What to Do About Gaza

Gaza looks just about hopeless these days, and indeed, President Bush basically wrote it off while he was in the region. But the problem of Gaza cannot be wished away and we are not comfortable consigning the Palestinians to life behind bars while Hamas takes Iranian money and works on bigger and more precise missiles with which to destroy Israel. Nor are we comfortable with ongoing military incursions and the social service “squeeze” that Israel has been forced into – even though we know the Israelis are doing their very best to limit the humanitarian crisis.

Gaza looks just about hopeless these days, and indeed, President Bush basically wrote it off while he was in the region. But the problem of Gaza cannot be wished away and we are not comfortable consigning the Palestinians to life behind bars while Hamas takes Iranian money and works on bigger and more precise missiles with which to destroy Israel. Nor are we comfortable with ongoing military incursions and the social service “squeeze” that Israel has been forced into – even though we know the Israelis are doing their very best to limit the humanitarian crisis.

The time has come, we believe, for drastic action and even the President noted the need for “new international institutions” to deal with the problem. We see three options – and surely aren’t the only ones who do – none are easy but all are better than what we have now.

First, increase the size of Gaza with long-term land leases in northern Sinai. We know from Israel’s experience with Yamit that there is water and arable land. If part of the problem were density and the lack of room for productive enterprise, this would help. It would also give Egypt a stake in the area’s stability and future economic growth. An Israeli politician suggested this some time ago as a humanitarian gesture, but Egypt rejected it out of hand – preferring to leave Israel with responsibility for the whole problem. If one believes that radicalism stems from poverty (we don’t – there are too many poor societies in which children are not turned into human bombs), this idea should have merit and the U.S. government should use its leverage with Egypt to pursue it.

Second, we repeat our belief that UNRWA should be abolished and the refugees and money (including compensation, if one must) moved to the mandate of UNHCR with the mandate to resettle people permanently in Gaza or elsewhere. If coordinated with the first idea, and again if one believes that radicalism stems from poverty (and again, we don’t) the Palestinians could be given a stake in Gaza that could eventually produce productivity and perhaps economic advancement.

The Third is the most radical and thus the one we prefer. Surveying population and economic growth data for the previous JINSA Report, similarities between post-WWII Singapore and the Gaza Strip emerged. After WWII, Singapore was one of the poorest places in the world, according to the UN, with labor and social unrest, unemployment, and little undamaged infrastructure. It remained a backwater through Malaysian independence in 1963. Ethnic and political trouble between Singapore and Malaysia led to its establishment as a city-state in 1965. Its economic future was bleak as it lost its primary trading partner and its domestic market at the same time.

What did Singapore – or Hong Kong, or Dubai – have that Gaza doesn’t have? Only forward-looking entrepreneurial capitalism and rule of law. Oh, well. Don’t give up now.

The United States should have withdrawn political support for Palestinian independence in 2006 as a consequence of the Palestinian election, in which the voters chose Hamas, with its platform of the destruction of Israel. It isn’t too late. The UN, which feeds, fuels and employs Gaza anyhow, should establish a protectorate over the territory and the people. UN control may have to be established militarily – a not unreasonable international response to an entity bound and determined to erase a UN member.

If the international community is REALLY concerned about the future of the Palestinian people, it should be willing to support a protectorate and the establishment of order and the rule of law. That $7.7 BILLION the international community just pledged to Gaza for humanitarian aid would go a long way toward establishing real institutions to serve the people. And if the people of Gaza are REALLY interested in their future, they will appreciate the end of refugee status and the restored promise not only of independence, but also of economic stability and advancement.
If they prefer the Hamas recipe for the future, so be it, but then it isn’t Gaza that’s hopeless.