By ignoring a dramatic Arab offer, Jerusalem and Washington sentenced Israelis and Gazans to continued bloodshed, while depriving Israel of a historic regional opportunity.
Twice over the past months, a powerful Arab coalition, mostly hostile to Hamas (which is outlawed by some), presented plans for a Hamas-free Gaza Strip.
First, in March, the Arab League embraced an Egyptian plan for Gaza rehabilitation and reconstruction, refuting US President Donald Trump’s claim that doing so requires massive deportation of the strip’s over two million residents.
More recently, a Saudi-French initiative, covering law and order as well as security, was endorsed by well over one hundred countries.
Following a thorough analysis of the two plans and ensuing conversations with some of their authors, members of Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) reached three conclusions.
First, the governing principles of those plans meet Israeli security needs, offer a Hamas-free postwar Gaza, and pave the way for upgrading our national security via integration in a powerful regional coalition.
Second, that the plans are hardly perfect, and at least one major flaw must be addressed: the endorsement of the Palestinian “right of return.” As no plan involving an intent to flood Israel with refugees can be considered, the plans’ sponsors have acknowledged their blunder and undertook to correct it.
Third, Israeli government veto of any such plan has nothing to do with its merits – security or otherwise. It stems primarily from the dominance of a security-ignorant, ideology-driven messianic minority in the cabinet.
Consequently, it was concluded that there is value in providing the lead mediator – Trump – with a powerful security validator for an Israeli national-interests-based plan, in the form of CIS, Israel’s largest group of former IDF generals and colonels, as well as Mossad, Shin Bet, Israel Police, National Security Council, and foreign service equivalents.
Morning after plan
Subsequently, late last week, CIS sent a letter to Trump and his senior staff, recommending five governing principles for a Gaza “morning after” plan:
- End of war and return of all hostages – living and deceased.
- An urgent surge in humanitarian assistance.
- Coordinated phasing out of the IDF with the phasing in of a Hamas-free, alternative governance administration, tasked with addressing civil management, law and order, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
- The alternative Gaza management is to comprise deployments – boots on the ground included – from Arab countries that have expressed willingness to shoulder that responsibility under the invitation of, and in coordination with, the Palestinian Authority.
- All while preserving Israel’s inalienable right of self-defense.
We noted that by our and by reported IDF professional analyses, Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat, and the IDF has what it takes to deal with its residual terrorist capacity, remotely or otherwise, as has been the case with Hezbollah in Lebanon since the US-brokered ceasefire entered into force.
Once launched, we concluded, this plan can set the stage for the next phase of Trump’s historic Abraham Accords achievement. By normalizing Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia and with other Arab and non-Arab Muslim states, Israel’s integration in a US-led powerful regional coalition is bound to contribute to the security, stability, and prosperity of all its members.
Rarely does a country face a situation characterized by these two: the choices are clear, and it is its call. That moment is here. Israel can persist with its current violent trajectory all the way to an open-ended bleeding occupation of Gaza, the continued “Gazafication” of the West Bank until it, too, explodes, regional and international isolation, and the loss of the pillars on which stands our strategic alliance with the US.
Yet, a powerful regional coalition stands ready to do much of the heavy lifting, once we choose the alternative. It is prepared to help extricate us from Gaza, coordinate with us its Hamas-free future, contribute to stabilizing the West Bank by helping reform the PA, and, finally, normalize relations and forge a joint coalition to stand up to Iran and its proxies while promoting regional stability and prosperity.
It is your call, says the coalition. All that stands in the way of this historic regional opportunity is your government’s refusal to end the war, remove the veto over PA involvement, and commit to an eventual negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A stark choice indeed. Or is it?
The writer is a former special envoy and policy adviser to the late prime minister Shimon Peres. He is a member of Commanders for Israel’s Security and a fellow with the Israel Policy Forum and the Economic Cooperation Foundation.