-OpEd-
Has the time come to realize Yitzhak Rabin’s dream?
The former Prime Minister of Israel, who would go on to sign the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat, had once said “I wish I could wake up one day and find that Gaza has sunk into the sea.”
This dream was the outcome of the Zionist left’s clash with reality after the first expulsion. Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza were a mix of displaced people and local communities. Israel had to deal with this reality, and dream of eradicating it.
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Today, Israel has moved from the “leftist dream” to the “rightist mission,” at the most favorable moment since the establishment of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is a fusion of the Zionist right and the religious right. And Israeli public opinion is ready to support the step with the sacrifices it requires.
As for the dying left, Netanyahu will go no further than fulfilling the dream of a Labor Party icon.
A delicate point
The war on Gaza has reached its most delicate point. The invasion of the north and Gaza City represented the climax of the massacres. The ground offensive on Khan Yunis was a bloody dance with the Hamas leadership. The invasion of Rafah is the last step in the path to engulfment. About 1.5 million Palestinians will have no choice but to head south to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
The U.S. position on this phase does not seem to be a decisive rejection.
Between President Joe Biden’s concerns and the “humanitarian” conditions leaked by his administration, Netanyahu seems to be betting on Washington’s distraction and is not concerned about the statements by an embattled Biden in the election year. As for Biden’s reference to a plan to protect civilians, Netanyahu is interpreting it as opening to push them to Sinai.
After nearly four months of war, Israel still feels it has a grace period.
Egypt’s position on this displacement is immature, but it does not lack the conditions for negotiation. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime is suffocated by an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, and limiting the threat of suspending the Camp David Accords means that negotiating the price will follow the move. Egyptian soldiers on the border will face waves of people fleeing the Israeli killing machine. They will have no choice but to deal with the human reality.
After nearly four months of war, Israel still feels it has a grace period. International media are still on its side, and Arab sensitivity toward displacement is infiltrated by the interests of Egypt and the complicity of the Abraham Accords group.
In light of this bleak scene, Hamas does not seem ready to do more than continue fighting, a fight that is on the brink of the ending. Hamas’s achievements are limited to killing more Israeli soldiers, and Israel may use the hostages as an excuse to continue its march toward the south.
“Gaza is our home”
Netanyahu’s future is no longer important, as long as the mission extends from Rabin’s dream to Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s callousness. Gush Katif, the settlement established by Israeli founding fathers in Gaza and dismantled in 2005 by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has become in the new discourse: “Gaza is our home.”
It seems the response will be limited to exposing the bloodshed of the Israeli war machine. But that does not seem to have enough impact to limit the campaign amid the grace period.
Hamas has not prepared itself for more than fighting.
Which two states, and even which Palestinian state, would we deal with?
This is truly a moment of confrontation. Hamas is a typical enemy, which Israel believes is necessary for this step. It is a step not only toward liquidating the Palestinian cause, but also toward a major blow that many countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, will not survive.
The question will arise about the two-state solution, which Americans claim to be aiming for the day after the war, and which Saudi Arabia has set as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel.
Which two states, and even which Palestinian state, would we deal with? It is a state without Gaza, with settlements in the West Bank inhabited by more than 700,000 Israeli settlers, and East Jerusalem occupied by religious parties.
This is before discussion about the future of Jordan (in light of ambitions to expel more Palestinians to the country), Sinai (where Israel has pushed the people of Gaza), and Lebanon (which faces the possibility of war on its borders).
The sea will not swallow Gaza, however, the war will swallow many countries if Rabin’s dream is realized.
