Benjamin Netanyahu during a previous meeting of the Israeli war council on Gaza (Israeli press)
Benjamin Netanyahu revealed his plan for the next day after the war on Gaza, during a meeting in Paris (February 23) to discuss the ceasefire that has been faltering for weeks, and four months after the American question about Israel’s plan regarding the future of the Gaza Strip.
This is the same question that was repeated by many Israeli officials, led by Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, who considered that failure to disclose realistic goals for implementation would make the army lose its ability to accomplish the mission. He believes that the army fights and achieves tactically, but is unable to employ its achievements strategically in the absence of a vision. politics for the next day.
Features of Benjamin Netanyahu's plan
The plan that Benjamin Netanyahu presented to members of his government included many details regarding the future of the Gaza Strip, and among its most important features are:
security field;
Israel maintains freedom of military and security action in all areas of the Gaza Strip without time restrictions, while establishing a security belt inside the Gaza Strip, along its borders with Palestine occupied in 1948. It cooperates with Egypt and with the help of Washington in controlling a security belt on the common border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip (Philadelphia Axis/ Salahaddin);
To prevent smuggling across the border, including the Rafah crossing.
Furthermore, Israel is demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, stripping it of any military capacity, except what is required to maintain public security.
Civil affairs;
In its administration of civil affairs and public order in the Gaza Strip, Israel relies on “local persons,” provided that they are not linked to countries or entities that support terrorism or receive money from them.
With the preparation of a comprehensive plan to combat extremism;
In religious, educational, and social welfare institutions with the help of “Arab countries” that have experience in this field.
In this context, the plan speaks:
About closing UNRWA and replacing it with agencies concerned with humanitarian aid.
As for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, the plan stipulates that “reconstruction will be financed and managed only by countries acceptable to Israel,” and that reconstruction will not begin until “the completion of disarmament and the eradication of extremism.”
Political affairs;
Israel rejects international dictates regarding the permanent settlement with the Palestinians: (the Palestinian state, international law, and relevant international resolutions), and the plan confirms that the political settlement with the Palestinians is achieved only through “direct negotiations without preconditions,” while emphasizing Israel’s rejection of any unilateral recognition ( From any country, regional or international organization) in the Palestinian State.
These basic milestones mentioned in Netanyahu’s plan will not be initiated or moved to except after achieving the goals of the ongoing aggression against Gaza, which Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasized since declaring war on the Gaza Strip, which are: destroying the military capabilities and authoritarian infrastructure of the Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad movement, and launching... All prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance, and preventing any future threat to Israel from the Gaza Strip.
A political reading of the plan’s vocabulary
Looking at these details and other declared positions and policies taking place on the ground in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, it can be noted that:
First: The plan rejects the existence of a Palestinian authority, including the Palestinian Authority established under the Oslo Accords. It also rejects the existence of any civil or political representative frameworks emanating from the Palestinian people, and all that is permitted are civil ties based on people chosen and appointed by the occupation according to its standards.
With the aim of eliminating national identity and paving the way for the complete separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, after controlling and reoccupying it.
Second: Ending the idea of the Palestinian state as a political solution to stop/end the conflict, and canceling the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, in accordance with international laws. This is consistent with the so-called “Nation-State Law for the Jews in Israel,” issued by the Knesset in 2018, which refers to The existence of one people on the land of historic Palestine, which is the Jewish people only, who have the right to self-determination.
This was also confirmed by the statements of Netanyahu and many of his ministers during recent weeks and days, rejecting the existence of a Palestinian state, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, using Netanyahu’s formula: “Israel will not give up its full security control over the lands west of the Jordan (the West Bank).
Third: Political negotiations;
It will be between two parties and without preconditions;
Meaning deleting the references of international law and relevant international resolutions, the Arab Peace Initiative, or any standards and rules regulating negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
That is, the occupying Israel wants to isolate the Palestinians in order to dictate to them and draw for them the features of the final solution according to the logic of the victorious force imposing its will on the defeated (a fait accompli policy), and this coincides with the idea of ending the national identity of the Palestinians as a people, and granting them self-rule in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a minority under Israeli sovereignty. Complete.
Fourth: Paving the way for canceling the right of return for Palestinian refugees guaranteed by Resolution 194, by canceling the existing UNRWA agency under UN Resolution No. 302, and replacing it with other international agencies, and it is not unlikely that one of those agencies is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is concerned with refugee protection. Forcibly displaced persons and stateless persons, to work on the resettlement of Palestinian refugees, who numbered 7 million (50% of the Palestinian people), within the framework of liquidating the Palestinian cause.
Fifth: Re-engineering Palestinian society, so that it loves the occupation and accepts slavery in the “democratic” Jewish State of Israel, and convincing the Palestinians and raising their children to hate resistance and freedom, which is considered a luxury that is harmful to society and public health, and they must be careful;
If they do not convince themselves of this, there will be no reconstruction or reconstruction in the Gaza Strip (according to the terms of Netanyahu’s plan), and they will remain miserable homeless people without shelter.
Chances of the plan’s success and its repercussions
This plan is based on a decisive premise, which is the overwhelming victory of occupying Israel in the ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip, and its ability to fully achieve its declared goals. This is highly doubtful, as the resistance is still effective and active, and the level of its performance and control over the scene is high and influential.
This prompted many American and Israeli officers to doubt the possibility of achieving decisive/absolute victory in Gaza, led by a member of the Israeli Ministry of War, Gadi Eisenkot (a former chief of staff of the Israeli occupation army), who, in his letter to members of the government a few days ago, questioned the possibility of “victory.” “Absolute,” according to Netanyahu’s terminology.
This is also what the New York Times indicated (February 23), citing American and Israeli officials, that Hamas still has about 5,000 fighters in the northern Gaza Strip, and that the majority of its tunnels are intact.
The other matter, the plan’s cancellation of the idea of a Palestinian state and the right to self-determination, puts Israel facing friends rather than enemies.
The Europeans and Americans, despite their bias, will not be able to promote or defend this plan.
Because it is a recipe for adding fuel to the fire in the region, by closing the political horizon for a solution, which means that the alternative is escalation in Palestine and the entire region.
In addition, it will close the door for Washington to promote the idea of normalization in the absence of the idea of a Palestinian state, which has become an urgent entitlement after the 7th of October (the Al-Aqsa flood), which is what Riyadh confirmed in its recent positions.
There is no normalization without a political horizon for a Palestinian state, and this is what will embarrass the Arab countries, especially the normalized ones, in front of their peoples as the month of Ramadan approaches, which may turn into an occasion that raises the level of protest against American and Israeli interests in the region, if the occupation remains stubborn, arrogant, and aggressive against the Gaza Strip. .
Also, the occupation’s denial of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and its attempt to abolish the national political and civil frameworks that represent the Palestinian people, will be a reason for the unity of the Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and abroad, regardless of their intellectual backgrounds and party affiliations, in the face of the occupation that seeks to abolish and liquidate the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian people, in all ways. Means, especially rough force.
In this context, the question arises regarding the hypothesis that the security situation has escaped from the hands of the occupation throughout the West Bank, especially if the officers and soldiers affiliated with the security services (60 thousand armed elements) feel that the political horizon is blocked and the settlement path has disappeared, and that the next alternative is settlement and displacement from The West Bank, as promoted by the extreme Zionist right led by National Security Minister Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Smotrich. Will these people stand by as spectators, or guard the settlements and the settlers?
The bottom line;
Benjamin Netanyahu's plan, in its terms, reflected the essence of the occupation and the reality of its racist, fascist, colonialist, imperialist policies, which he managed over the past decades to beautify with the powders of politics and public relations, until the strike of October 7 came, revealing the badness of the occupation, its arrogance, and its condescension over humanity and human values.
Which led to the collapse of the occupation narrative and the expansion of its isolation before the world, especially after most countries demanded a ceasefire and aggression against Gaza, and the immediate opening of humanitarian corridors by voting in the UN Security Council 3 times, during which Washington used its veto power.
The most recent of which was the objection to the Algerian draft resolution last week (February 20), noting that the United Nations General Assembly (December 13, 2023) was able to issue a resolution calling for a ceasefire and opening humanitarian corridors with the approval of 153 countries and the opposition of 10. Countries only.
This is at a time when European countries that are friendly to Israel are beginning to feel embarrassed - in front of local and international public opinion that is dissatisfied with the occupation and its supporters in this aggressive war against the Palestinian people demanding freedom - and they are also finding it difficult to defend Israel and its blatant violations of human rights, which has made many of them take a distance. From the occupation by denouncing its crimes against children and defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip (100,000 martyrs and wounded so far), which led to the occupying Israel being brought before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing genocide.
The state of arrogance, chauvinism and arrogance among the leaders of the Israeli occupation - their indifference to the directions of international institutions, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, the weakness of the European position and the bias of Washington, which still sees the elimination of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance as a goal that must be achieved in order to remove the obstacle to redrawing the future of the issue. The Palestinian Authority and the Middle East, under the strong leadership of Israel, led Benjamin Netanyahu to announce his plan for the next day in Gaza, and to express his view of the future by rooting the idea of resolving the conflict on the basis of “to be or not to be,” which takes the region by force into possibilities that are more complex and difficult than the current reality, which may develop. To a regional war whose outcome is difficult to predict.
This is contrary to what Washington desires and Israel plans, after the Palestinian issue imposed itself forcefully on the agenda of the region and international institutions, and became an issue with dangerous geopolitical dimensions and impacts in the two seas: the Red and the Mediterranean, and the entire Middle East.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.