A new Messiah has come to the city. In heart-warming coordination with Christian Christmas, the Muslim Messiah comes to us when it seems that all summers are over, and He will solve all our troubles. It will bring calm to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, preserve our security and turn Gaza into Singapore. This will happen not only out of the goodness of his heart, but because it is in his clear and undisputed interest, and we can only thank ourselves for our good fortune and quickly roll out the red carpet at his feet. Or rather, at her feet. Welcome Saudi Arabia.
The question of what will happen in Gaza the day after the war is not really present in the public discourse in Israel. For the most part, the media prefers to sink into pain, danger and weakness, and almost completely distances itself from strategic engagement with a question that will profoundly affect all of our lives. The government is preoccupied with survival and occasionally releases test balloons with big words that no one listens to, such as "a Palestinian Authority that will be reformed." The military, by virtue of its role, avoids policy debates. The Israeli conversation leads again and again to the same basic assumptions, which lead us to a sense of helplessness and no choice: it is forbidden to occupy territory, it is forbidden to encourage immigration, it is forbidden to control a foreign population. Our narrow consciousness, lack of imagination, and especially lack of daring cause every discussion to end with a shrug of the shoulders and a stale and predictable bottom line: We have no choice but to bring in an external force to control Gaza.
Into the conceptual vacuum entered the new star. The huge Sunni state is an important strategic ally of Israel, an important partner in the struggle against Iran and Shiite terrorism, and it is obviously interested in the Israeli connection not only because of our beautiful eyes but also because of our magnificent weapons and cyber industries. But there is a difference between a distant friend and a close neighbor. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocracy where Sharia-based law is new, women's rights are new, and non-Muslims are forbidden to enter its holy sites. Under the leadership of its charismatic young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, there have been political purges, executions and, recall, the brutal murder of a dissident journalist. Israel does not have to be purist when it comes to its political relations, but it certainly needs to examine with its own eyes who it is bringing into the home of the bubbling cauldron of the Gaza Strip. On the long continuum between supporting Hamas and supporting Israel, Saudi Arabia apparently doesn't like the murderous Iranian proxy, but I find it hard to believe that it would declare a united Jerusalem as Israel's eternal capital.
Three principles have underpinned practical Zionism for more than 100 years. Three principles that the members of the Second Aliyah and beyond would immediately recite if we woke them up at night: settlement, occupation of labor, and occupation of guarding. The idea that someone but us would protect us sounded jarring to the first Zionist settlers in its unfeasibility. This is how Bar Giora and Hashomer, HaNotar and Gideons were established. The erect statue of Alexander Zaid on the horse at Beit Shearim does not betray the number of blows and bruises he suffered during his lifetime when he insisted on establishing the Hebrew guard. We embarked on the campaign in Gaza after procrastination and stagnation exacted an unbearable price from us, and we embarked on it knowing that the weight of the price had not yet been paid in full, and that the battle on other borders was still ahead of us. To sacrifice all this in order to re-privatize Israeli interests is not only a terrible shortsightedness but also a horrific waste of human life.
The question of what will happen in Gaza the day after the war is not really present in the public discourse in Israel. For the most part, the media prefers to sink into pain, danger and weakness, and almost completely distances itself from strategic engagement with a question that will profoundly affect all of our lives
The late Henry Kissinger is known for saying that America has no eternal friends or enemies—it has only interests. This is true of Israel as well, and no less true of Saudi Arabia. It is possible that the stability of the Gaza Strip is currently in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, but interests by their nature change and are updated, and there is no reason to assume that there will be harmony between Saudi and Israeli interests over time. There is only one country for which Israel's security and prosperity as a Jewish and democratic state is a supreme value – and that is the state that must hold the reins the day after.
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