Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced yesterday in a Fox News interview that the Israel Defense Forces has agreed to take full control of Gaza City. Netanyahu also revealed concerning the Gaza Strip, “We don’t want to govern it.”
Israel Wants Arab States to Govern the Gaza Strip
So, the Prime Minister added that Israel will afterwards transfer total control of the entire Gaza Strip to “Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us, and giving Gazans a good life.” He added that Israel, nevertheless, will keep a security perimeter around the heavily populated, but now extremely damaged, enclave.
Netanyahu then explained, “We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas,” a radical Muslim group that has governed Gaza since 2007 and has advocated the extermination of the State of Israel.
If Israel carries through with this announcement, without there being much loss of life, and unmentioned Arab states take control of Gaza to govern it, I think that is the best news that Palestinians in Gaza have had for a long time. However, is that possible? The plan immediately received many criticisms from significant sources.
Today, Netanyahu told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that the goal of his administration is “to free Gaza from Hamas and enable a peaceful government.” Thus, Israel taking control of Gaza City would merely be the beginning of its taking control of the entire Gaza Strip.
Israel’s Government Is Divided about the Plan
Israel’s coalition government is divided about this plan. It is mostly because Netanyahu’s Likud Party always has to accept right-wing religious parties to form a coalition government, and many of them want to unilaterally annex the West Bank to Israel. Some are even calling for Israel taking complete control of the Gaza Strip, expelling all Palestinians from it, and annexing it to Israel as well. Of course, this is an extreme position that would invite such outrage from the international community that it would cut off relations from Israel if not militarily prevent it from happening.
World Outrage Against the Plan
This plan immediately triggered outrage by world leaders due to fear that it would result in much more Palestinian bloodshed, displacement of its population, and continuing starvation. Germany, which still reels from the Holocaust and is Israel’s second largest arms supplier behind the U.S., immediately reacted by declaring it will no longer supply arms to Israel. It also canceled an arms order about to be delivered.
Hamas and Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Zamir reacted to the announced plan by claiming it would be an abandoning of the remaining twenty Israelis Jews as captives under the control of Hamas. Zamir therefore indicated that IDF is divided about the plan. He told Netanyahu he was “walking into a trap.” Yet he said IDF would obey the administration regarding the plan.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed.”
All of these criticisms may prove correct. However, Netanyahu’s announcement that his administration wants to free itself from the turmoil of Gaza without governing the enclave is a big positive. And Israel turning over control of Gaza to Arab states, if they will agree to it, was be a further positive.
Could this Plan Result in a Palestine in Gaza?
As I have posted recently, momentum is building among leading democratic nations to symbolically announce their recognition of a Palestinian state next month at a meeting of the UN General Assembly. A total of 147 nations among the total UN membership of 193 nations have previously recognized a Palestinian state. Now, significant nations such as France, UK, Canada, and likely others will join them next month.
This growing, global recognition of a Palestinian state and Netanyahu’s announcement for the Gaza Strip to be governed by Arab states looks like it could lead to the Gaza Strip actually becoming the beginning of the Palestinian state as I predicted in my book published 35 years ago and entitled Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia (available at amazon.com.) In this book, I interpret several biblical prophecies that indicate there will be a Palestinian state, it will be a very expanded Gaza Strip located only in the coastal plain, and Israel will annex all of the West Bank.
Obviously, this scenario requires a land swap through negotiation or war, a transfer of population, and the result will be more costly than the traditional two-state solution of a Palestinian state in the two separated territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But the result will be that both nations will be more defensible and prosper more financially. The most important portion of this book is available for free reading at my website kermitzarley.com with updates there.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In