Allow Egypt to Absorb the Gaza Strip

Credit: Khalil Hamra for the Associated Press

In the image above, smoke rises from the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza, as the Egyptian Army destroys buildings to create a buffer zone which will help prevent smuggling into Gaza.

I want to repeat this: the Egyptian Army is engineering a buffer zone with the main objective of preventing weapons and rocket parts from getting into the hands of Hamas.

Therefore, I reiterate my question: Why doesn't Egypt simply absorb the Gaza Strip? The Gaza situation is untenable for Israel and for the residents of Gaza; an Egyptian solution seems like the most obvious path.

Similarly, we should be looking toward Jordan to absorb the West Bank and bring some order to that territory, as well.

A Jordanian Solution

The King of Jordan could ensure peace and prosperity in the West Bank

The same broken, fractured and thoroughly discredited paradigm based on the concept that Israel and whoever is in charge of the Palestinians can somehow negotiate a lasting peace is STILL the only solution that is being discussed.

This is ridiculous and absurd. The Palestinian people are fractured, chaotic and in no position to speak on their own behalf about anything. During the period of Arafat the Palestinian Authority was corrupt and showed little interest in truly building anything of value for the Palestinian people. Mahmoud Abbas is weak and barely controls the West Bank. Gaza is controlled by a bunch of thugs and stark raving madmen who live only to play out the violent fantasies of wealthy Qatari and Saudi sheiks.

The simple fact is that there is no Palestinian government with which to negotiate, and certainly no Palestinian government that would be capable maintaining a truce with Israel against Palestinian forces of violence both internal and external. Therefore, attempts to seek a resolution on these grounds is simply a formula to perpetuate the status quo ad infinitum.

The only solution I see is for the bordering nations to make the Palestinian lands their own. Frankly, it shocks me that no one I know of is also promoting this argument. NO ONE. Bizarre.

Jordan is a peaceful country with a benevolent monarch who is an ally of the U.S. Egypt is a huge nation that has gone through major upheaval but which has remained oriented to the West and supported by Washington. Placing the West Bank in the hands of Jordan and the Gaza Strip in the hands of Egypt would be like pouring buckets of water on a smoldering fire.

In Gaza, the influx of Egyptians (and exodus of Gazans to other parts) would completely change the character of Gaza. Hamas would have to overcome the daunting Egyptian military before they could successfully launch their rockets into Israel, and would invariably quit. Gaza would become a tourist destination for people from around the world.

In the West Bank, the stability that comes from being part of Jordan would lead to foreign investment into factories that take advantage of the large, relatively low-wage workforce in the region to supply Israel and the world with manufactured goods. Israeli settlement expansion would cease, since further expansion would infringe on internationally-recognized borders of an existing nation-state.

Therefore, once and for all, PLEASE STOP TRYING TO GET THE PALESTINIANS TO TALK TO THE ISRAELIS -- IT IS A HUGE JOKE! Instead, get the Egyptian, the Jordanians, the Israelis, and a U.N. representative around a table and negotiate things like demarcation lines, water rights and electrical supply rates.

While the Palestinians may grumble about not getting a nation-state as they may aspire, they know that they never had one and that anything that creates territorial and economic stability in the region is in their, and the word's, best interest.

An Egyptian Solution

Life in the Gaza Strip has not been going well.

Its 1.8 million occupants live crammed into a tiny parcel of land, fenced in by Israel and Egypt and unable to leave. For the past six years, Israel has had the Gaza Strip under a constant siege, blockading travel and supplies from air, land and sea. Only items that Israel approves can be brought into Gaza (for a detailed list, click here), and many basic necessities of life are restricted. Hardly anyone is ever allowed in or out, and fishing boats are prevented from going out to sea.

In other words, the Gaza Strip is essentially a prison camp, and has been for over fifty years. The international consensus is that enough is enough.

The people of Gaza need international status, they need passports and the ability to travel. The fishermen of Gaza need to be able to sail to sea to seek their catch. The workers of Gaza need the freedom to move to where the jobs are. The relatives of Gaza residents need to be able to come to Gaza to visit their loved ones.

However, Israel needs a Gaza Strip that it can live with. It needs a Gaza with whom it can trade goods without fear of bombings or rocket attacks. It needs a good neighbor.

It seems clear to me that an autonomous Gaza Strip will not be able to peacefully co-exist with Israel, even in the context of a broader Palestinian peace agreement. Quite simply, there has been too much suffering by the Gazans at the hands of Israel and Israelis at the hands of Hamas; and, the presence of Hamas inside Gaza virtually guarantees that the Gaza Strip will serve as launching pad for attacks on Israel as long as Hamas is in control of the territory.

Therefore, I propose that the Gaza Strip be integrated into Egypt, and that the residents be granted Egyptian citizenship.

Although Egypt has been at war with Israel twice, most recently in 1967, there have been no overt hostilities between Egypt and Israel since that time. In fact, Egypt has worked cooperatively with Israel to try to prevent the flow of restricted goods (such as rocket parts) into Gaza. Unlike governments in other parts of the Middle East, Egypt does not overtly foment conflict in the occupied territories.

If Gaza becomes part of Egypt, and its residents granted Egyptian passports, the Egyptian Army can establish peace and order within Gaza, taking control away from Hamas. Gazans will be able to leave Gaza and travel around. Fishing boats will be able to once again ply their trade on the open seas. And, the Gazans will not have their lives controlled by Israel, but instead be members of a predominantly Muslim country,

Importantly, Israel, with the backing of the international community, will hold Egypt responsible for what goes on inside Gaza. It will be in Egypt's interest to prevent terrorists from launching attacks on Israel from within Gaza, since those attacks could risk sanctions or even another Israeli-Egyptian war. Based on the way that the Egyptian military has maintained control in Cairo I have no doubt that order can be maintained in Gaza, as well.

War Criminal

In a previous post I criticized Israel's fundamentally corrupt policy of keeping the occupied territories in a perpetual limbo, denying the residents freedom, independence, prosperity or any sense of certainty about the future.

Add to that the indiscriminate slaughter of children.

Gaza is an area little more than twelve miles to a side into which over 1.8 million people are trapped, literally, like fish in a barrel, with borders that are closed and no square inch of the territory safe from Israel's guns.

So, Benjamin Netanyahu knows that launching mortars and 100 lb. explosive rounds into Gaza is going to create unbelievable carnage and result in the death of many innocents. But he doesn't care, which makes him a war criminal.

Clearly, there are a large number of very angry men residing in Gaza who are hell-bent on seeing Israel pay. But, this fact does not justify the use of weapons what will inevitably cause collateral damage on a massive scale. Nor does it justify the inadequate review of targets that has resulted in the shelling of an outdoor market and U.N. shelter. Never mind that the average age of the occupants of Gaza is 18 years old and that the vast majority are women and children.

If Israel wants to dismantle the underground shops where the bombs and crude missiles are assembled, they will have to send troops and armor into Gaza and search, block by block, until every workshop is shut down and every tunnel destroyed.

In any event, Hamas and most Gazans are so demoralized by decades of a virtual prison camp existence that they have literally stopped caring. So, if Israel thinks they can bomb Gazans into submission they are going to have to keep bombing until everyone is dead.

Which, 21 days into the assault and with well over 1,000 Palestinians dead, seems like it might just be the plan.

Honor The Tiananmen Square Martyrs by Helping the Falun Gong

Twenty-five years ago I was an optimistic college grad still fresh from commencement when I watched in horror the drama unfold in Beijing. Tragically, Chinese born after that date know little of went on during those dark days.

However, there is one group in China that is actively working to subvert the police state: the Falun Gong. There is little one can do to directly help dismantle the Orwellian machine that is the Chinese Government, but helping the Falun Gong is a good place to start.

Is this How it Starts?

Neville Chamberlain shakes hands with Mussolini at the signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, which officially recognized the German annexation of the Sudetenland. Standing behind Mussolini is Hermann Gohring, the founder of the Nazi Gestapo.

Russia has annexed the Crimean Peninsula and blockaded its harbors. The Ukrainian Army is not mounting any defense and it looks as if the annexation will hold. Will this be an event that leads Europe on a path that ends in a Third World War, as I have warned? The answer is maybe, and it all depends on how The West responds to Moscow's actions.

Notably absent from the mainstream news coverage of the conflict, and from the comments of Western leaders, is any perspective on how the Crimean Peninsula came to be part of Ukraine. No where in the commentary is how the Crimean Peninsula was part of Russia between 1783 and 1954, almost two hundred years, or that about 60% of its occupants are ethnically and linguistically Russian.

In 1954, Krushkchev transferred the Crimean Peninsula to the Ukraine, where he had served as governor during Stalin's "purges", although at that time only about 22% of the inhabitants identified themselves as Ukranian. This "gift" by the Russians was designed as an act of good faith, to show "unity" between the Russians and the ethnically diverse Soviet satellite states, and undoubtedly was influenced by Krushchev's experiences in the Ukraine, the fact that he was born in a Russian village not far from the border with the Ukraine, and the fact that the acting Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukraine at that time was ethnically Ukranian. This was commorated in a Soviet propaganda poster showing a Russian and a Ukranian standing behind the same shield and gazing in the same direction.

"Eternally Together"

At the time, the majority of Russians bemoaned the transfer of land to Ukrainians. However, the USSR acted as one entity, and so this "gift" had little impact on Russian, or Soviet, activities. For example, Soviet ships still made use of the warm water Black Sea port of Sevastapol (which the Russians recently blockaded by towing large hulls and sinking them in the mouth of the port). However, when the USSR disintegrated it did so along the lines of Soviet maps, not along ethnic lines, leaving the Crimean Peninsula in the hands of the Ukranians. This was viewed by the majority of Russians, especially Vladimir Putin, as a great injustice, and has been a sore point for them ever since. When the Ukrainian pro-Russian puppet leader was toppled, Putin felt compelled to act or (in his mind, anyway) lose any chance of recovering the Crimean Peninsula.

The interim Ukrainian goverment issued a decree that the Ukrainian Army would not resist the imminent Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula for good reason: it has only been part of Ukraine since 1954 and the majority of the inhabitants there don't even speak Ukrainian. When the USSR disintegrated and current-day Ukraine was formed in 1991, the Crimean Peninsula probably should have stayed with Russia.

My advice to the West is to let the Crimean Peninsula go, and focus on the rest of the Ukrainian land mass. If Russians indicate that they want to annex any more land, or further destabilize the Ukraine, we should be prepared to provide military support to the Ukrainians as a deterrent.

We should NOT use this conflict as an opportunity to resort to a Cold War mentality, which is what many in the Military Industrial Complex are hoping for. If we do that, then the likelihood of a Third World War as envisioned will be much closer to a reality.