Israeli officials weigh sharing power with Arab states in postwar Gaza

Patrick Kingsley

For months, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has avoided detailed public discussion about Gaza’s postwar future.

Behind the scenes, however, senior officials in his office have been weighing an expansive plan for postwar Gaza, in which Israel would offer to share oversight of the territory with an alliance of Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, as well as the US, according to three Israeli officials and five people who have discussed the plan with members of the Israeli government. Israel would do so in exchange for normalised relations between itself and Saudi Arabia.
 

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition are almost certain to dismiss such an idea, and so are the Arab countries mentioned as possible participants. But it is the clearest sign yet that officials at the highest levels of Israel’s government are thinking about Gaza’s postwar future, despite saying little in public, and could be a starting point in future negotiations.

 

Under the proposal, the Arab-Israeli alliance, working with the US, would appoint Gazan leaders to redevelop the devastated territory, overhaul its education system and maintain order. After between seven and 10 years, the alliance would allow Gazans to vote on whether to be absorbed into a united Palestinian administration that would govern in both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the proposal. In the meantime, the plan suggests, the Israeli military could continue to operate inside Gaza.
 

The proposal does not explicitly say whether that united administration would constitute a sovereign Palestinian state, or if it would include the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank. Publicly, PMNetanyahu has rejected the idea of full Palestinian sovereignty and all but ruled out the involvement of the Palestinian Authority.
 

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