If Israel Doesn’t Enter Rafah, Hamas Will Survive and Become the Undisputed Hero of Arabs and Muslims
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Elder of Ziyon takes us through New York Times columnist David Brooks’ article about what Israel could do if it doesn’t enter Rafah: “Finally, a mainstream newspaper looks at alternatives to invading Rafah – and cannot find any,” Elder of Ziyon, March 25, 2024:
A fourth alternative is that Israel should just stop. It should settle for what it has achieved and not finish the job by invading Rafah and the southern areas of Gaza, or it should send in just small strike teams.
This is now the official Biden position. The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has argued that Israel can destroy Hamas in Gaza without a large invasion but “by other means” (which he did not elaborate on). …The I.D.F. estimates that there are 5,000 to 8,000 Hamas fighters in Rafah. Defeating an army that size would take thousands of airstrikes and raids. If you try to shrink the incursion, the math just doesn’t add up. As an Israeli war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, reportedly told U.S. officials, “Finishing the war without demilitarizing Rafah is like sending in firefighters to put out 80 percent of a fire.”
Hamas’ defeat is not negotiable, and Brooks goes into detail why. Hamas’ survival would be a worldwide disaster….
That survival would make Hamas into the undisputed hero of the Arabs and Muslims. Terrorism — even Hamas’ unspeakable atrocities — would be seen to pay. Other terror groups, and not only in the Middle East, would be encouraged to emulate Hamas’ example. What might Muslim terrorists do in Europe, or in North America, murdering and kidnapping the innocent to force governments to bend to their will — including the freeing of those terrorists who are currently imprisoned and the ending of military and other support for Israel?
Brooks’ article, as good as it is, does not mention two important options.
One is that Egypt needs to be a partner in allowing Gazans to go there temporarily while Israel cleans out Rafah. Egypt’s response to this humanitarian crisis by building higher walls is fully accepted by the international community and this is hypocrisy of the highest order. Aid can get to the Sinai easily. Countless lives can be saved.
Can’t the Americans, who provide Egypt with billions of dollars in aid, demand that Egypt take in civilians who want to leave Rafah? They will remain in Egypt only as long as it takes the IDF to destroy the four Hamas battalions in that city, and then those Gazans will return, first to Rafah and then to wherever in Gaza they had originally come from.
And the other point is my plan to turn Gaza into a new emirate of the UAE. Professor Andrew Pessin recently summarized my plan. It solves every problem Brooks and others postulate. It would also mean that any potential future Palestinian state would only be on the West Bank, but that is a feature, not a bug: any alternative cuts Israel in half. Gazans can decide whether they prefer to live under corrupt Palestinian rule or as full citizens of the UAE.
Would the UAE sign on? They are the only Arab nation showing genuine concern for Gaza civilians. They can gain a great deal by having a presence on the Mediterranean and access to gas fields there. And they can really turn Gaza into the Singapore people rhapsodized about in the 2000s.
This way there is no “occupation” – Arabs live under Arab rule, as they did under Jordanian and Egyptian rule without much complaint between 1948-1967. And in this case their rulers would actually care about them.
The UAE would, by making Gaza another of its emirates, gain immediate access to the Mediterranean. It would also have access to, and ownership of, any natural gas fields found in Gaza’s territorial waters. The Gazans have been unable to get any such projects off the ground; they lack the money, and the politico-military climate has heretofore been much too unsafe for would-be investors. But the UAE doesn’t need investors; it has hundreds of billions of dollars in its Sovereign Wealth Fund, and private Emirati investors are also deep-pocketed. The money from natural gas sales would help fund the reconstruction of the Strip, which will take years.
As part of the UAE, Gaza would become the envy of many in the Arab world, as its misfortune becomes its fortune, with the UAE determined to make an economic success of its newest territory.
But before that can happen, Hamas has to be crushed, which means that, whatever the Bidenites think, the IDF must attack the last redoubt of the terror group in Rafah.
