Times of Israel
Posters calling for an Israeli return to the Gaza Strip were hung in central Jerusalem on Sunday, along the route to the Knesset.
‘We’re going home,’ declare the signs in red ink. ‘The people demand a return to the Gaza Strip.’ A logo and symbol, as well as a phone number for donations and details, have been created for the campaign.
Eighteen years after Israel dismantled the Gush Katif bloc of settlements, removed all their civilian residents, withdrew the IDF and ‘disengaged’ from the Gaza Strip to the pre-1967 lines, there are those who want to resettle there courtesy of the terrible war that was thrust upon us.
We know the drill: Posters go up, an association is formed, then come donations, a public relations campaign, and demonstrations calling for the injustices to be corrected and atonement for the ‘sin of the withdrawal.’
Speakers and lobbyists will find a listening ear among politicians and those who control the budget. With a bit of effort, the old dream of Bezalel Smotrich, now our finance minister, and Daniella Weiss, the former mayor of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim, of returning to Netzer Hazani and Kfar Darom and all the other settlements will take shape.
I spoke on Sunday with one of the activists behind the initiative, a man by the name of Moshe. He told me about the serious response he’s had from right-wing Knesset members on the subject of the future of Gaza. Mostly, he spoke about the message being delivered to the government — that Israel, which declared its determination to eliminate Hamas after the terror group rampaged into southern Israel, killing 1,400 and abducting over 200 on October 7, cannot just stop there.
‘We are telling Netanyahu and the ministers to deliver a powerful blow, so that they can prepare the same settlements for us that we left. We want to go home,’ said Moshe.
What will happen the day after the war doesn’t seem to be a prime concern right now for the government ministers, but it is plainly troubling US President Joe Biden and the other heads of state who have visited and expressed support for Israel in its campaign to eliminate Hamas within the framework of international law, but who want to know if Israel has an exit strategy.
Biden urged Israel to think through not just every step of the anticipated ground force entry into Gaza, but also what comes next, so that we don’t find ourselves stuck in a hopeless quagmire. The US, said Biden, learned this lesson after deciding to enter Iraq.
I spoke with two cabinet ministers on Sunday. Both said they don’t know what will happen in Gaza after the war; they’re busy with today. The most discussed option is to transfer the Strip to the Palestinian Authority, which visitors from abroad are speaking about as well.
Ra’am party leader MK Mansour Abbas told Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew language sister site, that he believes ‘the Palestinian Authority will have to manage Gaza. That’s the most natural solution. Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] will have no choice; these are his people.’
But this possibility is already prompting opposition. ‘We are not going into a bloody war, after all the slaughter we went through, to then transfer Gaza from vile terrorists to another terrorist authority,’ one right-wing Knesset member said. (Hamas seized power in Gaza from PA chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction in 2007, two years after the Israeli pullout.)
So it seems that Israel is going to try to conquer Gaza, at least according to the recent statements of political and military leaders. ‘It’s an occupation; it’s not a photo op, bang and we’re done,’ as one cabinet minister put it.
A conquest would oblige Israel to stay in the Gaza Strip for a long time, to crush Hamas, and perhaps enable the restoration of the shattered Western Negev and Gaza border communities.
Another scenario speaks of a complete disengagement from Gaza, practically, politically and economically, as proposed by Energy Minister Israel Katz over the years. There would be a complete disconnection, with an extensive no-man’s land at the border, like the one between Israel and Syria, without the supply of electricity and water that currently takes place, without entry for Gazan workers into Israel.
Katz, who is set to assume the position of foreign minister in three months, proposed years ago that a large artificial island be built off the coast of Gaza, with international funding, which would provide the residents of the Strip with housing and employment.
Katz even hung a large map and a diagram of the planned island in his office. The plan received international interest and positive reactions, but nothing more.
A senior political source spoke on Sunday about the possibility of an international force taking over control of the Strip. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t seem like this idea has many takers.
‘One thing is clear to us,’ the source told Zman Yisrael. ‘If we don’t eliminate thousands of Hamas terrorists, and if the name Hamas remains relevant after the war, we will have lost the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. I don’t even want to talk about returning to Gush Katif.’