Israels day after’ Gaza plan offers illusions of peace

Hard-edged diplomacy is needed to avoid a descent to greater violence in the Middle East.

- Jonathan Eyal

Almost five months since the start of the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally revealed what he wants to get out of the current fighting and what he expects to happen in the Middle East after the guns eventually fall silent.

Given that US President Joe Biden has put substantial diplomatic pressure on Israel to produce a "day after" plan for Gaza and considering the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in this Palestinian territory, one would have expected that Mr Netanyahu's pronouncements on such matters would achieve great media prominence.

But they did not, for a simple reason: Mr Netanyahu's proposals are neither about a durable peace nor about a peaceful Middle East.

Among other things, it proposes Israel would maintain security control of the occupied West Bank and Gaza and rejects unilateral international steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state. The document states that it wants to replace Hamas rule in Gaza with "a civilian alternative" but is silent on any role for the Palestinian Authority. It also makes reconstruction of the Gaza Strip contingent on its complete demilitarisation.

In effect, Mr Netanyahu's plan represents a bid to maintain a permanent de facto Israeli occupation of Gaza, keep most of the Palestinians locked up in increasingly smaller isolated territorial enclaves and expect the international community to accept this travesty.