Hamas says PM plan for demilitarized Strip, ‘local’ leadership ‘will never succeed’
By AFP and ToI Staff 24 February 2024, 12:55 am
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting at Hakirya base in Tel Aviv on January 7, 2024. (Yariv Katz/POOL)
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says Washington had been “consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts” about what was needed in post-war Gaza, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his plan to the security cabinet and later released it to the public overnight in Israel.
“The Palestinian people should have a voice and a vote… through a revitalized Palestinian Authority,” he says, pushing the US position for a reformed PA to take over the governance of Gaza. Netanyahu has rejected the idea repeatedly.
His post-war plan is based on principles broadly accepted by the public and his office said the document will serve as the basis for future discussions regarding the post-war management of Gaza. It calls to install “local officials” unaffiliated with terrorists to administer services in the Strip instead of Hamas, for Egyptian cooperation to end smuggling into Gaza, for Arab countries to fund reconstruction of the Strip and for no role for UNRWA. It also calls for Gaza to be demilitarized and for its population to be “de-radicalized.”
The plan lays out that the IDF would have “indefinite freedom” to operate throughout Gaza to prevent any resurgence of terror activity. It states that Israel will move forward with its already-in-motion project to establish a security buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Strip’s border, adding that it will remain in place “as long as there is a security need for it.”
This plan is directly at odds with one of the Biden administration’s own principles for post-war Gaza, which states that there will be no reduction in the enclave’s territory.
Kirby says this afternoon in a press briefing that the US doesn’t “believe in a reduction of the size of Gaza… we don’t want to see any forcible displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza and, of course, we don’t want to see Gaza dominated or ruled or governed over by Hamas.”
Asked about the plan during a visit to Argentina, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he would “reserve judgement” until seeing all the details, but that Washington was against any “reoccupation” of Gaza after the war.
“Gaza… cannot be a platform for terrorism. There should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. The size of Gaza territory should not be reduced,” Blinken says in Buenos Aires.
Netanyahu’s plan was swiftly rejected by the Palestinian Authority.
@Sebastien
Indeed, as this is the only threat which they actually find threatening.
I left some out.
https://biblehub.com/numbers/33.htm
@Ted, Peloni I agree that Bibi’s plan is the best way forward for now simply as a point of unity andto forestall the Americans.. I thought I made that clear. But, Biden isn’t allowing them out. Neither is Egypt. There are 2 ports. They could even be transported through Israel out of the country and go by boat or plane. There are about 10 countries that will accept them so far There are 190 countries in the world. Most have few if any Jews. Europe is still taking in Muslims from Turkey and North Africa. Millions of Ukrainians, This is hypocrisy. They want to keep them there as a dagger at Israel’s throat.
Though they really should go to the Hamas supporting Muslim countries as Nikki Haley said. The Jordan Option would be perfect but it isn’t here, yet, so Jordan is closed.
Facilitating Arab emigration and Jewish re-settlement will need to be a priority after the war. Somebody pointed out that long term military occupation is also unsustainable without it. Also,good luck finding non-Hamas affiliated locals to run things . Education, religion, culture? Social media, and foreign media?Who will deNazify them? Germany had anti-Nazis. Gaza and the P.A. don’t or they’d be assassinated in a minute. .Bibi’s plan is ok for now as unity is necessary but it will lead right back to the same situation if it is actually the outcome. “Deja vu, all over again” in the words of Yogi Berra. The Gazan Arabs have to go. Because terror against Jews will follow them wherever they go.
Plus, the only deterrent to Jihadists is to show that whenever they attack they will lose territory permanently whether it was once ours or not. Muslims out, Jews in.
There used to be a party called, “The National Union” party in Israel whose platform I liked, because it called for any contiguous territory from which Israel is attacked to be annexed, ethnically cleansed, and settled by Jews.
The periods in which Israel suffered almost no terrorist attacks were the periods in which Israel had not relinquished any of the territory it had won or agreed to any concessions.
“Peace comes from strength”. – Teddy Roosevelt, Donald Trump
“Possession is nine tenths of the law” – Thomas Draxe
“Power flows from the barrel of a gun: – Mao tse Tung 😀
And let’s not forget the precedent of the ethnic Germans being ethnically cleansed from the Sudetenland, East Prussia, Russia.
The Geneva Accords, the Hague, the U.N., etc., etc., have almost never been used on behalf of the Jews. I say get rid of them.
When possible, of course, which it is not now.
“When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!”
https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/25-19.htm
Deuteronomy 7:22-23 New American Standard Bible – NASB 1995 (NASB1995)
“The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for the wild beasts would grow too numerous for you. But the LORD your God will deliver them before you, and will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.”
https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/DEU.7.22-23
“When the LORD your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses…”
Deuteronomy 19:1
““’But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.” Numbers 33:55
https://biblehub.com/numbers/33-55.htm
Not that I’m religious but it’s common sense and the Torah is very consistent in its advice in this context.
@Ted
Indeed, the Pals will have every interest to want to flee the war torn Gaza, and Israel will control their ability to act upon that desire.
@Sebastien
I favour ressettlemt also but the opposition to such a plan would be enormous. Europe does not want to end up absorbing another two million Palestinians.
Bibi was right to come up with his plan with the weight of the government behind it.. Although Blinken has an alternate plan, he will be forced to deal with Bibi’s plan. The conversation will move from Blinken’s plan to Bibi’s Plan.
Once set up, emigration will be encouraged and facilitated. After all, Gaza is not a prison, right?
Well, it’s a point of unity for the war coalition but Moshe Feiglin’s plan is the only practical or just one after the war.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/feiglin-urges-resettling-gaza-says-his-far-right-party-will-aim-to-replace-netanyahu/