The fifty-year record of Palestinianism is bloody and awful and reached a crescendo on 7 October 2023. For decades in Gaza where, when they were not killing each other they were killing us. But 10/7 was the day that the world should have come to its senses and said, “No more! This is where it leads. This is where it must end.”
It must die in the cursed ruins of Gaza, but in these ruins comes new hope and the possibility of a new and better future not only for Gaza, but for the Middle East.
Put aside, for heaven’s sake, the idea of bringing the corrupt, failed, leadership of the Fatah-PLO in Ramallah to rule over Gaza. They don’t even have the support of their own people, according to every Palestinian poll and actual elections. Let’s be brutally honest and acknowledge that the half century experiment of a two-state non-solution is dead in the water, killed along with thousands of Israelis by those incited and rewarded by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The PA was driven out of Gaza by Hamas and by the people. It should not be revived in Gaza because this will condemn an already violent Middle East to another half century of conflict. And Hamas must be driven out as well. Clearly, Gaza needs to be built from scratch. The rubble of its violent past has to be swept away along with its ideology.
It must not be mismanaged by those whose principles led to its ruin. It must be led by people rejecting its violent past, totally dedicated to making Gaza a better place to live rather than looking obsessively at Israel which they do not possess and never will.
Better to offer a non-violent prosperous future for Gaza and have it serve as an example to those suffering under the failed Ramallah regime.
Potential for a Better Future
The location of Gaza makes it a place that can become the Cote D’Azur of the Middle East. Does that sound unattainable? Consider that there is no geographic difference between the Gaza coast and the Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon and Tel Aviv. Consider that Beirut was once – for good reason – called the Paris of the Middle East, before the intrusion of dangerous and deadly forces such as radical Islam, Syria, the PLO under Yasser Arafat. And now, Hezbollah.
A solution is desperately needed, and Gaza is the best place to start. The project must be founded on the rejection of radical Islam to be replaced by a moderate Islam. This new experiment should be incorporated into Gaza through the spirit and fabric of the Abraham Accords.
Not only should the PA have no permanent governing role in a future Gaza, neither should Israel. It is clear that neither should step in and impose their governing rule over the people there. Instead, there should be an international administration to construct a future Gaza while establishing a future local leadership based on merit, moderation, and modernization.
And it should not be farmed out to the United Nations whose agencies have made such a mess of the Middle East.
The reconstruction of a new Gaza should be established by a regional board led by the Abraham Accord partners. And Saudi Arabia should be invited to play a major part if it can put aside its outdated dedication to a corrupt PA leadership in Ramallah. The reason the PA has never held an election is that they know the people would reject their failed corrupt Fatah leadership. If its democracy we want in Gaza we won’t find it in the example of the corrupt Fatah in Ramallah.
The ultimate goal must be to lead Gaza into becoming the model for a new peaceful Middle East. Done properly, this Gaza can become an independent state in its own right and led into becoming a new member of the United Nations.
Protectorates
In effect, the budding State of Gaza would begin life as an Abraham Accord Protectorate. As a political and governing system, the concept of Protectorates has been successful in the past and is currently working well in the international arena.
They are recognized under international law and the specific relationship between the “Protectorate” and the “Protector” is set out under a treaty signed by both parties. There are many successful examples of how small budding countries and destroyed nations have flourished when guided by larger democratic nations.
France has several protectorates including Guadeloupe, Guiana, Martinique, La Réunion, Mayotte, Saint-Barthélemy, and even several Polynesian islands. All peaceful and prosperous.
The United Kingdom has 14 protectorates, known as UK Overseas Territories, perhaps the most famous being the Falkland Islands in which the British came to its defense when invaded by Argentina in 1982.
The United States has five protectorates ranging from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to Guam and Samoa in the Pacific.
Do not forget that, after the United States defeated Japan in World War Two, including the utter devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by two atom bombs, it became a protectorate of the United States. Part of that responsibility was not only the rebuilding Japan but also a deradicalization program for its people.
The same applied in Europe after the defeat of Nazi Germany, when the Allies occupied Germany including its divided capital Berlin. Under the Marshall Plan West Germany was rebuilt, but an essential part of that reconstruction was and intensive denazification program.
In both places, American and allied control of the government – including writing laws and constitutions – plus control of courts, schools, and unions, resulted in the creation of two prosperous, peaceful democratic counties – allies to the United States and their prior enemies.
Gaza Protectorate
In the case of Gaza, the “Protectors” will be multi-layered.
The wealthy, moderate Arab nations will play a central role in both the physical and spiritual revitalization of a modern, moderate Gaza – including rebuilding the mosques and madrassahs – and hiring the imams and religious teachers teaching their moderate form of Islam, while the United States and Israel will lend their talent and expertise in building a modern educational system for the next generation of Gazans in reading, writing and math (rather than indoctrination) leading to hi-tech, business and administrative skills needed to fill leadership and managerial roles in a new Gaza.
Israel and Egypt both have vested interests in protecting the borders of a peaceful Gaza. Both have transit points for goods, services, and people to flow in and out of Gaza for work or business.
In the past, Israel proposed a Gaza with an offshore airport, marina, and seaport with a connecting road and rail bridge to the mainland. This ambitious project should be revived, and Gaza could easily become a tourist-based economy as a prosperous hub bordering on two powerful and peaceful neighbors.
Israel proved when it developed Gaza that it has huge agricultural potential.
And a successful Gaza would serve as a positive example to Arabs living under a failed Ramallah leadership.
We can no longer be led or influenced by those with limited, failed, vision. Better that we follow original thinkers who can open up a new future. Perhaps a three-state solution is a better vision than a half-century two-state failure.
A new Gaza heralds a new Middle East. And the route to that success is through an enlarged Abraham Accord Protectorate.
Barry Shaw is International Public Diplomacy Director at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
