The Arab Plan for Gaza: Dead in the Water

Prompted by the desire to block President Trump’s plan for Gaza’s reconstruction, which would have moved 2.2 million Gazans to Egypt and Jordan while the removal of rubble and the rebuilding of the Strip were underway, the Arab states met in Cairo on March 4 to fashion their own peace plan, which would leave the Gazans in place — apparently the Arabs expect their fellow Arabs in Gaza to endure the noise and the danger of living in the midst of the removal of millions of tons of rubble, and a colossal reconstruction project. The plan says nothing about ending the role of Hamas as a military force, something that is a key Israeli demand, or about whether its operatives would be allowed to remain in Gaza. More on the Arab plan can be found here: “Why Hamas loves the Arab world’s latest backwards Gaza plan – analysis,” by Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, March 5, 2025:

The much-hyped emergency Arab summit on Gaza ended in Cairo on Tuesday with a 23-point communique.

If you don’t want to wade through all the clauses – filled with tired and outdated ideas like the “right of return,” a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, Israel-occupied Golan, a UN peacekeeping force, genocide, apartheid, and the “indispensable role of UNRWA” – just know this: Hamas welcomed it.And that is really all one needs to know to judge the plan.

“We welcome the plan to rebuild Gaza, and we call for the provision of all the elements needed for its success,” Hamas said.

Why wouldn’t Hamas embrace it? The plan makes no mention of them – not once – nor does it acknowledge the terrorist organization’s brutal attack on October 7, the event that triggered the war and the devastation that followed.

No accountability for Hamas

Under this proposal, the Arab states and the international community would be expected to contribute some $53 billion for reconstruction. The first phase involves removing unexploded ordnance and clearing millions of tons of debris. The second focuses on building 200,000 temporary housing units. In the long term, 400,000 permanent homes, a rebuilt seaport, and a new international airport would be added.

The Americans, as long as Trump is president, will contribute nothing for Gaza’s reconstruction. Nor is it likely that the Europeans will be in any position to offer financial support for Gaza’s rebuilding. They are now talking about immediately increasing their spending on defense, both to meet the NATO requirement of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense (British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has already pledged that the UK will increase its defense spending to 2.5% of GDP), as demanded by Trump. But the Europeans also know that they need to spend far more than that for their own defense and for more aid to Ukraine. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has presented an €800 billion ($868 billion) plan to increase European defense spending, said it was “a watershed moment for Europe” and also for Ukraine.

Europeans are thus not going to help pay for rebuilding Gaza, either. They are well aware of the tremendous wealth of the Arab oil states — both Saudi Arabia and the UAE each have sovereign wealth funds worth more than one trillion dollars — and think it only right for Gazan Arabs to be helped by their fabulously rich “Arab brothers” on the Gulf.

But in the final communique [put out by the Arab states in Cairo on March 5], is there a trace of anger or even mild frustration at Hamas for bringing about this destruction? Any hint of accountability? Not a word.

The proposal envisions a team of independent Palestinian technocrats running Gaza initially until a reformed Palestinian Authority assumes control. Nowhere does it mention disarming Hamas or demilitarizing the territory – so naturally, Hamas has no objections….

The Arab communique makes no mention either of disarming Hamas or of demilitarizing Gaza altogether — but both of these are for Israel non-negotiable demands. Do the Arabs think they will somehow be able to persuade Israel to agree to such dangerous folly?

The attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered, has changed completely the view of those Israelis who once believed in the “two-state-solution.” Now 71% — more than two-thirds — of Israelis are opposed to two states, and the percentage of Israelis opposed has been steadily growing. Almost half of Israelis now support then annexation of all, or large parts, of Judea and Samaria (a/k/a the West Bank). The Arab communique does not recognize the effect of the Hamas atrocities on Israeli opinion — that is, the hardening of Israeli views on what will bring a real peace — based on Israel’s overwhelming military superiority, and not on “land for peace,” and what must happen with the terror group Hamas.

No Arab state wants to admit more Palestinians. And especially not Palestinians who belong to, or have been brainwashed by, Hamas, which is the Gazan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that has been banned in much of the Arab world, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan.

Perhaps the greatest irony, however, was the presence of Lebanon’s newly elected president, Joseph Aoun, and Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, at the Israel-bashing summit.

Neither man would be in power today were it not for Israel’s military successes over the past 16 months. A pre-October 7 Hezbollah would never have allowed Aoun’s election, and Bashar al-Assad would still be in control in Damascus had Israel not struck a severe blow against Hezbollah and Iran.

Joseph Aoun is a Christian and a sworn enemy of Hezbollah. But it was only after Hezbollah had been battered by the IDF, with the killing of thousands of its operatives, the severe wounding of thousands more by the “exploding pagers,” the assassinations of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, his successor Hashem Safieddine, the commander and deputy commander of the elite Radwan Force, and ten of the twelve members of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, and the destruction by the IDF of 80% of Hezbollah’s store of rockets and missiles, that Aoun felt confident enough to agree to serve as Lebanon’s president. And Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the new leader of Syria, would never have managed to topple Bashar Assad overnight, had not the IDF so battered Hezbollah that it was unable to come to Assad’s defense. Both men owe their current prominence to the IDF.

The Arab “plan” is less realistic than Trump’s vision of turning Gaza into a “Riviera” on the Mediterranean that has received such criticism and mockery. It does not deal with Hamas, which is the fons et origo of the current war in Gaza. And any future for Hamas in Gaza is, for Israel, a non-starter. The communique says nothing, either, about a demilitarized Gaza, or about who will appoint the “Palestinian technocrats” who will be in charge of the Strip “the day after” the war stops. Will it be the massively corrupt Palestinian Authority, whose leaders would love to rule in Gaza so as to get their hands on the billions of dollars in aid money being supplied? Or will it be, more sensibly, the donor countries who will select those technocrats, because they want to make sure that there is careful watch on what happens to the donor funds, once they are in the hands of the government in Gaza?

Fast forward to a year from now, and I am sure Gaza will still be sunk in rubble, without any serious clean-up effort having begun. Young Gazans will be desperately trying to leave the Strip, but all the Arab states will still refuse to take them in. And the handful of Hamas operatives still alive in Gaza will keep on fighting the “occupation” until the very last one of them is “martyred.”