Netanyahu Is Selling Gaza to Private Militias - Opinion - Haaretz.com
The Israeli opposition (or whatever fumes still remain of it) frequently attacks the Netanyahu government for having no vision and no plan of action. But what many people tend to miss is that for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a lack of orderly plans doesn't mean a lack of policy. On the contrary, his policies are always determined by actions on the ground, not by speeches or formal ratifications.
Throughout all his years in office, Netanyahu has benefited from deliberate ambiguity, including contradictory messages in Hebrew and English. But reality doesn't lie. That is how, very slowly, large chunks of the West Bank have been annexed de facto, without grandiose legislation. And that's exactly what is happening now in the Gaza Strip.
While Netanyahu's opponents are criticizing him for his lack of any organized plan for Gaza on the day after the war, in practice, such a plan is being advanced through deeds. First, this is being done by occupying large swaths of Gaza, expelling the residents, destroying their homes, paving new roads and building army outposts and other infrastructure for the long term. And right now, it is also being done by pushing a plan to transfer civilian control of Gaza to private companies, which will be paid for it.
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The government has gone quite some distance from the intent it announced in February under heavy American pressure – that it would transfer civilian control of Gaza to "local actors with administrative experience" that "aren't identified with countries or organizations that support terror." Next came the plan to transfer responsibility for humanitarian aid in Gaza to the Israel Defense Forces – a euphemism for a military government. Now, due to the army's opposition to being involved in distributing aid, a decision is taking shape to hire a private Israeli-American company to handle his issue.
The company that has recently been mentioned as a candidate, GDC, is a military contractor of the kind that flooded Iraq and Afghanistan during America's occupation of those countries. The masses of studies that have been done about this system over the years found that it carried enormous risks. These are mercenary corporations, and there are major questions about their compliance with international law and international standards.
Essentially, this would privatize military rule over Gaza by handing it over to private companies with private financial interests and nothing beyond that. The goal is to transfer moral and legal responsibility from Israel to these armed militias. And indeed, in a very troubling interview in Tuesday's Yedioth Ahronoth, the company's founder and CEO, Moti Kahana, said that "if something happens, we'll send a message to Gaza's residents – you don't want to mess with us." That's a genuine mafia-style line.
A protest against Netanyahu and his government in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.Credit: AFP/JACK GUEZ
Beyond the fact that Israel has no right to decide who should control Gaza's civilian affairs after Hamas' rule ends, all this is being done solely to avoid allowing the Palestinian Authority any foothold there. This is a direct continuation of the policy of bolstering Hamas and weakening the PA that Netanyahu implemented throughout his years in power. That's another policy that was determined through actions and dollars, even as others attacked him for his supposed lack of any diplomatic vision.
What Israel should have been doing, together with an international coalition led by the United States, was building a Palestinian alternative to Hamas' government. The current plan gives private contractors the keys to civilian control of Gaza and thereby turning Gaza into another Iraq, which will be a tragedy for generations.
Alongside this process, Netanyahu is also benefiting from sowing ambiguity about his position on establishing settlements in Gaza. On one hand, he claims this won't happen (or more accurately, that it's "unrealistic"). But on the other, his party is running events promoting this messianic dream. On this issue too, in the end, the decisive factor won't be the words, but that first settlement outpost, which will be "difficult to evacuate."
In practice, Netanyahu's plan for postwar Gaza consists of military occupation, mercenaries and settlements. That's a surefire recipe for the next disaster.