The war in Gaza will not end until it is 100% clear that Hamas will no longer rule and control Gaza.
The Netanyahu government is fully prepared to sacrifice the Israeli hostages and Israeli soldiers who will continue to be killed in Gaza.
The Netanyahu government, and most of the people of Israel care very little about the massive killing of Palestinians in Gaza or the fact that there is an enormous humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have little impact on Israeli decision making and the power of international law to change Israeli policies is minimal. If we want this war to end, if we want sufficient humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, if we want to see Gaza rebuilt after the war, the Palestinian people and its representatives need to now make decisions and offer solutions that will end the war.
There are a number of possibilities – all of them are problematic, but keeping the situation as it is without a solution is a disaster. In all proposed solutions, it is very likely that whoever is in charge in Gaza will have to invite an Arab-led international force to Gaza for a limited period of time to help to stabilize the situation, provide security to the people of Gaza and guarantees that there will be no more attacks from Gaza on Israel.
The following are a few ideas:
- The return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza – the upside is reunification, which most Palestinian want. The downside is that the Palestinian Authority has almost no legitimacy in Gaza. No doubt that the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to fight Islamic Jihad now in Jenin is aimed at demonstrating to the Americans that they are capable of taking over the rule in Gaza and confronting Hamas’s remaining military forces. But will the people of Gaza accept the Palestinian Authority run by Mahmoud Abbas?
- The appointment by the Palestinian Authority President of an individual who has legitimacy in Gaza, is independent of the Palestinian Authority and capable of creating a representative governing council for Gaza for an interim period. That interim government needs to be capable of creating a security force that can incorporate willing Hamas combatants into its service while willing to confront others in order to collect all unauthorized weapons in Gaza.
- An International Trusteeship created by Palestinian request to the UN Security Council perhaps on the model of East Timor. (United Nations Administered East Timor refers to the period between 25 October 1999 and 20 May 2002 when East Timor was administered by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor as a United Nations protectorate.)
There are definitely other possibilities, but if we are taking a hard realistic look at them, the primary condition for changing the situation is Gaza, is that the war must end and Israel must withdraw from Gaza, for that to happen, the hostages must be returned and Hamas must no longer control Gaza. This is in the hands of the Palestinian people.
