it can justifiably exact its revenge on Hamas while unjustifiably building an apartheid-like society run by Jewish supremacists in the West Bank.”
Iran and Israel are now engaged in a war of words that could easily escalate, while the U.S. is moving more ships into the Mediterranean. But force isn’t the solution. The Palestinian problem must finally be addressed or all bets are off.
Financial Post
Temi: Israel