Future directions for Israel and the Middle East

10 October 2023

Photos of missing Israelis, Source

Our thoughts are with those in grief, those missing and those praying for the return of their kidnapped family, friends and colleagues in Israel.

If we want a lasting peace with better lives for everyone in the Middle East, we have to advocate rational solutions, even if they are difficult to obtain:

1. Hamas must be eradicated, at least from Gaza. This means removal of all Hamas officials and their significant supporters.

   1. There cannot be peace for Israel or anything resembling a decent life for Gazan residents while Hamas has power or the potential for power.

   2. This likely will require building by building, room by room searches in Gaza for weapons, Hamas officials and their supporters. Perhaps tens of thousands of Hamas associated individuals will need to be detained since terrorism is embedded in Gazan life.

2. Prime Minister Netanyahu should resign and the Israeli Knesset should form a coalition government.

   1. Elected public officials and those running for public office who are indicted should resign or end their campaigns until their criminal matters are resolved. This is true everywhere. It is true for Prime Minister Netanyahu, Senator Menendez, Representative Santos and former President Trump.

      1. Indicted individuals cannot properly focus on their governmental responsibilities and are likely to use their power or campaigns to defend themselves against their criminal charges. In addition, their constituents cannot trust indicted individuals in or running for public office.

      2. Netanyahu’s indictments were associated with his judicial reform movement, which severely divided the country and may have both distracted the military from security threats and emboldened Israel’s enemies to attack. His continued stay in office will likely cause other events that weaken Israel's security.

      3. Netanyahu’s bellicose threats and proposed “complete siege” with no electricity and food for Gazan residents suggests he is unfit for public office. In addition, these statements and actions are likely to create sympathy for Hamas and its supporters and hostility towards Israel.

3. Once Hamas is removed, Gaza must be overseen, possibly for decades, by officials committed to Israel’s security, which includes strict oversight to prevent any possible terrorist activity by Gazan residents.

   1. These officials must also undertake activities to “reprogram” Palestinian residents to focus their actions and thoughts on improving their lives and those of their children and not on hating Jews (“Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us”).

      1. Palestinian school textbooks, which promote hatred and violence, must be replaced.

      2. Hate speech must be prohibited by religious and other institutions. Under these war-like conditions, the usual rights of free speech and association must be limited; anti-Israeli activities which may promote violence cannot be tolerated.

   2. Ultimately, after years to decades of hard work by all involved, Gazans may become capable of self-rule without a terrorist infrastructure or posing a security threat to Israel or others. However, this is not possible in the near future: a society based on terrorism cannot change quickly.

4. UNRWA must be replaced by an agency committed to improving the day to day lives of Palestinians and not maintenance or worsening of the status quo.

   1. UNRWA has failed the Palestinians, leading to 75 years of Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank, instead of creating better lives through permanent homes and communities. These UNRWA created refugee camps have enabled much of the hatred in the Middle East.

The devastating terrorist attack by Hamas may create an opportunity for long term peace in the region, but only if the causative factors of Hamas, Netanyahu, Palestinian hatred and UNRWA are removed and replaced by more rational actors and activities. But this will require hard work by many of us. What will you do?

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