There are infinite causes of the Israel-Palestine wars. Maybe there need to be a few new solutions too?
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Israel and Gaza are in war #5 of the last 15 years. So far, it looks like only a bigger version of the last 4, with the predictable end result of no resolution and a repeat cycle in 2-4 years, as promised even by Hamas' leaders.
The New York Times' editorial "The Only Way Forward" click here recycles the old grievances and is a triumph of hope over experience. The 2-state solution is dead. The wholesale change in leadership recommended can't happen all at once; Israel's and the PA's leadership is old and on its way out one way or another, but Hamas is in an ever-recycling mode of young not-yet-killed leadership turnover.
All solutions are bad, according to a recent article in Foreign Affairs by ME expert Joost Hiltermann: foreignaffairs.com/israel/no-exit-gaza-hiltermann.
Here's my effort:
Is a possible GOOD option to end the conflict, or at least disarm Hamas, for a US-led purchase of part of the Sinai bordering Gaza large enough to prevent Hamas from smuggling arms from Sinai and rearming, and then forming a coalition Israel-PA-Arab government of Gaza? Egypt desperately needs money, Western support, and wants to be rid of Hamas, which it correctly sees as a faction of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization and threat to Egypt. If the Rafah crossing was controlled by Israel, would that prevent Hamas from rearming? Israel and Egypt already cooperate on scanning crossings into/out of the Rafah gates, so it's not clear how much extra security will be gained by Israel taking it completely over, but by owning the land, at least 20 miles deep, the tunnels can be ended from the Sinai into Gaza, which would end a major smuggling route, financed by Iran.
This won't be enough to stop Hamas' scrap metal-to-weapons recycling program, however, according to CNN: click here. The IDF, while demolishing over half of Gaza's buildings - although only 10% of units, by some accounts - has indirectly supplied Hamas with millions of tons of recyclable material to make new rockets and missiles to fire upon Israel, reports CNN. Pipes for water infrastructure and other materials supply some of the rest at the expense of water provision to Gaza's chronically parched citizens.
No solution will work until Hamas is mostly disarmed; at least by 90% in order to turn restraining Hamas into a long-term police action.
A possible secondary inducement for Israel to take part of the odious task of governing Gaza might be to encourage it to annex Area C in the West Bank, but only on the condition that all Palestinians there become full Israeli citizens with full rights and responsibilities. Palestinians who don't want to become Israeli citizens could move to Areas A, B or even Gaza, but international observers would have to ensure that any such moves were voluntary and not coerced by Israel or its Area C settlers. Area C is already mostly in Israeli control so this would not be such a radical move as taking over all of the West Bank, advocated by some of Israel's most right-ward leaders.
Annexing the West Bank was proposed by American-educated Israeli Journalist Carolyn Glick in her 2014 book: "The Israeli Solution" click here. Starting with Area C instead of the entirety of Judea and Samaria (aka, the "West Bank") might be a way to ease into a 1-state solution that would benefit Palestinians as well as Israelis. As full citizens, and under some sort of international monitoring, Israeli settlers would not be as free as they are now to harass, harm or even kill unarmed Palestinian farmers. Those farmers and settlers could be grandfathered into land ownership, in return for obeying all Israeli laws and regulations.
Unquestionably, life as an Israeli-Palestinian is better than life as a stateless Palestinian subject to repeated counter-attacks and gradual loss of land and movement under the rapidly declining Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is currently led by Mamoud Abbas, who is in declining health and will soon be in the 18th year of his 4-year term. Respect for the PA is even lower than for Hamas, among Palestinian citizens questioned anonymously where they are not too intimidated to answer: click here.
The old solutions don't work, recycled by politicians who are almost as old as Israel itself. It's time for something new.
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