File: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2-L) heads the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on January 7, 2024. (RONEN ZVULUN / POOL / AFP)
Published February 23, 2024
Document sees cooperation with Egypt to end smuggling; Arab countries funding reconstruction; no to unilateral Palestinian state; no to UNRWA; Gaza ‘de-radicalized,’ demilitarized
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the security cabinet with a document of principles regarding the management of Gaza after the war on Thursday night, aiming to install “local officials” unaffiliated with terrorism to administer services in the Strip instead of Hamas.
The subsequently publicized document, a one-pager released overnight in Israel, is largely a collection of principles the premier has been vocalizing since the beginning of the war, but it is the first time they have formally been presented to the cabinet for approval.
For over four months, Netanyahu has held off holding security cabinet discussions regarding the so-called “day after” the war, fearing this could lead to fractures in his mainly right-wing coalition. Some of his far-right ministers aim to use such meetings to push for the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza and the permanent Israeli control of the Strip — policies the premier says he opposes and would surely lead to the dissipation of Israel’s remaining support in the West.
Netanyahu has sufficed with saying that he will not allow the Palestinian Authority to return to govern Gaza. He has sometimes qualified this assertion by saying that Israel won’t allow the PA in its current form to return to the Palestinian enclave, indicating that Israel could live with a reformed PA of the kind that the Biden administration has been pushing. Other times, though, Netanyahu has given a more blanket rejection of allowing Gaza to become “Fatahstan” — referring to the political party headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Notably, the document of principles Netanyahu presented to security cabinet ministers at Thursday night’s meeting does not specifically name the PA or rule out its participation in the post-war governance of Gaza.
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SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
RELATED: Netanyahu unveils plan for Gaza’s future post-Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jerusalem on February 18. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Published February 23, 2024
CNN has obtained a copy of the plan, which Netanyahu presented to members of Israel’s security cabinet Thursday night. It was distributed as a basis for discussion, the prime minister’s office told CNN, in preparation of further talks, and comes after Netanyahu faced weeks of criticism for having no concrete plan for a postwar Gaza.
The plan comes as Israel sent a negotiating team, led by Mossad Director David Barnea, to Paris on Friday to pursue talks over a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal that may put an end to the four-month long war.
More than 29,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the ministry of health in the enclave. Hamas’ October 7 attack killed 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli authorities.
A number of principles are outlined in the document, from changes on the security and civil levels to more long-term plans about who governs the territory.
On the security file, the envisioned plan includes Israel closing off Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, giving Israel complete control of entry and exit from the enclave. At present, Egypt controls access to and from Gaza’s southern border via the Rafah crossing.
Netanyahu’s plan says Israel will cooperate “as much as possible” with Egypt, in coordination with the United States.
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SOURCE: www.cnn.com
RELATED: Netanyahu Presents Plan for ‘The Day After Hamas’ in Gaza
Published February 23, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his plan for “the day after” Hamas is defeated in Gaza to his Cabinet on Thursday, calling for local officials without links to terrorism to run the government, and Israel to exercise military control.
The plan does not explicitly rule out a role for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs Palestinian communities in the West Bank; nor does it include a Palestinian state, leaving that issue for future bilateral talks. It is deliberately vague on these points.
Netanyahu’s goal in leaving those contentious issues undefined appears to be to satisfy the demands of the Biden administration on the one hand, and his right-wing coalition partners on the other. But on several other issues, Netanyahu is absolutely clear.
