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Netanyahu's plan for the post-war future in the Gaza Strip wants to severely restrict the Palestinian side.
Analysts suspect a stalling tactic.
Tel Aviv – Late last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally did what critics have long demanded.
He submitted a proposal to his war cabinet outlining a vision for a postwar future for the Gaza Strip.
But Netanyahu's hard line, which calls for Israel's indefinite military control of the territory, was seen by analysts as an attempt to put the issue on hold and restore an untenable status quo.
Netanyahu's plan does not include any concessions in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
© Marc Israel Sellem/JINI/Imago
The plan, which was circulated early Friday, is "largely a collection of principles that the prime minister has expressed since the start of the war," noted Jacob Magid of the Times of Israel, "but it was the first time they have been expressed." formally presented and submitted to Cabinet for approval.” My colleagues outlined some of the key points of the program:
Israel's military will remain in Gaza for as long as necessary to demilitarize the enclave, eliminate Hamas and prevent it from regrouping.
Israel will take control of Gaza's southern border "to the greatest extent possible" in cooperation with Egypt and establish buffer zones on the border to prevent smuggling and further attacks.
The United Nations' main aid agency in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is to be dissolved and replaced.
Israel accuses the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of complicity with Hamas and promoting hatred against Jews.
The proposal rejects any permanent agreement with “the Palestinians” that does not come about through direct negotiations with Israel, as well as any “unilateral” Palestinian state.
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Much of this contradicts the stated expectations of the United States, European and Arab governments.
The Biden administration has repeatedly stressed that Israel should not occupy the Gaza Strip indefinitely and wants the Palestinian Authority to assume responsibility there.
Egypt has rejected any Israeli role on its border with Gaza.
UNRWA is a vital institution providing care for millions of Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, and would be difficult to replace despite the controversy surrounding some of its staff.
Members of the Palestinian Authority government resign
In the West Bank, Palestinian Authority officials rejected Netanyahu's approach.
“The plans proposed by Netanyahu are aimed at continuing Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the authority's president, Mahmoud Abbas.
“Israel will not succeed in its attempts to change the geographical and demographic reality in the Gaza Strip.”
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On Monday, the Palestinian Authority's prime minister submitted the resignation of the entire government of the beleaguered organization, which the United States and other governments expect to carry out reforms and get back on its feet after the fighting ends.
The Palestinian Authority is deeply unpopular among Palestinians because of its role as a stooge of the Israeli occupation, as well as the alleged corruption of its established political elites.
But there is currently no alternative.
“The move follows months of intensive deliberations between Ramallah, Washington and Arab states on how best to strengthen the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Palestinian Authority so that it can be part of a post-war solution in Gaza,” my colleagues reported.
Palestinians in front of the ruins of Al-Farouq Mosque, which was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, February 23.
© Loay Ayyoub/The Washington Post
Netanyahu is opposing his allies in the Middle East conflict
They added: "The consensus has agreed on a vision for an empowered role for the prime minister and a government of technocrats, with some of the absolute, unchecked powers that have accumulated around the 88-year-old Abbas, according to American and Palestinian officials should be restricted.”
Whatever the outcome, Netanyahu has signaled a general rejection of any solutions that give more power to the Palestinians.
He is against the Palestinian Authority taking power in Gaza, he is against any talk of reconstruction in Gaza without an amorphous program of “deradicalization” in the area, and he is against any discussion of post-conflict Palestinian statehood.
On all of these fronts in Israel's war, Netanyahu can rightly claim that he is in line with Israeli public opinion.
But his positions are at odds with those of the United States, European partners and Israel's Arab neighbors.
Wealthy states such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are tying potential investments in Gaza's reconstruction to the revival of a political process that would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
The Biden administration also wants to improve the prospects for a two-state solution, which Netanyahu has undermined for decades.
War in Gaza: “The plan is that there is no plan”
Netanyahu's proposal, said Alon Pinkas, a former senior Israeli diplomat, is consistent with Netanyahu's record of "manipulation and gaslighting."
His plan for the “day after,” Pinkas said, “is effectively a negation of the Biden plan, a list of statements that mean indefinite Israeli control of Gaza with no political silver lining.”
In this sense, it is also an attempt to return Israel to October 6th - a feverish status quo in which Israel maintains control over the lives of millions of Palestinians under either occupation or economic embargo.
“Netanyahu’s plan for the day after is that there is no plan for the day after,” Haaretz’s Noa Landau wrote.
“Under Netanyahu, Israelis and Palestinians are destined to wake up yesterday morning like they did in the movie Groundhog Day.
He wants what he always wanted: to manage the conflict without ever resolving it.”
Israel's president is also under pressure domestically
Netanyahu, facing record-low approval ratings, may simply be trying to buy time to fend off pressure from the Biden administration while retaining the colorful right-wing coalition that is helping him stay in power.
“The plan is unenforceable, it is not implementable and I don’t think it will be implemented,” Nomi Bar-Yaacov, an associate fellow at the British think tank Chatham House, told the BBC.
"Netanyahu speaks to his right-wing coalition".
He doesn't just talk to her.
Over the weekend, the Israeli government announced plans to expand settlements in the West Bank after the Biden administration called Israeli settlements in the West Bank "incompatible with international law" - a reversal of Trump-era policies that support the settlers.
Settlements in the West Bank as a first step towards a Palestinian state?
The expansion of settlements, which dissect the West Bank with severed roads and other civilian infrastructure, is seen as a major stumbling block to the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.
This is one reason why many experts are skeptical about the revived talk of a two-state solution.
“The main effect of renewed talk of two states is to obscure a one-state reality that will almost certainly become even more entrenched in the war’s aftermath,” write Shibley Telhami and Marc Lynch in Foreign Affairs.
To the author
Ishaan Tharoor
is a foreign policy columnist at The Washington Post, where he writes the Today's WorldView newsletter and column.
In 2021, he was awarded the Arthur Ross Media Award in Commentary by the American Academy of Diplomacy.
Previously, he was a senior editor and correspondent at Time Magazine, first in Hong Kong and later in New York.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 27, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.