In light of the change in the nature of the campaign, the War Cabinet and the Political-Security Cabinet will discuss the "day after" plans in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. In order to placate the political partners in the enlarged government, Netanyahu determined that first there would be a "consultation" by the war cabinet on the issue, followed immediately by a discussion by the full security cabinet.
At this meeting, Minister Bezalel Smotrich is expected to present his party's position that there is no practical possibility of foreign rule of any kind in Gaza as long as the war continues. Moreover, the party chairman is going to demand at the cabinet meeting the principle that "there is no rehabilitation before demilitarization." This means that as long as there is no certainty that Hamas' military and civilian rule has collapsed and the Gaza Strip has been cleansed of weapons and terrorism, reconstruction activities will not begin.
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This demilitarization operation is expected to last at least a year, and probably much longer. According to Religious Zionism, it is surprising that Israel will have to take humanitarian responsibility for Gaza during this time, because no foreign element will do so as long as the fire continues.
In preliminary conversations to the cabinet meeting, Smotrich explained that international experience shows that it is impossible to democratize Arab societies, and certainly not in a short period of time. He cited Afghanistan and Iraq as examples of two countries in which the United States tried for 20 years to establish democratic governments and failed. "In Gaza, the situation is even worse. These are two million people who are fifth generation to the fantasy that returning to Tiberias and Jaffa will rescue them from poverty and distress. To change these perceptions, it takes 50 years, not two years," Smotrich explained to his colleagues.
Like Netanyahu, Smotrich opposes handing over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority. In his assessment, even moderate Arab countries will not agree to take responsibility for the problem. Therefore, Israel may well have no choice but to do so. In his opinion, in the long run, the only way to thwart another attack like the one suffered by Israel on Simchat Torah is to voluntarily remove most of Gaza's population to other countries through an international refugee resettlement mechanism. At the same time, in his opinion, Jewish settlement in Gaza should be allowed, according to the principle that settlement is part of security.
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