Pinkas: Netanyahu's plan for after the Gaza war is meaningless.

(Al Jazeera)

Haaretz newspaper said that the post-war Gaza plan revealed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Friday is an unworkable list of unilateral statements that do not deserve serious review.

The newspaper explained - in an article by writer Alon Pinkas - that the plan, which came after 140 days of war and the United States’ demand for it as an ally, is meaningless.

Because it is a denial of US President Joe Biden's plan, which is a list of statements that constitute open Israeli control over Gaza without any positive political aspect, and it is also unworkable.

Instant frame

The document is divided into 3 time frames, the first of which is the “immediate time frame,” and stipulates that the basic condition for reaching the so-called “next day” is for Israeli forces to continue “the war until their goals are achieved, that is, the destruction of the military capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the governing infrastructure; hostages being held in Gaza, and preventing any threat to Israel from the Gaza Strip in the future.

This in itself - according to the newspaper - is logical and appeals to the Israeli mentality, but it conflicts with the American timetable and sequence, which assumes that the hostage deal will be accompanied by a temporary but long ceasefire, and it also assumes that the military and political destruction of Hamas is possible without occupying the entire Gaza Strip for a period. long period of time.

The second is the "medium time frame", which is divided into security and civil areas. The security dimension consists of 5 points, the first of which is that Israel maintains freedom of operations for an unlimited period of time in Gaza, which necessarily means that Israel will remain in Gaza for an indefinite period of time.

The second point is the establishment of buffer zones unless security needs and requirements require it. The third point is Israel maintaining the “southern closure” valve to prevent Hamas from rearming itself in cooperation with Egypt and the United States.

According to the fourth point: Israel will have “security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River,” without specifying what this means, but the wording means preventing any Palestinian sovereignty, even in the context of a future demilitarized Palestinian state.

Finally: The Gaza Strip must be “completely demilitarized,” and Israel will supervise that mission. Disarmament has been a consistent and strict Israeli position since the Oslo Accords, but limiting implementation and supervision to Israel means Israel’s reoccupation of Gaza.

Civil sphere

At the same time, the civil sphere includes 4 concerns, the first of which is that the civil administration and responsibility for the civil system should be based on “local elements with administrative experience,” which the writer explained by looking for Palestinian subcontractors working for the benefit of Israel without any legitimacy among the Palestinians, and then Israel bears full responsibility.

The second: “removing extremism,” by establishing a plan to remove extremism from religious, educational, and social care institutions in Gaza, “with the participation and assistance of Arab countries with proven experience in strengthening the fight against extremism.” He considered this idea farcical and divorced from reality, wondering: How will this be done? ?

Which Arab countries have such a record?

Will Israel do the same in return?

The third trigger: Israel is working to close the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), under the pretext that its employees were involved in the events of last October 7, and is seeking to “replace it with other responsible international social welfare agencies.”

Reviews

The writer pointed out that US intelligence assessments cast doubt on the findings reached by Israel regarding UNRWA’s collusion with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), stressing that Israel cannot close UNRWA.

As for the last trigger: “The Gaza reconstruction process will not begin until the disarmament process is completed and the process of eradicating extremism begins, and it will be conducted and funded by countries acceptable to Israel.”

This means - according to the writer - that this will never happen, and indicates that Israel has no intention of leaving Gaza, and it also arrogantly orders countries wishing to finance reconstruction to wait for the Israeli green light.

The writer commented that there are no Arab or other countries willing to spend billions, and the only condition proposed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE is the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, which is something that Israel does not want to take into consideration.

the long term

As for the long-term vision, which is described as “basic rules for the future settlement,” it consists of two declarations taken from the government’s statement last week, the first of which is that Israel rejects “the apparent international dictates regarding what relates to the final settlement with the Palestinians. An agreement can only be reached through Direct negotiations between the two sides without preconditions."

According to the writer, this is manipulation by Netanyahu.

Because he refused to negotiate with the Palestinians for a decade, and there are no international “dictations.” As for “there are no preconditions,” the entire document so far is a list of Israeli preconditions and dictates.

The second declaration is that “Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state, and more than 100 countries have already expressed their intention to recognize the Palestinian state, so Israel is the one that unilaterally opposes it, even if it is for good reasons, according to the writer.

The writer concluded that Netanyahu, with his popularity and the popularity of his ruling coalition declining, may be his last gamble is to invent a “crisis of the Palestinian state” and confront the United States. This is what the “unplanned” plan is about, which proves conclusively that there is no plan at all.

Source: Haaretz