How to Solve the Arab-Israeli Problem Part II
It may seem a little reactionary, but I believe that some parts of the world are not capable of ruling themselves.
Last time, I published the first part of my (potentially ridiculous and possible dangerous) plan to solve the ongoing Arab-Israeli problem. Click the link below to read it.
This post marks a milestone for me, it is my 100th post. It doesn’t seem like I have been doing this for that long, but I have. I know that there aren’t a lot of us in this tiny community, built around the weirdness that comes out of my mind, but I appreciate every one of you. Especially my dad, who was my first subscriber, Beverly who was my first non-relative subscriber and Jason my newest subscriber, as well as all of the rest of you. I hope that everyone enjoys all my posts even if a specific post isn’t what you subscribed to read. In the description for this page, I said this was going to be whatever I was thinking about at that moment. If you look through all my posts, it really is, what is occupying my attention at that time. A nine part take down of how Disney ruined Star Wars, a 25 part history of Israel, a 13-part series on Hamas, a bunch of posts about baseball, and a bunch of other things. I really do hope you look forward to seeing one of my posts in your inbox. Ok, that's enough about me, it's time to get down to business.
In this post I will get down to the nuts and bolt of how my idea to solve the Arab-Israeli problem would work, not in every detail but rather in broad concepts. I will leave the particulars to smarter people than me. I started out this series by saying that I think a blueprint for the Israeli administration of the West Bank and Gaza was the British-run protectorates in Africa. There would obviously have to be major changes, but a framework with a governor and an legislative council overseen by the Israeli government might just work. The goal would be to fundamentally change the thinking and culture (not their Arabness, just their views about “Palestine”, jihad, Israel and Jews in general). 1st prize would be an area that becomes economically viable and is eventually able to join in some fashion with Israel. Second prize would be a protectorate in perpetuity and an end to the cycle of terrorism and retaliation. Either way, it would be a long term project, one that could take decades to complete, if it ever is. As I said, there would need to be significant ground work completed before anything concrete could be put in place.
Initially I had the idea that the protectorate process would lead to the birth of one or two Palestinian states. Then I read the post below and it totally changed the trajectory of my post. I no longer think that this will be a process that results in a Palestinian state but rather a protectorate in perpetuity or eventually some kind of semi-autonomous zone. Please read the post below to get a little more background on why I changed my mind. This is also the reason that this post is being published later than usual. I had to go back and rewrite almost the whole thing. Thanks to Nachum Kaplan at Moral Clarity: Truth in Politics and Culture for setting me straight. He is a great writer and you should follow him if you are concerned about what is happening to Israel and Jews around the world.
Initial Steps
Sealing the area
For this plan to work the entire West bank and Gaza strip would need to be completely sealed off to stop weapons, explosives or any militants getting in from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt and anyone up to no good, getting out. As October 7, showed everyone, the high tech fence system Israel utilized became a crutch that has many faults and isn’t a real solution. For my plan to work they must tighten the system up considerably and would most likely require a large force of IDF personnel to back it up. The check points coming into Israel will also need to be upgraded to handle the robust searches of vehicles and people coming into Israel as well as anyone leaving the West Bank and Gaza. I performed people and vehicle searches when I was in Somalia. We were looking for weapons, and I know it is a hard, dirty and dangerous job but it is very important to the success of my plan. Just like for me in Somalia, every knife, pistol, rifle, hand grenade and block of explosives seized, is one that will not be used against you and your people.
DeIslamistification
Just like deNazification in Germany after World War II, my deIslamistification, (I'm pretty sure I just invented that word), plan would be a process that removed the worst of the Islamists from positions of power in the West Bank and Gaza. I'm hoping that a lot of the support for Hamas, and other Islamist groups, is just what people have to do and say to get by and make a living in that horrible place. In Germany, after the allied victory in World War II, the allies had to figure out how to deal with an entire country that seemed to be loyal to Hitler and the Nazis. Their first action was to confiscate all firearms, then the US had every person 18 years old and up, fill out a questionnaire about their activities and group memberships, (the English, French and Soviets had slightly different procedures), to determine who fit in one of five categories: Major Offenders; Offenders, Activists, Militants, Profiteers, and Incriminated Persons (OAMPI); Lesser Offenders; Followers, (this term referred to people who were not charged with Nazi crimes but whose involvement with the Nazi Party was considered so significant that they could not be exonerated for Nazi crimes); and Exonerated Persons. The last category received no sanctions or restrictions, Followers received restrictions on travel, employment, and political rights, plus fines. Lesser Offenders were placed on probation for two to three years with a list of restrictions but were not interned. OAMPI were subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment up to ten years, reparations payments and/or performing reconstruction work, plus a list of other restrictions. Major Offenders were subject to immediate arrest, trial with the death penalty in play, and/or imprisonment with or without hard labor, plus a list of lesser sanctions.
Obviously, Israel does not have the death penalty, so anyone placed in the Major Offenders category would face a long prison sentence with hard labor, (if that is something the Israelis wanted). I would be beside myself with glee to see old Mahmoud Abbas on trial defending his indefensible record and being sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Of course these trials would go on for a long time and Israel’s prisons would be full of Hamas, and PA members making big rocks into small rocks. This would be a smaller, yet infinitely more complicated process than the one that took place in Germany, because it would involve so many more people. In Nazi Germany, only 48% of the population were members of the Nazi party, and there were plenty of people who had changed their minds by the end. It doesn't seem like the Palestinians would change their minds but they might just be following what the people with the guns want them to do.
Of course, it would totally remake the society and government of the West Bank and Gaza, but that is what is needed, because what they have now isn’t working for anyone, other than the PA elite. All the bad guys need to be caught and subjected to this process, if the Israelis can prove they’re making real progress in changing the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, they just might be able to get some “moderate Palestinians” on their side. This entire effort would be widely unpopular around the world. However, since Israel is nearly always maligned on the world stage, they should just tell everyone to piss off, until someone comes up with a workable idea.
I know that this would mean removing nearly everyone in any position of power in both Gaza and the West Bank, and finding people to take their places would be a challenge but there must be some “normal” Palestinians willing to work to make the lives of “their people” better. I have a link below for a story from The Free Press about the kind of person this plan will need, in order to succeed. I hope it’s not behind the paywall but The Free Press is worth subscribing to either way.
Another person is Mosab Hassan Yousef, AKA The Green Prince. He has come out since October 7, 2023, and outlined the apocalyptic desires and total evilness of Hamas. His father is Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a co-founder of Hamas. Mosab is known for his outspoken criticisms of Hamas and Islam and has even been accused of Islamophobia at university campus talks and online. He could be a huge asset in this plan, since he is a Palestinian that hates Hamas. Of course, like everyone who would even consider joining this campaign, they must be kept safe at all costs.
Education Reform
Going hand in hand with the DeIslamistifcation will have to be a complete overhaul of the educational system in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Authority, like the Soviets, Nazis and Maoists before them, use primary and higher education, structured extracurricular activities, and religious indoctrination to develop their brutal terrorist cadres, including those that committed the atrocities of October 7. There were provisions in the Oslo Accords intended to prevent such indoctrination, but nothing was done to stop the Palestinians’ blatant violation of these provisions. As I showed in Part I, all the educational materials as well as the teachers are tainted by anti-Semitic bias and pro-Hamas sympathies and would have to be replaced. I would not use the UN for this process, because it is their fault that the educational situation is what it is. Either the Israeli government could hire an outside company, (if they can find one that will do the job), with the government having final approval of all books and materials and staffing, or they will have to do it themselves.
Regardless of which way Israel goes (outside group or inside effort), they should follow the model of the post-World War II educational reforms in Germany and Japan. These reforms changed the educational system to promote tolerance and basic human rights. Israel could also explore examples from Muslim countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, where anti-Semitism has been removed from the curriculum and martyrdom is not taught as the highest duty. Another step in the process would be the creation of a system of local control of education, such as municipal school boards, in order to empower parents and give the Arabs some feeling of control, even if it was just a feeling. Of course these parents would also need to be vetted to exclude any Islamists. At the same time, extracurricular activities must be replaced in order to prioritize children’s physical and emotional development and eliminate incitement to violence and terrorism. They should be allowed to be children, not taught to be killers.
Any plan, not just this one, that has any hope of success, will need to address the education issue. No country on earth, should or could, tolerate entire generations being taught that their next door neighbors are responsible for their plight, the source of all the ills in the world, less than human and worthy of extermination, and Israel should do everything possible to end that practice. It would most likely take generations to reverse the hatred but I think with considerable effort and good people and materials it could be done.
Removal of the United Nations
Beyond the sealing of the area and hand in hand with educational reform, would be the removal of all United Nations agencies from the protectorate. The UN, is in large measure, responsible for the situation the region finds itself in, or at least guilty of perpetuating the situation.
UNRWA
By far the worst UN agency ever created, is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. It has never resettled one refugee and has morphed its mission from one of relief and resettlement to one of a social safety net and education yet still claims to be responsible for “Palestinian refugees”. That along with their well-known collaboration with Hamas makes it something that must be eliminated from our proposed protectorate, if there is any chance for this to work.
On November 19, 1948, the United Nations passed Resolution 212 (III), which established the UN Relief for Palestine Refugees (UNRPR) and in December of that year added Resolution 194 which created the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), both groups were mandated to help achieve a final settlement between the warring parties, including facilitating "the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees".
By December of 1949 when both UNRPR and UNCCP were unable to resolve the "Palestine problem", they recommended the creation of a "United Nations agency designed to continue relief activities and initiate job-creation projects" and on December 8, 1949, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 302(IV), which established UNRWA. At the time, both Israel and the Arab states voted for the resolution.
UNRWA had a broader mandate for humanitarian assistance and development than either of the two previous agencies. When it began operations in 1950, the initial scope of its work was "direct relief and works programs" to Palestinian refugees, in order to "prevent conditions of starvation and distress, and to further conditions of peace and stability". However, it’s mandate was soon expanded through Resolution 393(V) (December 2, 1950) and Resolution 512(VI), which instructed the agency to "establish a reintegration fund which shall be utilized for the permanent re-establishment of refugees and their removal from relief", and then quadrupled its funding while continuing to require UNRWA to continue providing programs for health care, education, and general welfare. Very quickly after their foundation, UNRWA developed its own working definition of “refugee”, according to their own definition Palestinian refugees are:
persons whose regular place of residence was Palestine during the period of June 1, 1946 to May 15, 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.
With the exception of Palestinian refugees, all other refugees in the world fall under the responsibility of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has a mandate to assist refugees in “repatriation and resettlement” and “assimilation with new national communities.” The UNHCR has a staff of 18,000 to serve over 100 million refugees worldwide.
By contrast, UNRWA employs 30,000 staff (the largest agency in the UN. 99% of the staff is locally recruited Palestinians), to service 5.9 million Palestinians. UNRWA automatically registers all of the descendants of Palestinian refugees in perpetuity, which has led to explosive growth in its official number of clients. From an original number of around 700,000 refugees, there are now nearly six million Palestinians registered with UNRWA, even though the vast majority of those did not flee the conflict and a large percentage of the original refugees are dead. In 2021, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that fewer than 5 percent of UNRWA-registered “refugees” meet the criteria for the designation that the UN applies to refugees from other conflicts. By growing the refugee population and promoting Palestinian claims to Israeli land, UNRWA perpetuates and exacerbates the conflict.
James G. Lindsay, a former UNRWA general counsel and a Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, published a report for in 2009 in which he criticized UNRWA practices. One of his conclusions was that UNRWA's failure to match the success of the UNHCR in resettling refugees "obviously represents a political decision on the part of the agency" and "seems to favor the strain of Palestinian political thought espoused by those who are intent on a 'return' to the land that is now Israel".
UNRWA also, has an entirely too cozy relationship with Hamas. It has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent Hamas members from joining its staff. They have no pre-employment security checks and do not monitor off-time behavior to ensure compliance with the organization's anti-terror rules. In the UNRWA schools over 10% of senior educators (school principals or deputy principals, directors or deputy directors of training centers) were found to be members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Over thirty UNRWA facilities in Gaza, including schools, have been found to contain terror infrastructures such as tunnel shafts and Hamas uses schools to store weapons and even for launching rockets.
Hamas even operated a high-end server farm directly under UNRWA's Gaza headquarters, with communication and electricity cables connecting both compounds. It is beyond the realm of believability to think that UNRWA did not know about those facilities and the weapons depots. Hamas considers UNRWA an essential asset for maintaining its rule over Gaza and to use its facilities to build terror infrastructure, including that server farm. It is not a case of "a few rotten apples", as some have tried to portray it. With all this in mind, no justification exists for the billions of dollars spent by those who finance UNRWA services, namely the United States. This funding should be eliminated and the UN pressured to cancel the entire UNRWA program.
Although UNRWA's original mandate was for relief works and permanent re-establishment of refugees, it is hard to claim that the UNRWA has created any Palestinian institutions that foster a genuinely civil society and totally impossible to say they have re-established any Palestinians and certainly haven't assisted them with integration into the international community. I believe that this situation must end and all UN agencies should be told to leave. On a bigger picture level, the UN should just eliminate UNRWA and fold all of the living refugees from 1948, and only those still living from 1948, into the UNHCR and be done with all of this foolishness.
UNIFIL
The UN has a force of 10,031 “peacekeepers” deployed in southern Lebanon, supposedly to prevent cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. In fact their mandate says they shall:
"take all necessary action in the area of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, and to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, ensure the security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel, humanitarian workers and, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of Lebanon, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence."
In other words their mandate says they should STOP Hezbollah from shooting missiles from their area of operations into Israel! Lebanon and the UN complain about Israeli Air Force violations of Lebanese airspace but will do nothing to stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel, which are the cause of the violations. What is the point of their presence if they aren’t even doing what their mandate requires them to do? The commanders should be replaced with officers willing to actually fulfill the mandate they were given. It might take a few battles with Hezbollah forces but the terrorist will eventually get the idea and might even move behind the Litani River as outlined in UN Resolution 1701, which was agreed to by both sides. They might even stop shooting rockets into Israel. I know that UNIFIL isn’t directly tied to either of our protectorate areas but since we are eliminating useless UN programs, this one should either be overhauled or scrapped all together.
The Protectorate of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
In my plan, Israel would play the same role the British did for their numerous protectorates in the 19th and 20th centuries, (especially the African ones), Unfortunately, unlike the British colonies, my plan would not result in either Gaza or the West Bank becoming independent states. They have proven over 25 years that they are not capable of running a state in any real form and as it stands now, the Palestinians do not want a state unless it encompases the entirety of Israel. Obviously, that is not something Israel can or should tolerate. There is a chance, that if everything goes the way I would like it to, that Gaza and the West Bank could have some kind of semi-autonomous status within Israel but that depends on every going right, which is a big IF.
The first step in the process would be for the Israeli government to create a Ministry of the Protectorate to oversee all aspects of life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It doesn’t mean that the newly reoccupied areas would be open to settlements, in fact, just the opposite. It would be many years, if not decades before the situation on the ground would be stable enough for anything like settlements to even be considered. This is an effort to correct the situation in the West Bank and Gaza not flood them with Israeli settlers and burn any goodwill that may be built, as the situation improves. If everything goes according to plan the “Palestinians” might actually like living in conditions that aren’t medieval and might even come to appreciate the freedoms given to them by Israel, whether or not they are still a protectorate.
Governmental Structure
The Prime MInister of Israel would appoint a Minister of the Protectorate who would oversee all functions of the ministry and answer directly to the Prime Minister. The Minister of the Protectorate would appoint, with input from the PM, a governor who would be the person in charge on the ground for implementing governmental policy. Since the Protectorate would need massive financial assistance, just as they do now, the Governor would also report to the Minister of Finance, regarding any funding and financial issues. In order to make things more manageable, the West Bank should be split up into northern, central and southern areas with each area being further split into two districts. The Gaza Strip would remain one area but also be split into two districts. The Governor would appoint, with input from the Minister, a High Commissioner for each Area and a Commissioner for each District, as well as any officials deemed necessary for day to day operations. The Governor, again with input from the Minister, would also set up a system to appoint two legislative bodies.
Legislative Level
The 80-person Legislative Council would be comprised of post-Islamistifcation leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ten people from each district would be appointed by the Governor for two-year terms to propose laws and advise the governor on matters of legislation. A six-person Executive Council would be a smaller body, again appointed by the Governor for a two-year term, and act as a senate, with one person from each of the three West Bank districts and three from the Gaza Strip, thereby ensuring that the West Bank does not just out vote the Gaza Strip. They would also need to pass any ordinances before they went to the desk of the Governor. However, the Governor would have the power to veto any ordinance passed by either Council. The governor would have to work with the two bodies to iron out that ever issues caused the veto, because there would be be veto override process. People selected for the two bodies should include both women and religious minorities. Shiite representatives should not be overlooked there should be 13 Shiites in the lower council and one in the Executive Council. The coincides with Shiite Islam being 15% of the population. This would avoid a situation like the one that plagued the United States in Iraq. I know that sectarian issues have not been a concern in the area, but as power is shifted from the PA to new Palestinians, it could become a problem, but this should nip it in the bud.
Judiciary
Every working society has a method for enforcing their laws, and the Protectorate would be no different. At the district level there would be magistrates for handling matters of licenses, marriages, births and deaths, this would be the courts most Palestinians would be exposed to. Also at the district level, there would be a Small Claims Courts for everyday small property issues, regular Civil Courts for suing your neighbor for larger amounts of money and Criminal Courts for serious issues of law breaking. Each of the four Areas would have a Court of Appeals and the Office of the Governor would house the “Supreme Court”, the final court of appeal. Regular Israeli law will be used in these courts, there will be no Sharia law allowed.
District Level
At the District level, one of the main tasks of the District Commissioners would be collecting taxes. Right now Israel collects income taxes from Palestinians working in Israel and passes that money on to the PA, minus the amount the PA pays out in Pay to Slay payments. This is the main source of income for the PA outside of donations. It would be vital for the Protectorate to collect their own taxes (even if it is actually Israelis doing the work) and of course, after the takeover and the removal of all Islamists, the Pay to Slay program would be over. As I said the Governor will have the latitude to appoint people to staff a revenu collections wing, as well as any other posts that they deem necessary.
The District level would be where the rubber meets the road, or the point of contact with the average Palestinian. So it would behove the Israelis to install people above reproach, as well as people who can relate to their charges on a personal level. I have no idea who those people might be or if they even exist, but if they do, they must be persuaded to join this endeavor. Again, decent pay will be important to securing the top people, and, at least in the beginning, they will need to be protected. I hope that the polls I have seen that show 80% support for Hamas and Hezbollah, are just people answering the way they have to, in order to stay alive.
First Projects
After the sealing of the borders and the de-Islamistification program, the first task the protectorate would need to accomplish is a large public works effort, a kind of Marshall Plan for the Protectorate. Obviously, Gaza would be the priority but the West Bank needs to be upgraded and improved as well. The PA has neglected the basic needs of its people for too long and Israel will need to make up for that lost time. All villages, towns and cities should have electricity and running water 24 hours a day and every effort should be made to upgrade all municipal services as quickly as possible. Since a lot of Gaza is in ruins, because of Hamas, all camps housing Palestinians should be given everything they need to keep their charges in the camps for years while the plan is completed. Obviously, there would need to be significant international financing accompanying this program, (the actual Marshall plan lasted four years and cost $14.5 billion which is $175.5 billion in 2024 dollars, but that was for 17 countries not two small enclaves). Israel’s new found Arab partners (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco), as well as European countries and the US, will be key in contributing money for the effort. To encourage growth in the local economies, local companies that have passed their de-Islamistification tests, should be used as often as possible. Of course the Governor’s office and the Area High Commissioners will have to keep an eye on the projects, so there isn’t a repeat of the UNRWA/Hamas compound fiascos.
Another top priority should be the founding of a police training program. At first, the burden of security in the Protectorate will fall onto the shoulders of the IDF. So it would be beneficial to get a program up and running as soon as possible to remove the load for security matters from the IDF. This training program would instruct applicants, who have passed the de-Islamistification and a rigorous background check, in proper law enforcement measures and pay the graduates a wage large enough to attract and keep the best people. This effort will be crucial to the overall plan, as it will reduce tensions and show the Arabs that Israel is committed to improving life in the area. I do believe that Israel thinks that a fully functioning Gaza and West Bank, fid of the violence and corruption of Hamas and the PA is vital to the security of Israel and I think that it would be a popular program with Israelis of all stripes.
There is an unlimited number of projects and policies that would need to be instituted to make the Protectorate a viable proposition and I do not have the brain power or time to list them all here. As I said at the very beginning of this operation, this was only going to be a framework and not a finished product. I have been thinking about how to solve this issue for a long time and this is the only thing I have come up with that has any chance of actually working. I haven’t seen a line of people march up with their solutions to this issue, other than the “from the river to the sea” crowd and we know what that really means. Someone is going to have to make the hard decisions if there is any chance this is ever solved. Of course there is zero chance that this plan is implemented in the real world, for a variety of reasons, one of the biggest being, is there an Israeli leader that has the balls to even propose it. Even mentioning that this is a potential plan would cause international uproar and make Israel an even bigger pariah than than they already are, but if they are going to be treated that way, they might as well act that way.
This has made my brain hurt and totally consumed my thoughts for three weeks. So I have no idea what I’m going to write about for next week. Maybe I’ll switch it up and do something light. All but four of my posts since October 7, 2023 have been heavy and many quite dark. So maybe it’s time to write something fun.
Chris