The IDF is methodically destroying Hamas’s military capability in Gaza. That is, in a sense, the easier part. The obvious question is, what comes next? Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will need to maintain a presence in Gaza indefinitely:
“I think Israel for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
It follows comments by other Israeli officials who have said that Israel will need to maintain a military presence inside Gaza in order to serve as a buffer protecting Israeli civilians.
While no one wants to use the word, that suggests a need to re-occupy Gaza for a considerable period of time. Which makes sense: Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005, and it proved to be a terrible mistake. Gaza turned into a sick society dedicated to Jew-killing and subsisting on international welfare. With the support of Iran, it has been a thorn in Israel’s side ever since, culminating in the unimaginable evil of October 7. There is no way Israel’s government can repeat the error of 2005.
Occupying Gaza may be necessary for Israel’s security, but it is no surprise that the Biden administration opposes it:
President Biden warned Israel in an interview aired on Sunday not to reoccupy Gaza, his first significant public effort to restrain America’s ally in the wake of the Hamas assault that killed more than 1,300 people, including at least 29 Americans.
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“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Mr. Biden told “60 Minutes” on CBS in a conversation taped on Thursday and aired on Sunday night. “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.”
Of course, the U.S. government was happy when Israel evacuated Gaza 18 years ago. The Israelis aren’t dumb enough to weigh Joe Biden’s pronouncements heavily in their deliberations.
But it is obvious that re-occupying Gaza will be painfully difficult at best. An entire generation of Gazans has been reared under the insane tutelage of Hamas. How much do they know of civilized life? Not much, as the horrors of October 7 demonstrate. Somehow, Israel will need to figure out how to govern such people.
My only word of advice, for what it is worth, is that as soon as possible after the war is over, Israel should cut off all foreign aid to Gaza. Gazans need to learn that trying to kill Jews is not a career path, and that economically useful skills are necessary for survival. These will be brand new ideas to those who have been raised under Hamas, with the indulgent support of the UN, the EU, and our own State Department.
Above all, the post-war interval during which Israel will have no alternative to exercising some form of control over Gaza will call for more loyalty from Israel’s friends than even the current phase of open warfare.