A new proposal for the Gaza Strip - Mike Evans -
Over the past 30 days, I have presented a new plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump administration officials and European Union leaders, all of whom have received it with great enthusiasm.
The plan is based around a simple idea: Establish an Israeli desalination plant, built on Israeli land, funded by Saudi Arabia, the Europeans and others, that provides clean water to Gaza.
An economic team, including some of the top experts in regional cooperation, are still completing portions of the plan that has been 10 months in the making. After decades of discussions and plans, especially on solving the water problem for the Gaza Strip, I believe this plan is the most feasible and realistic.
The plan is based on the new atmosphere in the Middle East. I recently held several meetings with US administration officials, leaders of numerous leading Middle East nations as well as global financial institutions and found that new regional developments under the leadership of President Trump has provided us with a unique opportunity.
Israel now is in a position to have workable relations with Gulf states. Their leadership and financial strength is a true and practical option for significant investment by both foreign governments and international financial institutions. Thus, what is being proposed is an American-Israeli-Egyptian sponsored effort to create water and energy infrastructure on the Israeli or Egyptian border with Gaza, in addition to sending (all or most of the output) of such facilities to Gaza. (In the past week a similar model with Qatar oil to Gaza worked).
Gaza has many challenges. Gaza's continuing and growing water and energy crises are well known. The population of the Gaza Strip is nearly two million, with a growth rate of nearly 3% per year and an unemployment rate of 40+% (youth unemployment is nearly 60%). At the most basic level, there are simply not enough sustainable water sources in Gaza. Less than 4% of freshwater sources are drinkable. Finally, Palestinian leadership in Gaza does not engender confidence from international governments, and the overall economy makes investments by financial institutions nearly impossible.
My desire is that the administration would not make this a part of the peace plan. The plan is for the funds to be provided for the desalination plant, property, the ongoing supply of water, and creation of a terrorism-free zone either on Egyptian or Israeli land to protect the plant.
The cost of the project should not exceed $500 million, and that should not to be part of a peace plan. The companies are ready and all that is needed is a compassionate "Yes" from Trump. The US has gained over $200 million just from the funding cut to UNRWA, and there is no doubt the Europeans and Gulf States will donate.
When I presented the project to the crown prince, I told him that Jared Kushner was studying it. He said if Kushner was interested he should contact him.
We Evangelicals who know Donald Trump, know him to have a heart of compassion. Providing fresh water to children in Gaza is a basic human right that must transcend politics.
THE ANCHOR INVESTMENT for the project would be a desalination plant for producing 50-80 million cubic meters of water per year. This plant would be large enough to address more than 50% of Gaza's current drinking water needs. Egypt or Israel would provide the land and the pipeline to Gaza, and the US and other donor countries would provide the construction capital and an annual subsidy for proper and actual delivery of water to Gaza.
The technology for the plant can come from an Israeli company technologies based on similar projects built in the region. One can assume that the cost of such a facility would be in the range of $200m.-$300m. Importantly, such a model could potentially serve as a conduit for other similar infrastructure projects such as solar energy, traditional electric power plants and even waste treatment facilities.
Alternatives
The first alternative is a donated facility. As described above, Egypt or Israel provides the necessary land and pipeline, and the US (together with other donor countries) will cover the cost of construction. The project would be conducted via an Israeli or Egyptian government tender with coordination from the US to identify a general contractor for the project. Following the construction, water and energy will be supplied to Gaza at a subsidized price or even at no cost for Gaza water authority.
The second alternative is BOT, build operate and transfer. According to this model, a private company (following a tender managed by the Israeli Government or the Egyptian infrastructure authority) will build, operate and deliver water to the Gaza Water Authority for a period of 25-30 years. That private entity will charge money for the water shipped.
On the basis of this longterm contract, which Egypt and the US would guarantee, the private company would invest its own capital and attract international financing partners for the cost of construction. The cost of water would be subject to a maximum (i.e., subsidized) price so that Gaza gains a true benefit (i.e., cheap water).
Meanwhile private companies that have been pre-qualified for quality and financial strength would compete against one another on the basis of three main factors: The minimum upfront payment provided by the US as a construction subsidy; the price they are willing to charge the Gaza Water Authority (the lower the better); and the level of annual guarantee requested (again the lower the better). After 30 years, Israel or Egypt would own the facility and could use it for any purpose it so desires.
How can the Gaza water situation be saved? I told a European president last week that the answer is simple. If it is so important for the European governments to assist the Palestinians in Gaza, the problem itself must be addressed. The inability of the Hamas to manage the Gazan water problem can be solved by handing the Israelis or the Egyptians the funds to desalinate water on the Gazan border and pump it to Gaza.
In other words, Europe should be part of a consortium of nations that will fund the construction and operation of a desalination plant based in Israel or the Sinai.
The European president was very enthused by the idea and I am sure his nation and others will be part of the plan.
The "Separate" Palestinian State - by Khaled Abu Toameh -
Last week, Hamas began paying salaries to thousands of its employees after Qatar sent a $15 million grant in cash to the Gaza Strip. The money was brought to the Gaza Strip by senior Qatari envoy Mohammed El-Amadi through the Erez border crossing with Israel.
The Qatari grant is in the context of efforts by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations to reach a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas.
The payment was the first of a total of $90 million that the emirate has pledged to send to the Gaza Strip in the next six months, according to Palestinian sources.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, however, remain opposed to an agreement; reports say that one of the reasons they are opposed to a truce accord between Israel and Hamas is because such a deal will pave the way for the establishment of a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip.
On November 11, Abbas again accused Hamas of being part of a US and Israeli "conspiracy" to separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. He also threatened to impose punitive measures against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on the pretext that the "conspiracy" was aimed at establishing a separate Palestinian state there.
The reality, after all, is that there already is a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, and It has been there since 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the area and toppled Abbas's Palestinian Authority.
Abbas and the PA, all the same, have since been living in denial. They have even created an alternate reality in their head -- one that continues to believe that it is still possible to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian state in the entire West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
For the past 11 years, a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have tried to end the power struggle between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction, to no avail. Several "reconciliation" agreements previously signed between Fatah and Hamas have never been implemented.
To date, Hamas and Fatah have not been able to agree on the interpretation of the "reconciliation" agreements already signed. Fatah claims that the agreements are supposed to allow its Ramallah-based government to assume full responsibility over the Gaza Strip. Hamas, for its part, remains vehemently opposed to relinquishing security control over the Gaza Strip. The most Hamas is willing to offer Abbas's government is limited civilian control, which means paying salaries and funding schools, hospitals and other public institutions in the Gaza Strip.
In the past few weeks, Abbas and some of his top officials in Ramallah have warned that any truce between Israel and Hamas will "consolidate" the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, thus paving the way for the establishment of an independent and separate Palestinian state in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Now that understandings appear to have been reached between Israel, Qatar, Egypt and Hamas to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Abbas and his PA officials are seething with rage.
As part of the purported understandings, Qatar sent millions of dollars in cash to the Gaza Strip on November 8. The money will be used to pay thousands of Hamas employees and needy Palestinian families. According to some reports, a senior Qatari official, Mohammed El Amadi, arrived in the Gaza Strip carrying three suitcases stuffed with $15 million.
In response, Abbas's official news agency, Wafa, issued a strongly worded statement accusing Hamas of being part of a "Zionist-American conspiracy" to detach the West Bank from the Gaza Strip. According to the statement, Hamas is now cooperating with the US and Israel to establish a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. "There will be no Palestinian state without the Gaza Strip, and there will be no [separate Palestinian] state in the Gaza Strip," the statement quoted Abbas as saying.
This claim, of course, is a total misrepresentation of both the reality and facts. If anyone is responsible for a separate Palestinian state that already exists in the Gaza Strip, it is Fatah and Hamas, not Israel and the US. Actually, the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah is completely unrelated to Israel, the US or any other third party. The dispute between the two Palestinian parties is the direct result of a power struggle over money and power.
Neither Israel nor the US helped or condoned Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Hamas managed to topple Abbas's Palestinian Authority in Gaza mainly because his Western-funded security forces surrendered without putting up a fight.
Since then, Hamas and its allies in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have turned the Gaza Strip into a separate and independent Palestinian state. Hamas and PIJ do not recognize Abbas as the legitimate president of the Palestinians. They have, in the Gaza Strip, their own de facto government, Hamas; their own parliament; their own security forces and militias, and even their own laws.
Abbas can continue to present himself to the world as the "President of the State of Palestine" as much as he wants.
He is only living in an illusion: it is obvious by now that he does not represent the two million Palestinians who are living in a separate Hamas-controlled entity in the Gaza Strip. Abbas has not been able to set foot in the Gaza Strip for the past 11 years, and his chances of ever returning there now seem to be zero.
Hamas says that if Abbas dares to enter the Gaza Strip, he will be put on trial for "high treason" -- a crime punishable by death in accordance with Palestinian laws and traditions. In the eyes of Hamas, Abbas is a traitor because he is conducting security coordination with Israel and imposing economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip.
Abbas undoubtedly knows that as long as Hamas and PIJ are in the Gaza Strip, he will never be able to return there. He also undoubtedly knows that he feels safer being in Ramallah than in the Gaza Strip. In Ramallah, he is safe because the IDF is only a few hundred meters away from his headquarters and residence. Were it not for the presence of Israel in the West Bank, Hamas would have toppled Abbas's government a long time ago. It is Israel's ongoing crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank that is keeping Abbas and his government in power.
Abbas most likely does not want to acknowledge this reality. He also most likely does not want to accept any responsibility for the divisions among his people, particularly the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Instead, he is now seeking to accuse everyone else but himself for the fact that there already is a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. Surreally, Abbas is now accusing Israel and the US of working towards establishing a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip -- when this has been the reality for the past 11 years.
The separate Palestinian state was created in the Gaza Strip the day Hamas took control over the area. It was created there the day Abbas's security forces in the Gaza Strip surrendered to Hamas in 2007.
The separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip was created the day Abbas and his enemies in Hamas failed to honor the several "reconciliation" agreements they had signed in the past decade.
What is even more surreal is that Abbas is now accusing Hamas of collaboration with Israel and the US to establish a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. This accusation is ridiculous, given the fact that Hamas continues to seek the destruction of Israel and considers the US an enemy of Arabs and Muslims.
Abbas, however, apparently does not want to be confused by reality. He prefers to continue his long-standing strategy of blaming everyone else but himself for the miseries of the Palestinians. The emerging truce deal only confirms the reality that Abbas has been trying to ignore for the past 11 years: that a separate Palestinian state does exist, and it is run by Hamas, PIJ and other armed groups who continue to give the Palestinian president the imperial brush-off.
Massive Missile Attack on Israel after Qatar Funds Hamas - by Bassam Tawil -
Last week, as efforts were underway to achieve a new truce between Hamas and Israel, this author asked a legitimate and straightforward question: Can Hamas be trusted?
The conclusion was that a real truce between Israel and Hamas can be achieved only after the Palestinian jihadi terrorists are removed from power, and not rewarded for violence and threats.
Days later, Hamas itself provided proof as to why it cannot be trusted with any deal, including a truce.
Since yesterday, Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip have been firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. The current barrage began hours after Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli commandos inside the Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli officer and moderately wounding a soldier. In response, the Israeli army killed seven terrorists, including a top Hamas military commander -- Sheikh Nur Baraka.
The Israeli commando unit was not inside the Gaza Strip to kill or kidnap anyone. They were there as part of a routine covert operation to foil terrorist attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. The commandos, all the same, were attacked by Hamas terrorists who did try to kill or kidnap some of them. The soldiers of the elite Israeli unit managed to return to Israel under the cover of Israeli airstrikes called in to aid their exfiltration.
What is clear is that it was Hamas, not Israel, that initiated the armed clash with the Israeli force. It was Hamas that attacked the Israeli soldiers, killed the officer, and then rushed to accuse Israel of launching a "new aggression" against the Gaza Strip. When the Israeli soldiers tried to defend themselves and killed seven terrorists with return fire, Hamas accused Israel of committing a "despicable crime" against Palestinians.
It is worth noting that the Hamas attack on the Israeli commandos came hours after a Qatari envoy left the Gaza Strip. The Qatari official, Mohammed El-Amadi, had arrived in the Gaza Strip last week carrying suitcases stuffed with $15 million in cash. The money was delivered to Hamas leaders so that they could pay salaries to thousands of their employees in the Gaza Strip. The Qatari financial grant was delivered to the Gaza Strip with Israel's approval. The Qatari envoy even entered the Gaza Strip through Israel's Erez border crossing.
Why did Israel facilitate the transfer of the Qatari cash to the Gaza Strip? Israel has been -- and still is -- trying to avoid an all-out war with Hamas.
Israel is not afraid of Hamas. Israel simply does not want the Palestinian civilians living under Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip to pay another heavy price for the foolish acts of their leaders. Israel, in fact, has repeatedly expressed a desire to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians there.
In recent years, Israel has been actively working to support reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli measures include the upgrading of the border crossings between Israel and Gaza to more than 800 truckloads of building materials and other goods to enter Gaza on a daily basis, and facilitating the passage of more than 3.4 million tons of materials into Gaza since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
Earlier this year, Israel presented to the EU, US, UN, and the World Bank various projects that were approved by the Israeli government to develop infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, promote energy solutions and create employment opportunities for the Palestinians there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended last week's deal with Qatar by saying it was aimed at preventing a "humanitarian crisis" in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu said that he would do "whatever I can" to keep Israelis living in communities adjacent to the border with Gaza safe, while at the same time working to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
Hamas took Qatar's $15 million cash grant, paid its employees, and days later has resumed its terrorist attacks against Israel.
This is Hamas's way of saying thank you to the Qataris and Israelis who have been working hard to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip and avoid another war -- one that is likely to cause more suffering to the two million Palestinians living there.
Hamas has clearly interpreted the goodwill gesture of Israel and Qatar as a sign of weakness. Hamas leaders have even gone on the record as saying that the $15 million grant was the "fruit" of the weekly violent riots that it has been organizing along the border with Israel since March. Shortly after the Qatari envoy delivered the grant to the Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum used those very words: he boasted that the Palestinians were finally reaping the fruits of their violent protests along the Gaza-Israel border.
Hamas's stance is reminiscent of its reaction to the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Then, Hamas and other Palestinians also interpreted the Israeli "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip -- intended to give Gaza the chance to become a Singapore on the Mediterranean -- as a sign of Israeli weakness and retreat.
A few months later, Hamas even won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election -- largely because it claimed that it had forced Israel to pull out of the Gaza Strip by conducting suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Hamas told Palestinians back then: vote for us because we drove the Jews out of the Gaza Strip through the armed struggle.
The renewed Hamas attacks on Israel serve as a reminder that the terrorist group is not interested in a real truce. Hamas wants millions of dollars paid to its employees so that it can continue to prepare for war with Israel while not having to worry about the welfare of its people.
Qatar's $15 million cash grant has failed to stop Hamas from launching hundreds of rockets into Israel. On the contrary, the money has only emboldened Hamas and increased its appetite to continue its jihad to eliminate Israel. All the money in the world will not convince Hamas to abandon its ideology or soften its position toward Israel.
If Hamas is in fact interested in a truce, it is not because it wants peace with Israel. Rather, it is because Hamas needs "breathing space" that will allow it to continue developing and amassing weapons, and preparing for more attacks on Israel. Anyone who puts his or her faith in Hamas tempering its objectives is living in an illusion.
Hamas has a long-standing tradition of violating ceasefires with Israel.
Even if the Egyptians, Qataris and the UN manage to end the latest attacks on Israel, Hamas will never abandon its plan to destroy Israel and kill as many Jews as possible. Hamas will continue to violate ceasefires. If Qatar fulfills its promise to send more suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip, Hamas will continue to laugh all the way to the bank.
What the international mediators need to understand is that there is only one solution to the crisis in the Gaza Strip: removing Hamas from power and destroying its military capabilities. They also need to understand that there is only one language that Hamas understands: the language of force. Until the mediators internalize this reality, Hamas will continue to make a mockery of everyone, including its own people and those who are trying to prevent a humanitarian disaster there. The assumption that if you pay terrorists millions of dollars they will stop attacking you -- rather than using the funds to build up their forces -- has proven to be false.
Why Renewed US Sanctions on Iran are Good News for Palestinians - by Khaled Abu Toameh -
If the United States is worried about imposing harsher sanctions on Iran, it should not give those concerns a second thought. Being unpopular with people who do not wish you well is probably the price of true leadership.
Those who are worried, and should be worried, are Iran and its Palestinian allies and friends.
The US administration has decided to reinstate the sanctions against Tehran that were removed under the 2015 "nuclear deal." These sanctions are part of Washington's effort to curb Iran's missile and nuclear programs and diminish its influence in the Middle East.
Iran has two major allies in the Palestinian arena: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Islamist groups that control the Gaza Strip and do not recognize Israel's right to exist. Were it not for Iran's financial and military support, these two Palestinian groups would long ago have lost their grip on Gaza.
Now that the sanctions on Iran have been reinstated, Hamas and PIJ are strongly condemning the US administration and pledging full support for Iran.
"The US sanctions are aimed at undermining security and stability in the region," the Hamas leadership said in a statement. The sanctions, Hamas added, are also designed to undermine Palestinian "steadfastness in the face of American plans and schemes." Hamas, the statement continued, "stands with the Iranian government and people in the face of this American-Zionist arrogance."
Bizarrely, Hamas claims that it is the US sanctions, and not its own actions and rhetoric, that undermine "security and stability in the region." In fact, it is Iran's support for Hamas's deadly program that sabotages security and stability in the region.
Hamas leaders often boast of Iran's support for their group and other Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip. According to Saleh Arouri, a senior Hamas official, Iran continues to provide "major" aid to the Palestinian "resistance" groups that are fighting against Israel. "Iranian support for the Palestinian resistance has never stopped," Arouri said in a recent interview. "This support is a sign of Iran's seriousness in confronting the Zionist entity."
What the Hamas official is actually saying is that thanks to Iran's support, the Gaza-based Palestinian groups have been able to launch thousands of missiles at Israel in the past decade. He is also saying that thanks to Iran's backing, Hamas continues to hold hostage the two million residents of the Gaza Strip, whose lives have been literally destroyed by the Hamas leaders' policies.
The response of PIJ to the sanctions against Iran is even more surreal. In a statement issued in the Gaza Strip, the PIJ leadership accused the US of engaging in "thuggery and terrorism" not only against Iran, but also against Palestinians and all Arabs and Muslims.
This charge is coming from a jihadi organization that has wounded and killed thousands of Israelis in terrorist attacks during the past three decades.
The entire ideology and strategy of PIJ has been based on terrorism and thuggery; its objectives have been -- and still are -- the destruction of Israel and the establishment of a sovereign, Islamic Palestinian state.
The message that Hamas and PIJ are sounding is: How dare the US administration impose sanctions on Iran, the only country that is helping us in our effort to continue our terrorist attacks against Israel? How dare the US administration impose sanctions on a country that provides us with financial, military and political support to help us achieve our goal of destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamic state?
Particularly disturbing about the reactions of the Gaza-based groups to the sanctions on Iran is the threatening nature of the tone they take towards the US. Their fierce anti-US rhetoric can be seen as a call to Arabs and Muslims to target American interests and citizens in the Middle East. Hamas and PIJ are telling Arabs and Muslims, in no uncertain terms, that the Americans have become their No. #1 enemy because they are punishing an Islamic country and because they are obstructing plans to continue the fight against Israel.
The renewed US sanctions on Iran are good news, however, for many Arabs and Muslims who feel threatened by Tehran's actions and rhetoric. Iran has long been systematically working towards undermining moderate Arabs and Muslims in the region. Iran is already meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and the Palestinians, as well as some Gulf countries.
Many Arabs and Muslims share the view of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has identified Iran as the destabilizing force in the Middle East.
Echoing the fear of Arabs and Muslims from Iran, Anwar Eshki, a retired intelligence officer in the Saudi army and head of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, wrote on Twitter that Israel was a suspected enemy while Iran was a definite enemy. He explained that Israel had not fired a single bullet at Saudi Arabia, while Iran kept firing missiles at the kingdom and even at the holy city of Mecca, through the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Arab commentator Mohammed al-Sheikh also sounded a similar sentiment:
"The Ayatollahs must wake up from their crazy messianic dream and realize that the era of jihad wars, raids, occupations and revolution exports is over. The Iranian leadership must understand, like the Saudi crown prince, that we live in the 21st century and that we must work for the young generation and for progress. The ayatollahs must return to their natural place-the mosques-and let the statesmen take care of politics."
The US sanctions on Iran are a severe blow to Tehran's friends in Hamas and PIJ. These terrorist groups face a hazy future as the sanctions take their toll the economy of Iran. Weakening Hamas and PIJ will only serve the cause of peace and stability in the Middle East. This development is good not only for Israel, but also for the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) hates Iran because of its support for its rivals in Hamas. The Palestinian ambassador to Paris was recently quoted as saying that Iran was funding the violent weekly protests along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
One of Abbas's senior advisors, Azzam al-Ahmed, last year accused Iran of being fully responsible for Hamas and Fatah's ongoing dispute, which has resulted in a split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Consequently, one would expect Abbas and his top aides to welcome the US decision to reinstate the sanctions against Iran. The Palestinian Authority leadership, however, has chosen to do no such thing. Instead of applauding the decision, Abbas and his officials are continuing their verbal attacks on the US administration and accusing it of promoting a peace plan aimed at "liquidating" the Palestinian rights and cause.
Ironically, the Palestinian Authority's recurring attacks on the US administration play into the hands of Hamas, PIJ, and even Iran.
The Palestinian Authority is actually attacking a US administration that is seeking to undermine the enemies of Abbas: Hamas and Iran. By doing so, the Palestinian Authority and Abbas are promoting anti-US sentiments throughout the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority's daily attacks on the US have radicalized countless Palestinians, who are no longer prepared to accept any American role in the Middle East peace process.
The Palestinian Authority is, thus, aligning itself with its own enemies. Hamas and PIJ may soon lose Iran as their number-one funder and sponsor, but they can always rely on Abbas and his Palestinian Authority to promote their anti-US and anti-Israel sentiments.
The 13-Year Tragedy Of Gaza - By Justin Amler -
The United Nations -- the incredibly morally defunct, hypocritical organization that thinks it has some kind of higher moral authority to dictate to others -- said that a new war in Gaza would be an "incredible tragedy."
"An incredible tragedy."
Once again, they have it wrong about what exactly a tragedy is. Because the tragedy is what has been brewing in Gaza for the last 13 years.
In 2005, Israel left Gaza, pulling out all soldiers and all civilians -- uprooting peoples' homes and uprooting their lives and families. When Israel withdrew, it left behind good working infrastructure to give the Arabs in Gaza a chance to make something of their lives, to build a largely independent entity that would allow them to determine their own destiny. Israel gave them opportunities, including a successful greenhouse business with crops ready for export.
But instead of embracing the golden opportunity presented to them -- an opportunity for self-determination never offered by any of their "Arab brothers" -- they chose not to take it. Instead of lifting themselves up with the greenhouses, they looted them. Instead of inhabiting the previous Jewish community settlements, they ransacked them. They carted off materials such as irrigation hoses, water pumps, and plastic sheeting.
The money and the materials that were poured into this coastal strip, meant to help the Arab residents of the Palestinian Authority become a successful model of the so-called Arab dream of yet another Arab state, turned out to be a nightmare instead.
In the 13 years since Israel left, the focus of the Arabs in Gaza, under their thuggish terrorist dictatorship, has never been about the future. It's never been about building a better life. It's never been about helping their people. It's never been about making the future one of hope and opportunity and aspirations.
It's been the polar opposite. The infrastructure of hope that was supposed to have been built has been replaced with the infrastructure of hate. The precious minds of engineers, rather than being focused on building vital civilian infrastructure such as water plants and electricity stations, have been maliciously tuned to building rockets and tunnels -- each of them designed for the sole purpose of bringing death to men, women, and children. They have built purely to kill.
The tragedy is not if a war is coming, because it is. The tragedy is that all the billions of dollars the Arabs have received, the support and hopes and sheer will of much of the world for them to be successful, has been squandered, but not by mismanagement, but rather a deliberate national goal of destroying the only Jewish state on earth.
How many hospitals and schools and universities could have been built? How many centers of excellence of science and development could have flourished? How many dreams could have been fulfilled and opportunities made?
None of that will happen because for the Arab leaders, their future is not determined about what they can build, but only by what they can destroy.
Meanwhile, in Israel's southern communities, rockets continue to fall on innocent people, hurting, terrorizing, and killing them. Terror tunnels continue to be built beneath sleeping children. Kids continue to be traumatized along with their parents, who just want to protect them, as all parents do.
For children to grow up thinking that it is normal to run to bomb shelters, knowing that getting there within seconds could be the difference between life and death -- well, that is the real tragedy.
War is not the tragedy, as the United Nations seem to think. War is the inevitable result of what happens when a terrorist entity is allowed to flourish without reprimand or consequences. Because where was the international community during these last 13 years?
Where was the condemnation of what the Hamas rulers were doing -- the way they hid rockets under UN-funded schools? Or the way they purposely and cynically used civilians as cannon fodder on the Gaza border fence? Or the way they even intimidated UN staff and press? Where was the UN secretary-general calling for restraint as they built their terror tunnels night and day?
And accountability? Where was that, as the funds of the international community meant for reconstruction instead became the funds of blood and death, destined for deconstruction? And even still, Israel continues to supply power and water and even money in the hopes that things will change.
But things will not change, because until generations are educated for peace rather than war, and until there are consequences for building terror infrastructure, why should things change at all?
No rational people want war, but we are not dealing with rational people. We are dealing with an evil entity that will not stop, no matter how nice you are to them. They will not stop, no matter how much money you give. They will not stop, no matter how much water or electricity you supply. They will not stop on their own, because no one is forcing them to. And until they are forced to stop, the rocket attacks and the border infiltration attempts and the violence will continue.
Egyptians and other international players are furiously working for a ceasefire, but you cannot have a ceasefire with evil, because evil does not cease its fire. It only waits in the shadows to launch again.
War is coming, but that's not the tragedy. The tragedy is that it was allowed to get to this stage in the first place.
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