The emotional vow by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to “destroy” Hamas after it massacred about 1,200 people on 7 October 2023 was understandable. But in practice it was never a realisable aim. Eight months into the ensuing conflict, more than 35,000 Palestinians are dead, yet Hamas is still fighting in parts of Gaza that Israel’s army thought it controlled, a new humanitarian crisis looms around Rafah, 640,000 people have been displaced again, and the agony of Israeli hostages and their families is daily renewed. Three more bodies were recovered on Friday.
Defeating Hamas remains a vital objective for Israel and most western and Arab governments, as well as ordinary people appalled by its actions. But, from the very first, Netanyahu has failed, or rather refused, to articulate a “day after” strategy for administering (and rebuilding) Gaza once its terrorist rulers are supposedly “destroyed”. Despite the evidence, he refuses to accept that military force alone will not work. Hamas’s defeat, if it is to be permanent, must be political, legal, economic and psychological as much as physical.
Netanyahu’s behaviour fuels suspicions that he seeks to wage war indefinitely, to extend the life of his fractious coalition – and his career. These tensions exploded into the open last week when Yoav Gallant, his defence minister, accused him of leading Israel into an open-ended, contested military and civil occupation of Gaza that would undermine its own security (as happened prior to the 2005 evacuation) and produce an ongoing Hamas insurgency.
Gallant suggested that Israel agree to alternative Palestinian leadership in Gaza. This echoed previous, informal proposals giving a lead role to Fatah’s Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Knowing his far-right allies would rather collapse his government than concur, Netanyahu flatly rejected the idea. He said he would never replace “Hamastan with Fatahstan” and renewed his vow to fight to the end. This public split at the top of Israel’s government, and continuing deadlock in ceasefire talks, may encourage Hamas’s reported belief that it is winning the parallel war for international sympathy.
The absence of an agreed strategy for peace must be urgently addressed. Since Netanyahu refuses to budge, and Israel’s political establishment appears incapable of shifting or unseating him, the international community must take the lead. “Day after” plans already exist in broad outline. They just need to be actioned. One centres on a proposal that Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco lead an international force in Gaza to help prevent Hamas re-establishing itself politically. In a separate, linked move, the Arab League called last week for a UN peacekeeping mission in Gaza and the West Bank.
US officials, including the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who is visiting Saudi Arabia and Israel, are meanwhile developing an ambitious “mega-deal” intended not only to isolate Hamas and halt the Gaza war but to finally resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. On the table is Saudi Arabia’s normalisation of relations with Israel in return for all-round US security guarantees and ultimate recognition by Israel (and the US and allies such as Britain) of an independent Palestinian state. The fabled two-state solution could become a reality at long last.
It’s a long shot. But amid all the blinding anger arising from the expanding assault on Rafah, mass starvation caused by blocked aid supplies, court action in The Hague over Israel’s alleged genocide, and Hamas’s cowardly exploitation of Palestinian suffering, it is important to remember there are still paths through this morass of misery. There are still choices. And, even if he cannot see it for himself, Netanyahu, in particular, must be firmly told by Israel’s friends that it’s time to choose peace.
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