Elliott Abrams notes that it is Donald Trump who wants to provide a better life for the people now in Gaza, by arranging for their removal while the Strip itself is cleared of rubble. Whether they then return, or remain in the Arab states where he hopes they can be resettled, they will be much better off than if they are forced, by their Arab brothers, to remain in Gaza, obstacles to its reconstruction. But along with physical reconstruction in Gaza, the people now in Gaza require mental reconstruction, after two decades of enduring the murderous despotism of Hamas. More of Abrams’ discussion of the need for this other “reconstruction” can be found here: “‘Gaza Shall Be Forsaken,’” by
…Trump’s plan tacitly understands another reason Gaza has never developed into the Singapore that Shimon Peres dreamed of, and that is the condition of the society that has developed in Gaza in the past two decades of Hamas control. Economic and political development require both sound government and a culture in which the polity can advance. One look at Haiti is a reminder of that obvious point. Trump’s plan accepts that development will not happen in the current Gaza situation, where society is permeated by corruption, brutality, hatred, and terror….
Perhaps 10 years of living without Hamas in a variety of countries would transform Gazans, too. Some would stay in the places to which they moved, while others would want to go “back” to the new Gaza—but this time not as UN-certified permanent “refugees” from the naqba of 1948. This time, as people with options for a decent life who chose to live in Gaza because it offered economic opportunity and peace.
It’s fanciful, and very, very unlikely. But it’s a better, truer, understanding of what led to Gaza’s current situation and what could possibly lead out of it than decades of “peace processing” and UN resolutions, which in the end have produced terrorism, war, and misery.
Trump is treating Gaza as a physical place and its people as suffering humans, which is more than has ever been done by any Arab League resolution condemning Israel and calling it a war crime to allow Gazans to move away. “We will not allow the rights of our people… to be infringed on,” declared Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has not permitted an election in 19 years. Trump’s scheme would “undermine the core of the Palestinian national project,” said Algeria, which is true if the core of that project is endless violence aimed at destroying Israel. An Arab League statement said Trump’s proposal would “threaten the region’s stability” which is also true if, by stability, is meant the 77 years of refusal to accept Israel in peace as a Jewish state.
Gaza is, as Trump called it, a “hellhole,” and history suggests it will remain so. Not because of anything the Israelis did. They left it in 2005 with an open possibility for a better future. Not because of Donald Trump, who in his first weeks in office offered a different future and asked Arab governments to think for once about Gazans as people rather than cannon fodder in the struggle against Israel. But it is apparently still easier to dream on about the “two-state solution” and the “right of return,” and far easier to scream about Israeli crimes and Palestinian victims, than to let the Jews live in peace. Until that changes, “Gaza shall be forsaken.”
It’s not enough to improve the physical conditions of the Gazans by removing the rubble and rebuilding the Strip. That will require their leaving what will become an enormous “construction site,” and to move to other Arab states while the reconstruction takes place. Then they should be given the freedom to choose whether to remain where they are, or to return to Gaza. But they must also be allowed to improve their mental condition, free from Hamas’ rule, whether in Gaza, should they return, or even in the places in Arab countries where they had been allowed to settle and choose to remain. The hold of the terror group on the Gazans has to be broken.
Without that change in their mental makeup, the Gazans will use their energies not to further their own wellbeing, but to return to making war on the Jewish state — that is, remaining in a condition of endless “terrorism, war, and misery.” It is Trump who has shown a real interest in improving the lot of the Gazans; those who oppose his plans are revealing their indifference to the rubble-strewn conditions in which the Gazans now live, and their desire to keep using the Gazans as cannon fodder in the endless, wasteful, and doomed-to-fail campaign to destroy Israel and to replace it “from the river to the sea” with “Palestine.”
Susan Bennett says
You can’t fix a deranged oversized cult any more than you can fix nazism. Islam must be stamped out and muslims must be permanently removed from Gaza. When they were handed Gaza by the Israelis, it had lots of nice buildings, industries, and an infrastructure. The terrorist muslims immediately razed all that to the ground. Sinking billions more into Gaza is a waste of time. The muslims should be permanently removed from Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel and relocated with their fellow terrorists in Jordan and Egypt.
Bogdan says
Eliot Abrams thinks as a perfect western, that knows nothing about tribal culture and about a pscyhotic sect called islam-
Tony says
Absolutely NO MONEY OR FUNDS should be given by the West for the benefit of Islam and its Muslims because Islam is a terrorist ideology of discrimination, hatred, bigotry, and violence against Non-Muslims.
Islam and its Muslims fund, promote, and practice bigotry, discrimination, deceit, supremacy, segregation, violence, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Quran, and Muslim actions should be legally challenged with a multi-faceted force of US Laws like Muslims wield against Americans and Westerners. Like a Foreign Terrorist Organization(FTO) designated by the USA Secretary of State, Islam is a MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATION(MTO) fighting against Non-Muslims and NOT A PEACEFUL religion under Western Law because Islam funds, teaches, and promotes a Terrorist, Criminal Organization with Muslims as Terrorists for Allah. Under Islamic Law, it is a Crime against Allah for Muslims to neglect performing Terrorism against Non-Muslims; Jihad means warfare against Non-Muslims to ESTABLISH THE RELIGION, ISLAM(Muslim Law Manual – “Reliance of the Traveller”, o9.0 and more). More specifically, Islam is a Muslim Terrorist Ideology and Murderous, Criminal Enterprise of intolerance, continuous war, discrimination, segregation, supremacy, genocide, polygamy, propaganda, deceit, hatred, incitement, sedition, rape, terrorism, and violence against all Non-Muslims as taught in the Quran(Quran 2:216; 4:89,95; 8:12,39,74; 9:5, 21, 29, 36, 41, 49, 88, 111, 123; 21:92; 49:15 and more).
somehistory says
Their brains are not like houses. A house can be torn down and another built on its ground.
mozlums would have to want to be different in their thinking. And the majority of them would not want to be any different than they are. If they wanted to be different, they could be, even if they had to hide the fact from other mozlums.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Just move them out to a place where they are nowhere near Israel ie neither in Egypt nor in Jordan. Once they’re in that remote place, they can either stew against the Jew, but be no threat to them, or they can figure out what they wanna do w/ their own lives and their new neighbors. Somalia or Western Sahara would still be the best place for them
DavidW says
Just be sure to keep the idiots who were involved in “rebuilding” Iraq and Afghanistan away from Gaza. If not, then they’ll ensure that Sharia law and other islamic stuff will be kept.
commonsense says
Per Article One of the Hamas covenant:
“The Islamic Resistance Movement: The Movement’s programme is Islam.”
The religion of Gaza is also Islam. There is no daylight between the inhabitants of Gaza and Hamas. The Jew-hatred of both is theologically based, and ineradicable. All Gazan Muslims will always be a threat to Israel, and must be eliminated (by relocation, or by other means if necessary). There – I’ve said it.
abu taleb says
> Gaza Needs to be Rebuilt
Let the Gazans do it themselves because they ask for it. If they attack Israel for the purpose of destroying Israel, then certainly Israel can attack back and destroy the area.
Muslims should apply what Muhammad did to themselves, a few Jews were accused of trying to kill Muhammad, then Muhammad attack the whole Jews tribe and kicked the Jews out of their land. Or, the Jews were accused of treason, then Muhammad attacked the whole tribe, killed 900 people, and enslaved the remaining. So, if Palestine tries to destroy Israel, Israel can annihilate the Palestinians or kick them out of Palestine, and take over the land. Shouldn’t Islamic law be used for muslims?