Three months ago, when Hamas attacked Israel, Israel was not ready for it.
I didn’t expect the attack, had a hard time controlling it at first, and then attacked the Gaza Strip with a basic plan to get rid of Hamas.
Further out, there was a big empty space. But that’s starting to change.
As Defence Minister Yoav Gallant explained to reporters on Thursday, his plan for “the day after” is just a few main ideas, but they are important to look at.
He says the same thing as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about security. Israel will do whatever it needs to in Gaza to keep itself safe.
This happens when the plan talks about the four main parts of the civilian square. Then it becomes a little unclear.
Israel has been controlling what comes into Gaza for the last 20 years and will keep doing so.
Israel, Egypt, and the United States will team up to find ways to better protect the border between Egypt and Gaza. They want to fix the problem of tunnels for good.
The plan includes a big part for foreign countries like the US, Europe, and Arab nations in making a group that will work on fixing the problems in the Gaza Strip.
In simpler terms, those countries will be responsible for rebuilding the entire damaged area. And give money for it.
Many countries in the EU and Gulf States have had their hospitals, schools, and universities destroyed in the last three months. This does not make them interested in investing more.
If Israel gets rid of Hamas, there could still be more violence later on, causing more damage.
The hard-working US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is currently visiting the region for the fourth time since October 7th. As he goes to different Arab cities, will leaders be happy or excited about the suffering in Gaza.
So far, Arab leaders believe that we cannot talk about what will happen “the day after” until there is a ceasefire and the devastating impact of the war on people has been taken care of.
However, Sanam Vakil and Dr. Neil Quilliam from the British think tank Chatham House, suggest that Arab governments should not delay.
“If we don’t plan and invest in Gaza, there could be lawlessness, no political leadership and a lot of hunger, sickness and death. ”
What about the lack of Palestinian political leadership.
In Gallant’s plan for “four corners,” the Palestinian part is unclear.
“The group in charge of the area will use the current administrative system in Gaza to improve and make it better. ”
According to the news, Israel will have to agree to all appointments to local committees.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmud Abbas, don’t have a role right now.
For Palestinians, the plan reminds them of when Israel tried to set up non-political “Village Leagues” in the late 1970s to control local matters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and lessen the power of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
According to Amjad Iraqi, a senior editor at Israeli +972 Magazine, Israel cannot imagine a situation where Palestinians have political power.
“They’re trying to copy the system they have in the West Bank in Gaza, but with someone who isn’t part of a political group. “
Creating groups made up of important people from Gaza would also cause a separation between Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Palestinians have been afraid of an Israeli plan to keep them separate and weak, so they can’t have their own strong country.
The West Bank and Gaza have been apart from each other since Israel was created in 1948, but Palestinians think of them as important parts of who they are and will strongly oppose any effort to separate them.
“Gaza is not its own country,” said Palestinian analyst and former PA spokeswoman Nour Odeh. “They both want their own country and to be free from Israel’s power and control. ”
American officials are still looking at the Gallant plan, but they are not very excited about it. They also say that it’s not an official proposal from Israel yet.
For weeks, the Biden administration has been saying that the Palestinian Authority should be involved, even though Mr Netanyahu disagrees. He thinks the PA shouldn’t be involved because they didn’t condemn Hamas’s attacks on October 7th.
Travelling with Mr. Blinken, a high-ranking official from the State Department said the US still wants the Palestinian Authority to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
He also said it would be difficult for the US to find Arab countries willing to work with Israel because some members of Mr. Netanyahu’s government want Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza.
This is still the Palestinians’ biggest worry, made worse by strong talk from some of Mr. Netanyahu’s political friends and government documents from unknown places.
Lately, people are worried because there are reports that the government is talking to African countries in secret to take in migrants from Gaza.
Many people in Gaza are now living in the southern part of the Strip. Some of them have moved several times since October 7th. It is worrying to think that they might have to leave Gaza and not be able to come back.
But, other people also have doubts about Mr. Gallant’s plan, not just the Palestinians.
Some of the strongest opposition is already coming from strict members of Mr. Netanyahu’s own difficult coalition.
Some people think it was a big mistake for Israel to leave the Gaza Strip in 2005. They believe the only way to keep the area safe is for Israel to take control of it again and let Jewish people who used to live there come back.
MrGallant seems very direct about this.
“No Israeli people will live in the Gaza Strip. ”
However, the strict believers think that rebuilding Gaza and letting the Palestinians stay will only cause more problems in the future.
Ohad Tal, a member of the hardline Religious Zionist Party, said that we might go back to October 7th in two, five, or ten years.
Letting money come into Gaza to fix the houses will just end up with them using the money for something else. Instead of making Gaza a nice place, they turned it into a big center for terrorists.
The argument in Thursday night’s cabinet meeting showed that Mr. Netanyahu’s government is divided on when and how the Israeli military should investigate the 7 October attacks.
These differences are probably going to get stronger as Israel and the world try to figure out what to do with Gaza when the war is over.