I will tell you what I’m advocating with the caveat that I know there is information I don’t have, tactics I’m not aware of, and things just may not turn out wonderfully for Israel like I’ve predicted, but there is a chance that things will and this represents my best guess at how things will be. And whatever short-term damage Israel takes is all for the sake of long-term stability. Ok? We’re clear on that? Alright.
First thing’s first, I’m against the status quo. Its been proven not to have worked. The goal is total peace, maybe not like the friendship between US and Canada, then more like China and Japan where they freely acknowledge that they don’t especially like each other and extremists will whip up fury against the other for their own benefits, but both governments recognize the other and disputes are not usually settled by their militaries.
2nd, ideally there will be 2 states, but its not necessary. Peace is prioritized over statehood for the Palestinians.
3rd, I acknowledge that there is probably little we can do to influence outside parties who have a stake in prolonging the combat for their own nefarious purposes. Even if both sides totally agree to act like civilized people, there will be others who will try to influence things for their own benefits by causing strife. I won’t totally ignore them, but I won’t totally just throw my hands up in defeat and say that anyone who wants to mess with the plan will be successful.
4th, this is from the perspective of what Israel can and should do. Saying “Well why don’t you tell the Palestinians to do such and such…” is not an appropriate response because if you want to do that, why don’t I just say all sides should lay down their arms and get to fucking each other to create a mix race of Israeli Palestinians and sing songs around a campfire?
Israel needs to take a long-term look at how things will shape in the next few decades. Killing militants, even if righteously, will breed more militants, and I will bet anything that there will not be more Israeli’s than the billion or so Muslims they anger with every attack (and every false report by biased authorities in those Muslim countries).
Israel has the power to absorb attacks and ignore others and engage only with the proper legitimately peaceful members of Fatah. Now Fatah has been greatly weakened because they are corrupt, can provide little assurances for their people, and offer no satisfying bloodlust responses whenever Israel kills a bunch of Palestinians. So the first thing they need to do is totally isolate Hamas by dealing only with Fatah. Who gives a shit if they are corrupt, they are not the ones launching rockets. Abbas or whoever is nominally in charge of Fatah should be brought in to divide the Palestinian leadership between the two. Give Abbas what he asks for to stop the Israeli offensive, show the people that Fatah can keep its promises of peace. Totally isolate Hamas by publicly acquiescing with Fatah’s calls for an end to hostilities.
Next, remove all the settlers from the West Bank. No matter what you think about it, it will forever remain a point of contention. A fully realized Palestinian state may not be done with Israel gobbling up pieces of the West Bank and unilaterally annexing land. They’ll have to do what they did in Gaza and move their people out to show the Palestinians they are serious.
So now Israel has given them some land and taken steps to legitimize Fatah over Hamas. Now comes the tricky part: winning hearts and minds. This will be the longest part of the operation, it will not come this decade or next. Too many people grew up seeing Israel, rightly or wrongly, as the aggressors. Like it or not, when one side is overwhelmingly more powerful than the other, than that side is going to get more scrutiny. Its not fair, but get over the notions of fairness. The goal is peace, don’t forget that. To that end, Israel must never, ever get sidetracked by extremists trying to derail the peace process. It doesn’t matter if Hamas and suicide bombers launch a hundred attacks, they must never say to Fatah “You can’t control your own people, therefore we won’t deal with you”. They must never blame Fatah for any attacks. They must never retaliate against Fatah for what Hamas does and pull out of negotiations or even some pointless joint project building a Walmart or something. Always isolate Hamas and terrorist by blaming them for everything, even if they think some Fatah elements might be helping or encouraging it.
Israel needs to do that to establish a clear peaceful governmental body on the Palestinian side in contrast to Hamas. Decades of war, blockades, and weak leadership has rendered those who want peace to be almost powerless. The plan is to give them that power back by giving them legitimacy. A gangster passing out money in the streets will win more converts than an honest politician who can vote to open up the treasury for the poor. Fatah has no power to stop Hamas, nor to arrest them, nor to launch some kind of large scale operation against them. And if you ask Palestinians while they are getting bombed by Israel who they favor, they’re going to say kill the Jews and rally behind Hamas. So knowing that they need to give power to Fatah, Israel needs to not react by punishing Fatah even by proxy. Publicly request Fatah to go after Hamas after every attack, never attack Hamas directly without public support from Fatah. Give every credit to Fatah even for a little bit of respite from violence. Do that for years, decades, to establish a clear line between terrorists and a peaceful if corrupt government.
Now obviously we’ll get infiltrators and sympathizers in Fatah, that’s no question. But look at how the US is dealing with Pakistan. Don’t you think most people know Pakistan is really not our friend? That they like to play us off against the Taliban next door and in their country so we’re not fully supporting India? We use them, they use us, we both know it. The worst thing would be if the US says they don’t trust Pakistan because some people were harboring Osama and declare their entire government terrorist and start bombing them. To me, that’s like what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. So no retaliation, even if its obviously through Fatah’s maliciousness or negligence. Someday, maybe a better, less corrupt, and more peaceful party will rise up in Palestine and Israel can deal with them, but its never going to happen if Israel continues to do what its currently doing.
The point of helping Palestine establish a different government from Hamas is to create a party that’s, on the surface, dedicated to peace, and to buy time. Like I said, people are too used to Israel being the aggressors. Unfortunately, I don’t see hearts and minds changing in this generation who remember fleeing from Palestine or remember Israel shelling homes and schools. This generation of kids growing up in this violence must be allowed to grow old and die and/or be replaced before true peace can last, so Israel must keep this plan up for, oh, around 50 years at least. Imagine the cries of Hamas and its ilk being continuously dwarfed by kids who grow up in 20, 30, 40, 50 years who’ve never seen Israel react except with kindness, never seen them bomb a school or a hospital, never seen them bulldoze their friends houses. That is a powerful group that will shape Palestine for peace and not call for Israel’s genocide at every turn.
At the same time, Israel must acknowledge the dilapidated conditions in Palestine by helping their government provide services to people. I’m a full believer that happy, economically satisfied people don’t rise up in unison to kill themselves through suicide bombs. Yes it happens, but not in any significant numbers. We have millions of Muslims in the US. There’s less than a handful that ever decided to leave all this middle class dream behind to blow someone or themselves up. So to that end, Israel should continue to build settlements in the West Bank, but do it for Palestinians under cooperation from Fatah. Build schools, malls, parks, factories, hospitals, etc. for them. Yes, some will be misused, but given enough time and enough places, ordinary Palestinians will see its to their favor to reduce the virulent hate speech that takes them away from their pizza parlors and movie theaters.
Lastly, Israel needs to give Palestinians some powerful symbols of progress. Much of progress is little known, doesn’t get a lot of press, or is too complicate for people to rally around. Sometimes symbols, even pointless, will do a lot to soothe hurts. Allow a limited number of Palestinians to return. Make them full citizens of Israel. Give them land, build them homes, offer them jobs in Israel. Protect them as they will be targets, keep them safe and hold them up to be a symbol of unity. Delay this step long enough and you’ll only have a bunch of 80 and 90 year olds who fit some arbitrary criteria Israel and use to lower the number of people given this right. Also, stop calling yourself a Jewish state. Its enough that Israel is a state that is legitimate and survives, no need to keep poking the bear in the eye by reminding them of religious differences. Stop insisting people acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. Maybe crack down on some of your own homegrown extremists too like those in the Orthodox. And give up some symbolic buildings that are just buildings like the Dome of the Rock or Temple Mount. Acknowledge, in a few decades once there is more peace, that Jerusalem is a special city that doesn’t deserve to be only owned by Jews but allow a shared coalition of religions, possibly overseen by the UN, to run the place, with maybe some enclaves for Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
These are just some of the things Israel can and should do
