What is Netanyahu’s plan for Gaza? From Ramzy Baroud at antiwar.com:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is often criticized for failing to produce a vision for the ‘next day’, meaning the day following the end of the Gaza war.
Some of these criticisms emanate from Israel’s traditional western allies, who are wary of Netanyahu’s personal and political agendas, which are fixated on delaying his corruption trials and ensuring that his extremist allies remain committed to the current government coalition.
The criticism however is loudest in Israel itself.
“As long as Hamas retains control over civilian life in Gaza, it may rebuild and strengthen (itself), thus requiring the IDF to return and fight in areas where it has already operated,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last May, demanding a ‘day-after’ plan.
The same sentiment was conveyed by Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi. “As long as there’s no diplomatic process to develop a governing body in the Strip that isn’t Hamas, we’ll have to launch campaigns again and again,” he was quoted in Israel’s Channel 13 as saying.
It is true that Netanyahu has no post-war plan. The lack of such a ‘vision’, however, does not entirely rest on his own failure to produce one, but due to his inability to determine, with any degree of certainly, if the war would yield favorable results for Israel.
Nine months of war have shown that Israel is simply incapable of maintaining its military presence in urban areas, even those that have been ethnically cleansed or are sparsely populated.
This has been proven to be as true in the southern as in the northern parts of Gaza, including border towns that were relatively easy to enter in the first days or weeks of the war.
For a post-war plan that fits Israeli interests to be produced, Gaza would have to be militarily subdued, a goal that seems more distant than ever.
