Why is Netanyahu and his government so opposed to turning Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority? It is not because the PA is a terrorist regime – the PA continues to cooperate and coordinate security with the Israeli security forces, including the Shin Bet. The Palestinian Authority arrests Hamas operatives and imprisons them or turns them over to Israel. It is not because the Palestinian Authority is corrupt – Palestinian corruption never bothered the Israelis, many former senior Israeli officers have been full partners in some of the corruption in the PA. Also, how can a corrupt regime like the Netanyahu government and Netanyahu himself be bothered by corruption – it never prevented them from their own corruption.
The opposition to the Palestinian Authority controlling Gaza comes from the same sentiment that was expressed many years ago by then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir who said: we will not negotiate with the PLO because they are terrorists, we will not negotiate with them because there is only one thing to negotiate with them about and that is the establishment of a Palestinian state, and we will never agree to that. Likewise, for Netanyahu, if the Palestinian Authority retakes control over Gaza, then the Palestinian leadership is once again united. The biggest danger to Israel, according to Netanyahu, is that a united Palestinian leadership means a large increase in international pressure to recognize the State of Palestine and for Israel to withdraw from all of the occupied territories. Netanyahu’s policy of fostering and enforcing the Palestinian political divide between the West Bank and Gaza (meaning between Fatah and Hamas) has been his strategy since 2009 and October 7 did not change that for Netanyahu. Among the lessons learned from October 7 is that we must resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and resolution means the two states solution with clear and enforceable security arrangements strengthened by regional engagement by neighbouring Arab states. Netanyahu continues to oppose any resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that is why the biggest security threat for Israel remains the continuation of Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel.
