Israel, if it is farsighted and wise, has a grim opportunity in the emergence of Islamic State Sinai Province. It can sign a defense treaty with Egypt to ensure the territorial integrity of Egypt. Israel’s gain would be the undertaking of Egypt to grant palestinians on Egyptian territory Egyptian citizenship, removing the malign influence that the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is having over the Palestinian situation the only sure way possible, by removing its reason for being in a decent, humanitarian way by settling Palestinian refugees into a normal status, in this case as citizens of Egypt.
This line of thinking does assume that Egypt’s military will be unsuccessful in stopping IS Sinai Province from controlling territory, either part or all of Sinai. It further assumes that the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza/Hamas will be assisting ISSP in its efforts, justifying an Egyptian takeover of Gaza to root them out. Now is the time for the negotiations to start, if they haven’t already started.
Without refugee status, and the unique UN agency to support Palestinians in their grievances, Palestinians will tend to disperse, tend to get jobs, and as they get more invested into the existing legal system, tend to reduce their jihad to lawfare seeking reparations for their losses in both properties and suffering. Eventually Israel will write a big check and be happy to end this chapter in their history.
I think you’re assuming that Gaza is Egyptian territory. It is not, and was not even considered part of Egypt when Egypt ruled it from 1948-67. I do not think there are any Palestinian refugee camps in Egypt (including the Sinai – the problems there are with the indigenous Bedouin), so the move you’re suggesting would have little effect.
BTW, the Palestinians in Jordan do have Jordanian citizenship (and actually constitute a majority of that country’s population), but still consider themselves Palestinians and provide support to Fatah, Hamas, et al.
I could see Egypt being interested but, even when they ruled the Gaza Strip in the 40s, they stayed clear of the crazies there. I remember old Mort Sahl jokes about the Gaza Strip. In fact, I see he is still performing at 87. I wonder what he has to say about this?
My favorite Sahlism was when he called Korea “World War two point three.” That’s how far back I go with him.
Gaza, in this scenario, would have enough ties to IS Sinai Peninsula to be the subject of invasion and occupation. Gaza would be given to Egypt, it’s people given egyptian citizenship, and if they want to leave Egypt and form their own palestinian state, it would be secession from Egypt as an aftermath of a 21st century war and not as faux refugees from 1948. Egypt would get aid from Israel to handle integration issues into Egyptian society in amounts greater than the current refugee assistance system provides. The system would be presented as a just and final solution and the UNRWA would cease operations.
It’s bizarre to me that a palestinian man studying abroad and unable to return to the area due to the war in 1948 could have settled in the US, married, have children in 1960, grandchildren in 1985 and his great grandchildren born in 2010 from his paternal line are able to qualify as UNRWA palestinian refugees. The present system is lunacy.
The whole UN is nothing more than a lunatic asylum.
You have to realize that the parties involved are Palestinians, the UN, ISIS, and the Egyptians who are at risk of a Muslim Brotherhood insurrection at any given moment.
This has all the potential of a Three Stooges episode on meth.
Not one of the parties listed has any history of doing anything but demonstrating the ability to FUBAR a nocturnal emission. It can be assumed that this plan would be sabotaged by one or more of the parties listed going for or endorsing [the UN] open warfare rather than reaching an accommodation with Israel. It is what they do. It is what they have done for generations. If everything does not fall perfectly into place, it degenerates into open warfare.
Mind you, that may not be a counterproductive outcome. If an Intifada on steroids breaks out in Gaza, the rational response is to line up Israeli forces all along either the NE Gaza border by the Erez crossing, or the SE Gaza border with the Quarna and the Sufa crossings and drive SW or NW respectively until you run out of Gaza. Anyone in front can end up in Egyptian Sinai and no longer be Israel’s problem.
Because forcible removal is the only real solution in Gaza.
If ISIS declares a state in Sinai; assuming that Egypt itself does not break out in a civil war, Sinai will become an area under military rule and be a localized civil war. If Egypt wins, it will put paid to both the Palestinians and ISIS there. But it will not be a ….. happy ending. But once again, that is the only thing that is going to be a solution.
Subotai Bahadur
IIRC,Egypt has been offered Gaza a number of times in the last 25 years, and always declined the offer.
“Because forcible removal is the only real solution in Gaza.”
Digging a ditch to flood all those tunnels would help. It’s only 4 miles wide. Of course, it would take armored bulldozers but there must be a way.
It has even occurred to the Egyptians.
Dozens of tunnels had been destroyed since last August following the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers in a militant attack near the Gaza fence.
Cairo said some of the gunmen had crossed into Egypt via the tunnels – a charge denied by Palestinians – and ordered an immediate crackdown.
The move surprised and angered Gaza’s rulers, the Islamist group Hamas, which had hoped for much better ties with Cairo following the election last year of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist who is ideologically close to Hamas.
Awww. What a shame !
My proposal is that Gaza should be used as a refuge for Copts, and that the West Bank should house Christians displaced from Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. The Palestinians should be sent to live in ISIS. The Egyptians don’t want them, and neither does any other Middle Eastern Country. ISIS would be happy to have them as they are already to join a death cult.
The problem of forcible removal is that it doesn’t actually solve the refugee problem. It just moves it. UNRWA will still be active wherever the palestinians from Gaza settle. If the Gazans become Egyptians and the city expands to the south and west to relieve population pressure with the new areas receiving sufficient water to make a move attractive, a strong claim can be made that this is a just and final solution. Forcible removal will never qualify.
UNRWA can be shut down too. Forcible removal is just as good as killing all of them, which is what they are cruising for.
To be clear. I had a plan for the Palestinians. They can live with the other members of the Sunni Death Cult, in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. No one else would have them.